What is a riff? What makes a great riff? And what is the purpose of a riff in a song? What’s it there to do? What function does it serve? how do they show up? (···0.6s) Where do they show up in song structure in different contexts and different genres? And what do they kind of say about, an artist, for example? Usually that’s more to do with the sound than the actual notes. But, so quick, a very quick kind of definition, about what, what a riff is.
a riff is a, it’s a simple memorable set of notes that form a, a musical motif. Usually it’s sort of two or four bars, one bar ex rifs exist, three bar rifts exist, eight bar rifts exist. But on the whole, they tend to land in that two or four bar territory, and they can be cycled round and round. So yeah, it’s a short little snippet of music that can be kind of played concurrently back to back, and it’ll just work.
They’re often based around the root note of the, of the song in whichever key you are in. so yeah, around the tonic, the root note, they tend to be harmonically simple, so quite singable, you know, not too much information to absorb unless it’s a stylistic thing where it’s like a metal thing, maybe being a, being complex and flashy is part of the genre.
So that’s kind of where you’ll get those more kind of like math, rock, math metal kind of complex riffs. But on the whole, like, if you’ve ever watched like footage of a big band playing a stadium gig in South America, it seems like in Argentina especially (···0.6s) the audience, the crowd sings the riff. Like I watched one about an A CDC show in Argentina at this huge stadium in, bueno Aires. And the whole crowd sings the riff, and we’ll touch on this again in a minute, but it’s like me, you know, music or melody, it’s like a language that everyone speaks.
It’s kind of the Esperanto, Esperanto or Espan that kind of every, literally everyone can understand and, and, and sort of emotionally (···0.6s) get. (···0.7s) So I found it quite interesting in a country like in South America where maybe not everyone is an English speaker, (···0.7s) they gravitate towards singing along with a riff more than the lyric, because the lyric might be, you know, a little challenging if it’s not their first language. so (···0.6s) the rhythm, the rhythmic aspect of a riff (···0.6s) tends to do as much work as the note choice.
So in guitar terms, if you think of your right, if your, if your right handed your left hand is choosing the notes (···0.5s) and your right hand is driving the rhythm, it’s like picking out when they happen. if you think of it in guitar terms, the right hand and the rhythmic aspect of a riff is absolutely as often more important than the notes. You can write a very cool riff with one note as long as the right hand is doing something interesting and exciting. yeah, I mean, a riff is generally traditionally associated with the electric guitar, certainly obviously in rock music it is, although obviously not exclusively.
just to touch on something real quick, (···0.6s) some people might wonder what, what’s the difference between a hook and a riff? (···0.9s) To me, a (···1.7s) hook can be so many different things. A hook can be clapping, a clapping hook, there’s drum hooks. (···0.7s) Think of the intro. Smells like teen spirit.
They bad, bad, bad badham. That’s a killer hook. but it’s sort of a, (···0.6s) to me like, yeah, hook can be a cow belt, it can be clapping, it can be drums, it can be a lyrical, (···0.6s) it can be a cool sound, like a sample that, you know, a few years ago there was this kind of big hay phase. Like there was these reverbed out kind of haze happening, and across a lot of hit songs. But a rift to me is different in that it’s (···0.8s) structurally fundamental to the song. So it’s (···0.8s) baked into the cake of the song in a way that (···0.6s) you, if you took it away, the song would kind of (···0.5s) disintegrate in a way, or it’d be certainly be less (···1.0s) cool and less interesting.
And one thing that we can, what I wanna talk about is like, is the age of the guitar riff over? Is it fundamentally is the golden age of the electric guitar and the, and the kind of rock, the rock guitar riff? Is it in the past? (···0.8s) Is it something that’s kind of (···1.1s) peaked and is tailed off? And (···0.6s) there’s a few songs to, to look at later, (···0.9s) which would sort of suggest that the, the riff is alive and well, but it’s just living in, in EDM and, and sort of trance music.
but anyway, to, to kind of bring the, bring the chat back to the topic of songwriting and how we can all (···1.1s) use riffs to our benefit and to make our writing better. yeah, just getting back on top on top of my notes, where am I? Where am I? yeah, basically I wanna talk about the function of riffs in songs, in, in songwriting.
