The Riverboat Song Guitar Lesson

There are a couple of key things to identify before we start, and the first is that the key of the song is B minor. So everything is based around that key, and it's essentially a very cool blues track (if you ask me anyway!). We use the classic blues idea of moving the riff with the chord changes, so when we move to E minor, we move to the E minor riff and so on. We'll talk more about that later.

The other thing to note, importantly, is that Franco teaches all the parts individually, but putting them all together and identifying them each time is very much your responsibility. This is your ear training, as the band do mix it up as the song moves onwards. Once you know all the parts, listen to the track and notice where they come in. Like I said, this will keep you on your toes!

The Riverboat Song Riff

The riff is, of course, the main pull and the biggest reason for the success of the song! The riff is built initially in the B minor pentatonic box 5, using just the 4 notes shown below. As you work through that main riff with Franco in the video, be sure to check in on this diagram to make sure you are identifying the right notes!

The other thing Franco skilfully notes is that this track is in 6/8. That means we can count six eighth notes to one bar. When you consider the riff as a rhythm pattern, it would actually look like this:

This main riff is also doubled up in the intro and verses, using a higher octave of the same notes. We can therefore picture our B minor pentatonic box 3 for that, as that is the shape we are using. It's always worthwhile taking a little longer over the learning of the track, but understanding the thinking behind it to ensure that you can use it again in the future.

As we roll through the rest of the riff, we move through an E minor chord and an F# chord. As we move to these chords, we will simply move our pentatonic box with them. This is that classic blues thing we talked about earlier. As you move the chord, you essentially move the scale/key with you… It just works! If you've ever listened to great blues players like Albert King and Freddie King, you'll hear this a lot! Here are those shapes to visualise:

So, let's now take a look at how that looks as a chord chart: | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Em | Em | Bm | Bm | F# | F# | Bm | Bm | - This is specifically for the intro part, as that B minor riff repeats a lot longer here than normally!

Remember that we need to be somewhat flexible with this structure, as it does shift and change as the song develops. The verses are a little different each time, so keep your ears open. In general through, the verses follow this structure: | Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | Em | Em | Bm | Bm | Em | Em | Bm | Bm | F#5 G5 | A5 | and at the end the end they either leave a gap to go into the next verse, or go into the chorus with a cool riff. Here is that structure:

And finally, for the whole riff section… That cool little riff we spoke about is based around the B minor pentatonic box 3 again, but this time in the open position… Looking like this:

The Chorus

As we move into the chorus we finally get to some more normal chords! We're playing | Bm | D | E | A | (x3) then a cool little riff again as Franco shows in the video! The chords can be played as barre chords, as shown below, or alternatively as open chords if you like. In fact, you can play them wherever you like as it's unclear how they do it in the song, and doesn't really matter that much!

So, there we have all the different parts for the track, and now it's your job to slowly start piecing them together. This is a great track for improving your lead and chord skills, especially how to make a riff sound really good! Remember you vibrato, little quarter tone bending, and the overdrive pedal! See you next time!