Once you learn the basic open chords on guitar you will reach a point where you want to “stretch out” a bit and do some different things with those chords.
There are a number of things that you can do with a “D” chord to spice things up and add a new dimension to your playing.
Today we will look at a cool little pull-off you can do with a D chord, and a few ways you can use it.
Let’s take a look at the pull-off and how to play it. Here’s the TAB:
E————————————-2—-
B—-1p—0————————–3—-
G————–2p—0—————-2—-
D————————-3b—0—–0—-
A————————————-X—-
E————————————-X—-
This riff starts out with a couple of pull-offs. The first one starts on the 1st fret of the 2nd string. Play that note, then pull-off of that note and let the open 2nd string ring out.
On the next part of the riff, do the same technique, only this time start on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, then do a pull-off to the open 3rd string.
Next, play the note on the 3rd fret of the 4th string with a slight ¼ bend, then play the open 4th string.
Note: The above three steps should be played with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers respectively. This makes it easy!
Then finally, end the riff by playing an open D chord.
You could do this riff as it is written above over a D chord pattern, use it as a filler lick on a song in the key of D, or just use the first three steps of the riff and play them repeatedly as a lead lick in D.
Experiment with it and see how many variations you can come up with. This is a fun and easy riff you should keep handy in your bag of tricks!