# AI Wiki - Music - Riffs ## Concept A **riff** is a short, repeated, memorable phrase that a song is built on. Wikipedia quotes three definitions that agree: Brackett calls riffs "short melodic phrases", Middleton "short rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic figures repeated to form a structural framework", and Rooksby "a short, repeated, memorable musical phrase". BBC Radio 2 calls the riff the "main hook of a song". You can hum it, and when you hear the first two seconds you know which song it is. Riffs live mostly in rock (including punk and metal), but also in funk, Latin music and jazz. Classical music has its own cousin, the **ostinato** (a phrase repeated over and over under changing material; Wikipedia says that in rock and jazz, ostinati are often just called riffs or vamps), and Ravel's *Boléro* is the usual example. The word itself came into musical slang in the 1920s, and its origin is unclear (Ian Anderson says it is short for "repeated motif", others suggest "rhythmic figure" or "refrain"). ## Riff, lick, chord progression These three are easy to confuse. - A **riff** repeats. It forms the backbone of the song and comes back in every verse or chorus. It can be single notes, double stops (two notes at once), power chords or a mix. - A **lick** is a stock phrase that you drop into a solo or a fill, usually a single-note line. Wikipedia: a lick is "a stock pattern or phrase" in country, blues, jazz and rock, and players learn them by imitating others. [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Improvisation]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Blues Licks and Turnarounds]] cover them. The difference: you play a lick once, in the moment. You play a riff over and over. - A **chord progression** is a sequence of chords (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Common Chord Progressions]]). A riff sits on top of a progression or replaces it. Wikipedia's lick article puts it this way: riffs can include repeated chord progressions, while licks are more often single-voice melodic lines. A riff can also stand in for the harmony: "Seven Nation Army" is a single-note line that implies the chords. A quick test: if you can sing it back after one listen and it plays every few bars, it's a riff. If it shows up once in a solo, it's a lick. If it has three or more simultaneous notes moving through different harmonies in a loop, call it a progression. ## How riffs are built Almost all riffs use the same few ingredients. 1. **A small pool of notes.** Most riffs take five or six notes from the [[AI Wiki - Music - Pentatonic Scale|minor pentatonic scale]] or the [[AI Wiki - Music - Blues Scale|blues scale]], because they sound right over rock and blues harmony. The "blue" note (the flat fifth) adds grit. 2. **Power chords.** Two notes, a root and a fifth ([[AI Wiki - Music - Power Chords]]). Distortion turns a full major or minor chord into mush, but a root and a fifth (a 3:2 ratio) stay clear. The lack of a third also keeps the riff neither major nor minor (Wikipedia calls this a "chameleon-like property"), so the harmony is left to the bass and the vocal. 3. **Open strings.** The low E and A strings ring for free, so a riff in E or A can pedal on an open string and move a note or two above it. That is why so many classic riffs are in E, A and D. 4. **A rhythmic hook.** Often the rhythm is what you remember, more than the pitches. Syncopation (accenting the off-beats), a rest where you expect a note, or a repeated note with an odd accent pattern. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Rhythm and Time Signatures]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Sixteenth-Note Rhythms]]. 5. **Repetition with a small twist.** Play the figure twice, change the last note, then repeat. Repetition makes it stick, the twist keeps it interesting. The "Smoke on the Water" riff, as [[AI Wiki - Music - Melody and Phrasing]] explains, repeats a three-note idea with a different ending each time. 6. **Muting and tone.** [[AI Wiki - Music - Muting Techniques|Palm muting]] and the picking style define a riff as much as the notes ([[AI Wiki - Music - Picking Technique]]). ## Famous riffs by style The tabs below are simplified. Check them against the recording, since I have not verified every note and rhythm. **Blues and boogie.** The boogie-woogie shuffle alternates between the fifth and the sixth above the root. John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" (1948) is built on a riff from his stepfather, which later rock and roll songs adapted (Wikipedia). The basic shape, in A: ```chords {title: Boogie shuffle in A (generic pattern)} {key: A} {start_of_tab} D|-2-2-4-4-2-2-4-4-| A|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-| {end_of_tab} ``` Play the A string open with a finger on the D string: fret 2 (the fifth, E), then fret 4 (the sixth, F#). Swing the eighths ([[AI Wiki - Music - Swing and Shuffle Feel]]). **Classic rock.** Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water": two strings, a fourth apart (an inverted fifth), on the D and G strings, which Wikipedia notes can be played with one finger. ```chords {title: Smoke on the Water, main riff (simplified)} {key: Gm} {start_of_tab} G|-0---3---5-----0---3---6-5-----0---3---5-----| D|-0---3---5-----0---3---6-5-----0---3---5-3-0-| {end_of_tab} ``` The two strings move together as one shape. Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" is a more difficult case: Susan Fast calls its riff "artful and metrically clever" (via Wikipedia), because it shifts against the pulse. **Modern rock and pop.** "Seven Nation Army" (The White Stripes) is seven notes on a single string. They are E E G E D C B, a descending line in E natural minor: ```chords {title: Seven Nation Army, the notes (rhythm by ear)} {key: Em} {start_of_tab} A|-7-7-10-7-5-3-2-| {end_of_tab} ``` Ritchie Valens's "La Bamba" (1958) and Link Wray's "Rumble" (1958) are among the first riff-driven rock records (Wikipedia says who came first is debated). **Metal.