Riff Of The Month:

Wolf Alice – Smile

Smile is second single release from Wolf Alice’s third studio album Blue Weekend. Having formed in 2010, the London based indie rockers have achieved worldwide recognition with a Mercury Prize winning 2017 album Visions Of A Life and a Grammy nomination for the song Moaning Lisa Smile.

The track opens with an in-your-face, heavy single-note riff. Ellie Rowsell and Joff Oddie are on guitar duties and there are some synth and octave guitars blended into the mix to create a thicker sound. This means you can play the riff as a simple single-note affair using just one finger, or you can add an octave-up note.

Map out the single notes on the sixth string, then add the octaves once you can follow them. Our slowed-down performance in the video on your Guitar Skills CD will give you a clearer idea of how it is played.

Smile’s riff contains only four notes (F#, G#, D# and E), but you can infer from this and the sweet minor vibe of the song that we are based in the F# Dorian mode (F# G# A B C# D# E). The major 6th D# is quite a feature of the riff, so this trademark Dorian quality is quite important to the sound. You can play the sixth- and fifth-string notes with your first finger, and add the octaves with your fourth finger. Notice that the octave of each note is both two frets and two strings higher.