If you don’t know any Chuck Berry riffs, you’re in trouble. Seriously. The man practically invented rock and roll guitar, and his double stop rhythm riffs are something every guitar player needs in their back pocket.
In this lesson, I’m going to walk you through one of Chuck’s classic two-note rhythm riffs — the kind of thing you hear in tunes like “Johnny B. Goode,” “No Particular Place To Go,” and “Sweet Little Sixteen.” It comes straight out of the pentatonic minor scale, and once you’ve got it, you can move it anywhere on the neck.
The Double Stop Slide
We’re starting on the third string, fifth fret with your third finger. Strike the note and slide up two frets to the seventh fret — that’s a one-tone slide. While that note’s still ringing, you pick the second string at the sixth fret underneath it. Both notes ring out together. That’s your double stop.
The picking pattern is a triplet feel: down-up, down-up, down-up. Think of it as “one-triplet, two-triplet.” That shuffle feel is what gives this riff its rock and roll swagger.
One thing to watch for — don’t let your third finger touch the second string. You want both strings ringing clean. The down-up pick motion keeps it smooth, though Chuck himself sometimes played these with all downstrokes. Either way works.
Adding the Descending Part
Once you’ve got that opening move, bring it back to the fifth fret — first finger barring the second and third strings. But here’s the trick: you’re kinking your finger so you mute the first string. You’re only playing two notes, not three.
So the pattern goes: slide up to seventh fret (double stop), then fifth fret (two notes, muted first string), then drop down to the third fret on the same two strings. Same picking pattern each time.
Put it all together and you get: one-triplet, two-triplet, three, up, four. Then you land on the root note — fourth string, fifth fret. That’s your A.
Move It Anywhere
The beautiful thing about this riff is it’s completely moveable. I showed it to you in the key of G, but slide the whole shape up or down the neck and you’re in a different key. That’s the power of patterns that come out of the pentatonic scale — learn it once, use it everywhere.
There’s tons of ways you can play around with this. Once you’ve got the basic movement down, start experimenting. Mix up the rhythm, try different starting positions, throw it into a 12-bar blues. Have fun with it.
This is part 1 of a three-part series on Chuck Berry inspired licks. In part 2, we get into bending techniques that give these riffs their authentic blues sound.
For more riff ideas and lessons, check out the full guitar riffs collection.
Have fun with it, boys and girls. And if you want to dig deeper into this stuff, come check out the Riff Ninja Academy — I’ll be there waiting for you.
