Best Eric Clapton Chords Guitar Lesson - Top 3 Instantly Recognizable Clapton Guitar Riffs [2024]
![Best Eric Clapton Chords Guitar Lesson - Top 3 Instantly Recognizable Clapton Guitar Riffs [2024]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VItNn-nsICQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
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Three of Eric Clapton's most recognizable guitar moves, broken down — the double-stops behind Crossroads, the moving-bass triads of Wonderful Tonight, and a bend-and-double-stop riff that Clapton and Jimmy Page both lean on.
What you'll learn
- Clapton's signature is double-stops that mix fretted notes with open strings
- Palm-mute and finger-mute so only the notes you want ring out
- On Wonderful Tonight, use triads with a moving bassline instead of root chords
- The bend-and-double-stop riff is a Chuck Berry lick shared by Clapton and Jimmy Page
Crossroads — double-stops and muting
A quintessential Clapton trait, especially in the early days, is the double-stop — combining two notes instead of single lines. He pairs fretted notes with open strings: holding an A against an E, pumping between fretted notes and the open D and G strings, then grabbing the 3rd-fret C and releasing it to the open A. Dropped into a 12-bar blues like Crossroads, that's the flavor.
Muting makes it tight. On the A-type chord (open A, E on the 2nd fret of the D string, A on the 2nd fret of the G), lay the first finger across the top two strings to mute them and rest the second finger on the E string, so a strum only sounds those three notes — plus a little palm muting to keep it punchy.
Wonderful Tonight — let the bass move
Later Clapton softened up. The chords in Wonderful Tonight are simple — G, D, C, D — but what makes the progression special is that the bassline brings out tones other than the root as the chords go by.
Instead of a big G, use a triad on the B, G and D strings and arpeggiate it. Moving to D, take the G bass note down a half step to F♯ — the 3rd of D — for a "D with F♯ in the bass." For the C, leave off the low bass note and arpeggiate from E (the 3rd of C). That descending bass line is far more interesting than playing roots the whole way through.
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The Clapton–Page riff
This one Adam still uses any time he wants a line that sticks out and creates excitement — and both Clapton and Jimmy Page have used it. It starts with a full-step bend: third finger on the 7th fret of the G string, bending the D up to an E. Match that E with the first finger on the next string at the 5th fret — that alone is a Chuck Berry lick from Johnny B. Goode.
So you bend the D to an E, double the E on the next string, then stretch the pinky up to the 8th fret of the B string and pull off back to that E. Played slowly it's easy to grab; sped up, it takes on a life of its own.