** Heavy riffs use a low open string as a pedal and a **gallop** (an eighth and two sixteenths) under palm muting. This is a generic example, not a particular song: ```chords {title: Metal pedal riff in E (generic, palm-muted open strings)} {key: E} {start_of_tab} E|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-0-0-0-5-0-0-0-6-5-0-0-| {end_of_tab} ``` [[AI Wiki - Music - Metal Rhythm Guitar Techniques]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Metal Music]] go further. **Funk and soul.** A riff here is a short sixteenth-note figure on a clavinet or guitar, with ghost notes and rests doing as much as the notes. The two-bar clavinet riff in E-flat minor pentatonic mentioned in [[AI Wiki - Music - Sixteenth-Note Rhythms]] is the model. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Funk Music]]. **Jazz and big band.** The Count Basie Orchestra built entire arrangements on riffs. "One O'Clock Jump" and "Jumping at the Woodside" (1930s) pass short riffs between sections of horns. Charlie Parker's riff from "Now's the Time" (1945) came back as the R&B hit "The Hucklebuck" (1949). ## An invented example This riff uses four notes of A minor pentatonic, all on the top two strings of box 1. The shape is: the root up to the minor third and back, twice, then down to the ♭7 and the 5th to finish. ```fretboard scale: A minor pentatonic strings: 1-2 frets: 5-8 labels: intervals title: The riff's four notes (A minor pentatonic, strings 1-2) ``` ```chords {title: A minor pentatonic riff (invented example)} {key: Am} {start_of_tab} e|-5-8-5-----5-8-5-----| B|-----------------8-5-| {end_of_tab} ``` Count it as "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and". Notice what makes it a riff: the first half and the second half have the same rhythm, and the last note changes. ## How to learn riffs 1. **Learn them from tab or by ear.** Tab shows the exact notes and strings ([[AI Wiki - Music - Reading Guitar Tab]]); ear learning builds your [[AI Wiki - Music - Transcription and Playing by Ear|transcription]] skills. Try the ear first, check with tab after. 2. **Slow it down.** Use a [[AI Wiki - Music - Metronome and Speed Building|metronome]] at 60 percent of the tempo and raise it only when you can play four clean repetitions in a row. 3. **Count the rhythm out loud before playing.** A wrong rhythm on the right notes sounds worse than a wrong note. 4. **Play along with the recording**, at full speed, once the slow version is clean. Locking in with the drummer is the actual skill. 5. **Learn the whole shape.** If the riff is on two strings, find it elsewhere on the neck. You will recognise the shape in other songs. 6. **Keep a riff list.** Riffs are the best material for warm-ups and for finger independence. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Learning Songs Efficiently]]. ## How to write riffs - Pick a key that uses the open strings (E or A), and choose a pentatonic box. - Start with the rhythm: tap or clap a one-bar pattern with a gap in it. Then put pitches on it. - Use two or three notes before you use five. Smaller riffs are more memorable. - Repeat the figure four times, then change one note. Repeat again. - Record your idea on your phone right away ([[AI Wiki - Music - Recording Yourself]]). Name it by the riff, not "idea 3". [[AI Wiki - Music - Songwriting and Arranging Tips]] says many rock songs began as a riff. - Test it with different drums or a backing track ([[AI Wiki - Music - Playing with Backing Tracks]]). - Put the riff under the verse and drop to chords for the chorus, or the reverse. [[AI Wiki - Music - Arranging Songs]] covers using the riff as a hook. ## Key Points - A riff is a short repeated phrase that forms the backbone of a song. A lick is a stock phrase you play once in a solo. - Riffs use few notes (pentatonic or blues scale), power chords, open strings and a strong rhythm. - Repeat the figure, then change the end. - Learn riffs slowly, rhythm first, then lock in with the recording. - To write one, start with the rhythm and keep the note count low. ## Open Questions - Which riffs from Sébastien's repertoire are best for a graded riff list (easy to hard)? - How does a bass riff differ from a guitar riff in how it is built? (Bass notation is not supported in the wiki yet, see dsebastien/music-notation#27; this article uses plain tab.) - The tabs above are simplified from memory of well-known riffs and were not checked against official transcriptions. - Where is the line between a riff and a vamp (a repeated, harmonically sparse figure)? The sources overlap and do not settle it. ## References - Wikipedia, "Riff": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riff - Wikipedia, "Lick (music)": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_(music) - Wikipedia, "Power chord": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_chord - Wikipedia, "Ostinato": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostinato ## Related - [[AI Wiki - Music - Power Chords]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Pentatonic Scale]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Blues Scale]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Blues Licks and Turnarounds]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Improvisation]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Muting Techniques]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Rock Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Metal Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Funk Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Common Chord Progressions]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Reading Guitar Tab]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Rhythm Guitar Comping]]