Stop 3 of 6
Single-note riffs
Short repeated phrases that define a song.
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Stop 3 of 6
Short repeated phrases that define a song.
Some songs you recognise in two seconds, before the voice even comes in. What you recognise is the : a short phrase, almost always on the low strings, that repeats and becomes the song's signature. The blues used riffs as a backbone and rock turned them into its trademark. At this stop you play single-note riffs, understand what makes them work and write your own.
This original riff lives almost entirely on the 6th string. Listen twice before you play it, and notice which note keeps coming back:
The returning note is E, the open 6th string. It's the riff's home note: everything leaves from it and everything comes back to it. The other notes, G, A and B, are short round trips.
A riff isn't just any melody. The ones remembered for decades almost always share four traits:
Short and repeated
One or two bars that come back again and again. Repetition is what turns it into "the song". If it's too long, the listener can't hold on to it.
Rhythm with character
Rhythm weighs more than the notes. Change the rhythm and you have a different riff, even with the same notes.
A home note
One note, usually the root, that the riff returns to. It gives stability and makes the key obvious.
Silence
Gaps let the riff breathe and leave room for the drums and the voice. A riff with no rests gets tiring.
Almost every blues and rock riff in E comes from these six low-string notes, all within the first three frets. They're the E minor pentatonic, a scale you'll study properly in The Lead Hills; for now, think of them as your toolbox.
String 6, Open: E2 · 1 · Root
And one "spicy" note: the 5th string at fret 1, A♯. Used in passing between A and B, it gives that crooked colour so typical of the blues. It's a ; don't sit on it, use it to pass through.
This two-bar riff is shaped like a conversation: the first bar "asks" on the way up and the second "answers" on the way down to the home note.
Now rests come in, plus two power chords as accents. Count the rests out loud: they're as much a part of the riff as the notes.
A riff can live on any string. Here's the "Engine" moved to the 5th string, with the open A as its home note:
Notice it's the same figure, one string over. It works because, in standard tuning, the 5th string is tuned exactly five frets above the 6th, just as the 4th is above the 5th. As long as the riff only uses those three low strings, you can copy the fret numbers one string over and the riff sounds the same, only on A.
This idea of "the same riff over another chord" is exactly what you'll use in the 12-bar blues.
Listen to these three versions. The notes are always E, G and A; only the rhythm changes. Don't they sound like three different songs?
In version 3 the notes land on the "&" of the beats, not on the numbers. The ear expects notes on the strong beats; when they arrive in between, we feel a small push forward. That's , one of the secrets of groove in blues, funk and rock. A songwriter's trick: write a "straight" riff, then move one or two notes half an eighth earlier.
Your turn. Use this step-by-step method:
Many rock songs work like this: the riff is the verse, and when contrast is needed another section appears, for example with power chords. A simple plan:
| Section | What you play |
|---|---|
| Intro | The riff, twice |
| Verse | The riff in E, four times |
| Change | The same riff in A, twice, then back to E twice |
| Ending | The riff and one last E5 left ringing |
Try it over this backing: four bars of E, two of A and two of E. Play the "Engine" in E or in A to match the chord.
Play half the repetitions palm-muted and half open.
Goal: Play “Call and answer” and “Hit and space” four times in a row at 100 BPM with no mistakes or extra strings.
Follow the five steps from the previous scene. Then play it over this one-chord backing, which leaves you all the space:
For an extra challenge, move it to the 5th string and play it over A5.
Goal: Compose an original one-bar riff, play it in AAAB form four times in a row and record it.
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