As a guitarist, you’ve probably heard the term ‘Forbidden Riff’ bandied around. But what does it mean, and where did it come from? And as the most famous example, why is Stairway to Heaven banned in guitar stores?
In this article, we’ll answer all of these questions, and reel off 21 of the most well-known forbidden riffs which are banned in guitar stores.
You’ll also find a handy printable poster listing the forbidden guitar riffs that you can display in your guitar shop if you happen to be like me and work in one!
Top 10 Forbidden Riffs Banned In Guitar Stores (2023)
The forbidden riff is any overplayed song that has been (jokingly) banned from being played in guitar stores. The list consists of many well-known, but easy-to-learn riffs and licks that guitar store employees are fed up of hearing on a daily basis – for example, Stairway To Heaven!
The forbidden songs include massive hits such as Stairway To Heaven, Sweet Child O’ Mine, and Smoke On The Water amongst many others.
A famous example of this being joked about in mainstream media can be seen in the 1992 comedy movie Wayne’s World. It is arguably this movie alone that made the idea of the forbidden riff a popular gag.
Forbidden Guitar Riffs: What Not To Play In A Guitar Store
In the scene in question, Wayne (Mike Myers) is immediately prevented from playing a banned song whilst test-driving the Stratocaster of his dreams.
Being utterly fed up of hearing the same old riffs over and over was not the only reason that the stores came to dread the most overplayed songs, however.
In addition, it was also thought that the guitar players who belted out these forbidden riffs were the least likely guitar shop ‘customers’ to actually buy something!
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So if you’d like to be taken seriously when you go your local guitar shops, it’d probably be a good idea to avoid the most overplayed songs!
It is widely believed that the idea of the forbidden riff began in the 1970s as an inside joke in the guitar stores of London’s famous Denmark Street.
Guitar shop employees began to circulate lists of forbidden riffs that they could no longer stand to hear from the (mainly beginner) guitar players trying out instruments.
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What is the forbidden riff? Although there is no standard list of banned songs, here are 21 tracks that would definitely receive a few eye-rolls from guitar store employees.
This list of forbidden riffs will also double up as a good source of absolute classic tracks that every guitarist should learn.
Although many fans will happily refer to this track as Led Zeppelin’s magnum opus, Stairway To Heaven has become one of the main forbidden riffs that guitar retailers simply cannot bear to hear.
What Is The Forbidden Riff?: Forbidden Riff Explained
Learning Stairway to Heaven has become almost a rite of passage for new guitar players. So, it’s easy to understand why it gets belted out so often.
After claiming that he could no longer relate to the lyrics, Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin singer) once reportedly paid $10, 000 to a radio station to prevent them from playing the track!
Fun Fact! Jimmy Page’s solo on this rock song was entirely improvised. He took three shots at recording and picked his favorite effort.
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The iconic opening guitar riff from this classic rock staple is so simple that most new players should be able to learn it in some capacity within their first few weeks (or even days!) of picking up the guitar.
This rock song was my first introduction to power chords, and boy did I feel like a bonafide rock GOD when I nailed it. Never mind guitar store employees, my parents were the ones who had to suffer in my case…
The track itself was released back in 1972 and was inspired by a fire at The Casino in Switzerland the year previous.
Why Is Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven 'banned' In Guitar Stores?
Deep Purple was watching Frank Zappa play live at The Casino when the fire started. They were due to start recording their next album at the venue the following day.
After the fire died down there was a layer of smoke sitting on top of Lake Geneva. This became the title of the track, with the lyrics revolving around the saga of trying to get their album (Machine Head) recorded.
It is one of many standout tracks from the band’s 1987 debut album ‘Appetite for Destruction’ and is one of those forbidden riffs that guitar store employees have heard to death.
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Slash has stated that this forbidden riff was actually just a silly warm-up pattern he had been fooling around with which the band then added to.
