Top 10 Riffs played in Guitar Center

[Magic Russ]

Guitar Center Reveals the top 10 riffs overheard in their stores - suprisingly Stairway To Heaven is not among them

The ten most-played riffs in Guitar Center stores:

1. Metallica – Master of Puppets
2. Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
3. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
4. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
5. John Mayer – Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
6. Metallica – Enter Sandman
7. Tool – Schism
8. Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
9. Nirvana – Come As You Are
10. Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water

I don't think I've ever played any of those riffs in a guitar store.

[pekbro]

same...

[BertKoor]

People at least respect the sign:

"Definitely no 'Stairway to Heaven' "




and GC may be glad people still do play tunes in their stores.

[mystran]

I don't think I've ever played any of those riffs in a guitar store.

Me neither ... but I have played several of these in other situations just to see if provokes any reaction from people.

[lfm]

Was also surprised that "stairway to heaven" was not on top 10.

I read that sales people in stores are sick of it....

[Magic Russ]

You have Mike Myers to thank for that.

[mystran]

So is it safe to conclude that with Puppets as the number one, the average GC customer has pretty epic down-picking skills?

[Magic Russ]

The article did state that these songs were often played badly, so no.

[lotus2035]

Probably alternate picked it. Lazy bastards.

[Magic Russ]

It would be interesting to see if they had a list for songs most heard in their acoustic room.

My guesses:
Wish You Were Here
Blackbird
Over the hills and far away
...

Funny thing is I had been auditioning an acoustic for a while and don't remember what anyone else was playing.

Likewise it would be interesting to see which are the bass and piano songs people play in stores.

[mystran]

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor by Ludwig van Beethoven?

[dwringer]

Some of those are hard to imagine but Come as You Are is definitely a go-to for testing out modulation FX and the intro to Tool's Schism was my go-to for testing out electric basses. Whenever I wanted to play badly in a music store it was those two, Stairway of course, and, for acoustic, Dust in the Wind and (as someone else mentioned) Blackbird. Also a bit off topic but for keyboards, the riff from Beck's Where It's At.

[Magic Russ]

One of the tracks I had been playing recently as an audition track for acoustic was "From The Beginning" by ELP.

I hate to say it, but for bass the first thing I play is "Taxman" or "The Lemon Song".

[DjLuckyDragon]

GC is too lenient and doesn't practice enough snobbery. They need more ridiculous rules and tongue in cheek jokes like the "No Stairway to Heaven" sign. And they need to use that Spinal Tap line- "Don't even look at it -you'll hurt it".