Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)

About This Lesson

In this guitar lesson I’ll teach you how to play Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress) by The Hollies (1971). This song begins with one of the most fun guitar riffs I’ve ever learned, which is followed by a bluesy shuffle in the Key of E. My lesson walks you through these, showing semi-simplified versions of both riffs to help you settle in to the rhythm & groove. Then, I’ll level things up and teach the full version of each riff heard on the artist recording. See my additional videos (below) to learn the verse, chorus, and interlude riffs — along with some helpful playthroughs. I’ve received a ton of requests for this one over the years… I hope you enjoy!

• 0:00 Lesson Overview
• 0:56 Intro Riff: Basics
• 4:29 Intro Riff: Full Version
• 9:40 Shuffle Riff: Option 1
• 14:04 Shuffle Riff: Option 2
• 15:27 Shuffle Riff: Option 3
• 17:47 Verse, Chorus, and more

Quick Links

• Song Wikipedia page
• Album Recording on YouTube
• Recommended lyric & chords

Practice Notes 2 pages

Lesson Discussion

Extended Video Lessons

Here’s a few extra videos, made in thanks to those supporting me with Premium membership here on my Song Notes website. To those showing your support, you have my true thanks and appreciation — and I hope you find these additional videos helpful!

Part 2 — Verse, Chorus, Interlude Riff

Learn to strum the verse and chorus, followed by the interlude riff (which you can hear at 1:20 of The Hollie’s recorded version). Note, I’m using a more traditional strum to play the verse & chorus sections, which is not what’s heard on the album recording. If you’re curious what The Hollies guitar players are playing note-for-note, see this tab.

Intro Riff: Rhythm Practice

If you’re looking to master the intro riff’s 3-3-3-3-2-2 rhythm and want something to reference, this may be your best friend. This video shows me playing both versions of the intro riff (that I teach in my main lesson above), one after the other. You can watch as I seamlessly go from simple version → full version, maintaining the steady groove & tempo. I repeat this a few times so the steady rhythm is evident. Note, before playing I count in using the 3-3-3-3-2-2 rhythm — which you can hear carry into the riff itself.

Zoomed Playthrough (No Singing)

This video shows me playing through every section I teach in my main tutorial, one after the other, all strung together in a single continuous flow. Intro riff, shuffle riff, verse, chorus, and interlude riff. I found this full “flow” the perfect sequence to practice, after I had learned each section.

Zoomed Playthrough (With Singing)

This video shows me working through the entire song, including both verses & choruses. This shows how the second chorus is slightly different than the first (it swaps out the B7, and jumps to the G early). My singing isn’t great, but it’s there for (hopefully) helpful context.

Related & Recommended

Here’s some of the lessons I’ve made tackling the tips & techniques used throughout this song. Brushing up on these will absolutely help you get up to speed with the various skills needed to settle into the intro riff, shuffle riff, and interlude riff.

Shuffle Riffs in Open Position

★ Instructional PDF

Shuffle Riffs in Any Key

★ Instructional PDF

Palm Muting

★ Instructional PDF

Silencing Strings with Fretting Hand

★ Instructional PDF

Pinky-Powered Blues Groove in E (ft. "I'm Writing a Novel" by Father John Misty)

★ Instructional PDF

About the 3-3-3-3-2-2 double tresillo rhythm that I mention when teaching the intro riff. This refers to how the accented eighth notes are spaced out over a two measure sequence. The video below describes this, with plenty of audio examples from popular songs, starting at 0:17.