In general, this forbidden guitar riff is harder to learn than the previous two songs in the list. This is because the opening guitar riff uses some fairly intricate string skipping. Unfortunately, that just means that it’s easier for newer players to butcher and drive people crazy with!
You can check out the tabs here if you’d like to learn it yourself. Note that you’ll need to tune your guitar down a half-step to play along with the original track.
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The oldest song in the list has had to be endured by guitar store employees from as far back as 1964 when the track was first released!
It’s also the only song on the list which wasn’t originally written by the artist. The true origins of this traditional folk song are largely unknown, but it was the Animals that finally made it a mainstream hit.
As the origins of The House of the Rising Sun aren’t known, we also cannot say for sure what the song is about.
Forbidden Guitar Riffs Guitar Riffs To Avoid In Guitar Stores (maybe)
The two most popular theories are that it is either about a brothel or a women’s prison, both of which were located in New Orleans.
With the main riff being a sequence of simple arpeggios using basic open chords, the track is very accessible even for beginners to pick up on guitar.
Fancy adding this guitar riff to your repertoire of forbidden songs? You can check out the tabs here if you’d like to learn it yourself.
Why Is Stairway To Heaven Banned In Guitar Stores? 2023
As a young metal guy, I was certainly guilty of ripping out this forbidden guitar riff way too many times at my local guitar shop.
Enter Sandman is the first track and debut single from Metallica’s 1991 album ‘The Black Album’. The song revolves around the theme of a child’s nightmares and things that go bump in the night.
The lyrics were originally centered around the much darker subject of crib death, i.e the sudden and unexplained death of a baby.
Question] What Are The 'forbidden' Songs?
Although a lot more proficiency will be required to nail Kirk’s electric guitar solo, the main riff to Enter Sandman is very straightforward to learn. Just remember, down-picking only, haha!
The song was actually written as a response to a Neil Young track which suggested that people from the south were mainly racists with outdated points of view.
The Lynyrd Skynyrd track instead talks about southern pride and all of the good which can be found in Alabama. Neil Young later admitted that he regretted the lyrics in his song.
Riffs (with Tabs!) You Can Play In A Guitar Store And Not Look Like Some Jagoff
Learning this classic note for note on guitar is probably going to be the hardest out of all of the tracks in this list. Y
Ou’ll discover that although much of the riffs are fairly standard, you’ll often find challenging parts where your fingers are placed where they wouldn’t usually go!
You can check out the tabs here if you’d like to learn this Lynyrd Skynyrd classic yourself. Just remember, don’t play it in your local guitar shops!
Why Can't You Play Stairway To Heaven In Guitar Stores? The Forbidden Riff Explained
That album is currently the second best-selling album of all time! So, it’s easy to see why the lead track is such a recognizable tune!
This rock song was written as a tribute to the band’s former singer Bon Scott, after he tragically died of alcohol poisoning in February 1980.
The opening riff is often referred to as the greatest riff of all time! So, it’s unsurprising that so many guitarists have added it to their repertoires over the decades since its release.
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Another absolute monster anthem that nearly every guitarist will learn at some point is the track that launched Nirvana into the stratosphere.
He aimed to write the ‘ultimate pop song’, and this is perhaps why it went on to become such a phenomenal mainstream success.
It is an absolute beginner’s dream to learn as the main riff features just a few very simple powerchords coupled with some percussive muting.
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Although this catchy lil ditty is now almost 20 years old, it’s still the most recently written track to appear in this entire list of forbidden songs!
Jack Black stated that he wanted to save this now fobidden guitar riff for if he was ever asked to write the theme tune for a James Bond movie.
However, he decided that was unlikely to happen and used it for this song instead. Ironically, 5 years later he was asked to write a Bond theme!
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The lyrics revolve around the theme of the rising popularity that the band was experiencing, plus the negatives that came along with that newfound fame.
Although the song is super simple to learn on electric guitar, you will need to tune to Open A to be faithful to the original! Here, Jack Black used an octave effect to make his electric guitar sound more
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