Gika schrieb:
Klingt vielleicht etwas blöd
, vorallem, wenn man schon seit bald vier Jahren Gitarre spielt, aber was ist eigentlich ein Riff genau?
Was ist ein Riff?
Riff:
Ein Riff ist eine massgeblich von lebenden Organismen aufgebaute, meist bankförmige Struktur, die vom Meeresboden bis zur Wasseroberfläche reicht und so gross wird, dass sie erheblich die physikalischen und damit auch ökologische Eigenheiten ihrer Umgebung beeinflusst.
oops, falscher Text
----schnipp---------
What is a riff? We can think of a riff as a musical statement that is repeated throughout a song. Even though it may have little to do with the melody of the song, it is a strong enough statement that it is identify as part of the song. In contrast to this, a "lick" is an smaller, usually ad libbed, musical statement that serves more as a filler than a main theme. Classic riffs that immediately come to mind can be found in "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream and "Day Tripper" by the Beatles. You could play these songs without the riffs but it just wouldn't be the same. Dave Matthews has written many great riffs. "Satellite" is one of my favorites. "Under the Table and Dreaming is full of great riffs.
Where do the notes of a riff come from? Ultimately you could say they come from a scale. If a riff is truly based on the notes of a scale then all the chords that can be built from that scale will harmonize with the riff (some better than others!) Most of the great riffs come from pentatonic or blues scales. The notes of these types of scales "play well together" and have
served as the birth place for most of the great rock and blues riffs every written.
Another, and perhaps more practical, way to think of a riff as a kind of arpeggio. Arpeggio is an Italian word which means "broken chord." In other words, we can break down a chord to its component parts - notes - and play those notes individually. Often times guitarists think of playing an arpeggio as simply playing the notes of a chord consecutively as we slowly strum across the neck. But, if we take the notes of a chord and play them in a melodic way, that arpeggio can become a riff. In this type of usage the riff can be used to take the place of a chord. That is to say, you are playing the chord one note at a time instead of all at once. A classical example of this is the riff in the last section of "Stairway to Heaven." When the song begins to truly rock out ("and as we wind on down the road" etc.) the chord progression is Am, G and Fmaj7. The guitar plays a riff in
place of the F maj7 chord the notes of which are: F, A, C, E, D, C - the very notes that make up an Fmaj7 chord! By playing the notes in a melodic way they become a very catchy riff (huge stacks of amplifiers and a little distortion helps too!). As a musician you have the choice of swatting the Fmaj7 chord like a madman or of playing the riff. Either one will work but the riff sounds a little more sophisticated.
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