What was the first guitar riff you ever tried to play on an electric guitar?

Even if you don't know how to play a guitar, which I have no clue, a good number of us have had an electric guitar in our hands at some point in life and tried to play something, usually one of our favorite guitar riffs.

Which one did you butcher, er........, try to play first?

I was reminded coming back from lunch when I heard More Than A Feeling by Boston. That was the first riff I tried to play. You know the da da da-da da-da-da-da-da da da...............

Can you hear the da-das??????????

Peace

That's what I was going to say! You know the one that goes, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-daaa. Daaa-daaaaa!

It's the end riff of an old blues tune called Mother-In-Law.

Well, since I started playing guitar damn near before the invention of electricity, for me it was the opening to Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven".

My kids occasionally get out my guitar to goof around with it (I haven't played it for a good loooong time) and inevitably they try "Smoke on the Water".

You know: dah dah daaaaah---dah dah dah daaaah---dah dah daaaah------dah duh dah

Well, my first riff I tried to play was smoke on the water and I think I did decent... glass didn't shatter..

Well i dont play guitar but i do play Bass. The first song i learnd on that was Money by Pink Floyd, Nothing like jumping in at the deep end.

Get this..

My first guitar lesson..
The teacher whips out two charts..

One is fingering charts for standard Blues e minor..

the OTHER chart is tablature of Jimmy Page's riff from Whole lotta love...WHAT?

Might as well start easy huh?

Ah got blistahs on me fingahs!

[edit on 21-4-2006 by spacedoubt]

It's a good question.. and so hard to remember. I want to say it was something like Iron Man.. or it could have been various parts of The Four Horsemen.

The first riff I have played on the guitar was "Blitzkreig Bop" By The Ramones.

Come to think of it, it's the only riff I can play.

tie your mother down by queen.
i still think its one of the best ever

For me it would have to be Iron Man - Black Sabbath, then Smoke On The Water

Woah, that takes me back a few...

I think it was either Enter Sandman or Smoke on the Water.

Blink 182's dammit. it was the first song i could play on keyboard, so when I first got my guitar I knew it would be easy to learn. Plus I could play with distortion.

After I figured out the C scale 5th position from what little I knew about piano, I tryed to figure out the solo in Garth Brooks song, Shamless. It has a pretty kool groove to it. Never did get it back then, I bet I could do it now easy. Heh

mine matches madhatter's apparently.

sabbath, sabbath, sabbath - not just iron man though.

deep purple's smoke on the water was a natural too.

I remember lots of early ac/dc, kiss, priest and being rather frustrated with floyd and zep.

man, I thought these brain cells were long gone.

just sold two guitars (couldn't justify keeping them in their dusty cases - they were made for a reason) but kept my old kramer. yes, kramer. I beat the hell outta that thing and for some reason felt like keeping it. missing paint, chipped guard, dings and all.

many a garage/basement with that thing.

Can't really remember the first riff. But my fist solo was Stairway to Heaven.



Then I jumped straight into Van Halen, Satriani etc.