A little while ago I did a lesson for the beginner’s on the chords for Last Dance With Mary Jane, by Tom Petty.

I got some good feedback from the lesson, with most of you asking for the riffs as well.

So, today I bring you the riffs for Last Dance with Mary Jane. Or is it Mary Jane’s Last Dance? I never could remember.

Anyways, you’re basically using A minor diatonic and pentatonic, with a little bit of the C major (diatonic) scale in there as well on the top few strings.

I know how much you guys love learning riffs, so here’s another lesson for you to scratch the itch

I love this riff, and although in the lesson I teach it in the Open E position, the fact is, I use these thirds time and time again, regardless of what key I’m in. That’s why its so important to see this riff as coming out of the scale -- that way you learn how to apply it in any key.
Don’t look at this as something you can only do in open E… yeah, it sounds terrific in E, but these thirds work anywhere. The thirds interval is a great one to familiarize yourself with, there’s just so much you can do with it. I’ll probably do a whole lesson on that soon.

The riff I’m showing you here is suspiciously similar to the one in Mary Had a Little Lamb (Buddy Guy or SRV style) and one of the variations was used in Pride and Joy… so you can see that this riff is definitely a good one for your blues arsenal!

Today’s guitar lesson is on the art of strumming. Specifically, blues guitar strumming.

As you’ll see, I initially started this strumming lesson using G C and D chords. Which of course works fine, and is highly relevant for teaching the strum pattern, however then I realized just how much this strumming pattern is used in the blues, so the last part of the lesson is really just a demonstration of how you can use 7th chords and make that exact same strumming pattern sound great in the blues.

7th chords are probably among the most common chords you’ll find in the blues, so if you ever want to make a song a little more bluesy, try swapping the major chords for their 7th counterparts. For instance, E goes to E7.

So without further ado, let’s get into the lesson!

I know how much you all like riffs, so I’m hoping you’re gonna like these two as much as I do.

The first riff is basically working off the fourths you find in the pentatonic minor scale. You’re essentially doing mini bars with your fingers… just grabbing two strings at a time though.

Feel free to have fun with this… mix up the order, experiment with hammer-ons and pull offs, and even with the open notes I mentioned. If you look at your Am Pentatonic, you’ll see that E, A, D, G are all in that scale -- so that means that you can use those as open notes as well, even when you’re playing from the fifth fret.

I talk about the fourths and fifths and other intervals a lot more over at Guitar Scale Patterns.

The second riff also uses fourths… this time on the top two strings. Adding a string bend makes it sound really cool.

Enjoy….

If you need a refresher, click here for the pentatonic scale lesson.