So a riff can be, an identity stamp for a song. (···0.5s) You know, those are most of those, obviously, those are all intros. So it’s like a, a way to sort of start a song with a bang, with a kind of signature sound or musical part that kind of sets out the store with a kind of, with impact. I often talk to people in mentoring sessions about songs, (···1.0s) sections of songs, making transitions have impact.
Making it feel like when you go from a verse to a pre or pre to a course, it needs to feel like something’s happened. Like there’s, there’s a, it’s a moment (···0.6s) and a riff can make an intro or a rero of a song feel like exciting and like (···0.6s) intentional (···0.6s) and sort of, I think a, a great riff is kind of, (···1.5s) it’s, it’s exciting and it’s fun and it’s kind of often a bit bonkers. Like, to me, the gimme, gimme, gimme the aber riff. It’s just so, it’s mental.
Like how did, how did they come up with that? It’s so nuts that that’s the brilliance of it. and you know, I think, I think something lateral, something a little bit kind of out of nowhere but familiar, that’s where the sweet spot is. so yeah, Arif is a great way to start a song with a bold, statement. And oftentimes those, all those songs, I’m, you know, judging by the chat, it looked like all of you (···0.7s) recognize the song within, you know, seconds. So it’s that kind of (···0.6s) instant recognition thing, which maybe you can’t get if you start your song with just gentle strumming of a, of a bar chord.
And we’ll get, we’ll get onto onto that a bit more in a minute. (···0.9s) So it’s something that’s defined by attitude, simplicity, (···0.6s) strong, bold kind of identity. it is great when they’re singable as well. That’s another tip. But one thing I really love about riffs, and I’m actually gonna grab my guitar and give you an example, is how you can, from a, from a writing point of view, this as a practical thing.
A riff can make a chord progression, a simple chord progression, way (···1.0s) more dynamic, (···0.8s) memorable, catchy, cool, intriguing. so you can kind of (···0.6s) insert a melody into a chord progression, with a, with a cool riff. And I wanna give you some examples actually from my own (···1.0s) writing over the last couple of months. one song that I, wrote with Michael Patrick Kelly called Safe Hands on his, his album Human, the album version that he wrote that he released, (···0.9s) I believe the verse is B minor, (···0.6s) A Major (···0.7s) G Major.
And, it’s this kind of picky motif and I was thinking about doing a cover of it, but I wanted to sort of change it up and kind of (···0.6s) give it my own stamp and identity. And I never actually got round to it, but I ended up like using the riff version of those chords.
So let’s say you take some really, really typical (···1.0s) bog standard chords, you know, You (···6.0s) know, that’s (···0.7s) nothing to write home about, but I mean, in a songwriting session, that’s all you need to kind of get you to give you a bedrock for your melodic ideas, which is kind of a great way to (···1.3s) get into the writing, especially in a co-write. You don’t necessarily wanna spend two hours like working out a riff ’cause people are gonna get a bit frustrated with you and a bit bored, and the momentum will kind of ever way.
So sometimes cowboy chords and just basic strumming or basic piano work is all you need to get the writing moving. But what I ended up doing with that chord progression is (···0.7s) turning it into a riff. So this riff basically spells out those same chords, but in a way that I, I like to think is more interesting and cooler. So I went, it’s spelling out the same chords, but it’s just more of a statement than, you know (···2.6s) what I mean.
And then oftentimes with the riff, (···1.9s) the riffs are usually designed to sort of stay out of the way of, of the vocal.
So in that context, if (···0.5s) I would, once the vocal comes in and verse one starts, I would not play that. I would go to Just something way more simple or like, (···7.8s) you know, so you are, you are, you are creating space for the singer and the vocal and the lyric, (···0.7s) but you’ve started the song with a bang. You started it with an idea, like a solid, memorable, hopefully cool idea.
