Spanish Guitar Riffs: Using Malagueña for Aiming Practice

The Importance of Riffs for Guitar Technique 

A riif is simply a term for a memorable short musical theme, and as guitarists we have hundreds if not thousands of famous guitar riffs we can learn and play for fun but also for technique development. One of the most famous and recognizable Spanish "riffs" of all time has to be the main theme of Malagueña, and in this blog post I want to use it to practice position shifting and aiming our fingers along the length of one string.

The Main Riff

Moving quickly up and down the guitar neck can be difficult so let's get some essential guitar technique practice by playing this riff on the 6th string using the middle finger of your left hand and the thumb of your right hand:

That's the main part of the riff but only half of this Spanish theme. Here's the second half (memorize this before going further!):

Adding a String

Now do the exact same thing on the 1st string using the ring finger of your left hand (and any finger in you right hand other than the thumb or pinky):  

Putting Both Parts Together - Octaves

Now play both the 6th and 1st strings at the same time for the entire riff. Now we're hearing a more three dimensional version of the riff since the melody is getting doubled up 2 octaves:

Mixing It Up

Once you're comfortable with the pattern you can "toggle" between the 6th and 1st strings for a very Spanish guitar-sounding effect (do this for the entire melody):

There's a little more to the theme of Malagueña, watch the above short tutorial for the second ending of this famous Spanish riff.