This riff comes straight out of the E pentatonic minor scale — with one extra ingredient that gives it that raw blues edge. It’s a chromatic passing note, a tone that doesn’t technically belong in the scale but sounds fantastic when you use it to connect one scale note to the next.
The specific chromatic note here sits between the four and five of the key — between A and B when you’re playing in E. That flat five is one of the most traditional sounds in blues guitar, and once you hear it, you’ll recognize it everywhere.
The Two-Position E Minor Pentatonic
Before you tackle the riff, it helps to see where all the notes come from. This diagram shows the E minor pentatonic across two positions — the open position you probably already know, plus the extension that reaches up to the 5th fret. The chromatic passing notes are marked separately so you can see exactly where they sit between the regular scale tones.
The regular pentatonic notes are your safe ground — play any of those and you’ll sound good over a blues in E. The chromatic notes are your passing tones. They want to resolve into the next scale note, and that tension is what makes them so expressive.
Building the Riff
The riff starts on the third string, 4th fret — slide up to it with your third finger. Drop your second finger onto the second string, 3rd fret, and the first string stays open. That gives you a B and a D over an open E, which is actually a chord — a minor third interval stacked over your root note.
The picking pattern is simple: down, down, down, up. Third string, second string, first string down — then back to the second string with an upstroke. Get those notes ringing clean before you worry about speed. Just like fretting a chord, you don’t want the fleshy part of one finger muting the string next to it.
The Chromatic Descent
Once you’ve got that first shape clean, slide the whole thing down one fret. Same picking pattern — down, down, down, up. Then down one more fret. You’re walking that minor third interval down chromatically, and the open first string keeps droning underneath.
The sequence moves from the 4th/3rd frets, down to the 3rd/2nd frets, then the 2nd/1st frets. Three positions, same shape, same picking — just shifting down the neck one fret at a time.
Finish it off with a hammer-on from the open third string to the 1st fret. That G sharp is another chromatic passing note, and it needs to ring clearly — come down firm with your first finger. Then land on your open low E to resolve the whole thing. If you want to get fancy, let that hammer-on ring while you bring your other fingers down into an E or E7 chord shape.
Making It Your Own
There are all kinds of timing variations you can try. Double up the picking pattern, change the rhythm, start from a different position on the neck — the bones of the riff stay the same. This chromatic minor-third movement shows up in Clapton’s playing, in the more advanced arrangement of this same riff, and across decades of blues and rock guitar.
If you’re working on your pentatonic scale positions, this riff is a great way to hear the theory in action. And if you want to understand how chromatic notes work over chord changes in a 12-bar progression, that’s the next piece of the puzzle.