RIFFOLOGY THE ANATOMY OF THE PERFECT RIFF THE PERFECT RIFF

We analysed the makeup of 20 of our poll’s riffs – what can we learn?

20 RIFFS FROM THE POLL (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER): • Back In Black AC/DC • Do I Wanna Know? Arctic Monkeys • Down Down Status Quo • Enter Sandman Metallica • Johnny B. Goode Chuck Berry • Layla Derek And The Dominos • Livin’ On A Prayer Bon Jovi • Money Pink Floyd • Money For Nothing Dire Straits • Purple Haze The Jimi Hendrix Experience • Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana • Smoke On The Water Deep Purple • Sweet Child O’ Mine Guns N’ Roses • The Spirit Of Radio Rush • This Charming Man The Smiths • Walk This Way Aerosmith • Whole Lotta Love Led Zeppelin • You Really Got Me The Kinks • Rebel Rebel David Bowie • 20th Century Boy T. Rex

ARRANGEMENT & STRUCTURE The most common approach to delivering the epic riff is to just start the song with a solo guitar (maybe doubled or with simple background support) and then have the bass, drums and vocals enter strategically. This approach might be prefaced by an atmospheric (often rhythmically ambiguous) intro ( Livin’ona Prayer, Moneyfornothing, Money). The essence of most of these riffs is delivered in two bars (or less), and even when it’s longer, it usually has a structure

(such as A BA C) as in Layla, Smoke on the water and Back in black.

MELODIC & RHYTHMIC FEATURES

There seems to be a balance between rhythmic interest and melodic complexity in operation here. The most melodically active riffs here ( Sweetchildo’ mine and The spirit of radio) have generally even and simple rhythms. However, the majority of the riffs are less notey and rely on a rhythmic ‘hook’, such as pushing into a beat early by a quaver ( Down Down), or incorporate a significant amount of offbeats (aka syncopation), for example, in the answering phrases in Layla and Smokeonthewater.

GUITARISTIC FEATURES

All of the riffs exemplify phrasing traits of the guitar – and there’s little sense they might’ve been written on other instruments. Open strings, standard chord shapes, slides, slurs, bends and muted strings are all present. The guitar is allowed to be itself and is celebrated as such.

GUITARS & EFFECTS Les Pauls, and then Strats, are the kings of the riff. Other guitars are used (most notably Telecasters), but even in the 2013 Arctic Monkeys track, it’s the classics that deliver. Effects are actually at a minimum – only Livin’ona Prayer (talkbox) and Thespiritofradio (flanger) use effects beyond a (moderate) distortion and modest reverb. Clarity is key, and effects should contribute to, rather than merely ornament, the riff.

TEMPO / METER With the exception of Money (7/4), all the riffs are in 4/4, but tempos range from a stately 84 to 85bpm ( Do Iwannaknow?) to the region of a nifty 170bpm ( Downdown and Johnnyb.goode), with a good portion around the 112bpm mark. The range may seem very wide, but consider that practically all the examples at 112bpm or slower include significant use of semiquavers, and there are hardly any semiquavers to be found above around 116bpm. So there’s a sweet spot of rhythmic density – no ballads, no speed metal.

REGISTER / RANGE

Most of the riffs employ the lowest available root in the scale, and many of them don’t travel much further than an octave or so above that note and are centered around roots and 5ths (and pentatonic elements) of the scale, making them eminently singable (at least by a low-voiced male), which might contribute to their ear-worm status. There are exceptions: Sweetchildo’ Mine and Thespiritofradio both have a catchiness that doesn’t seem to rely on singability.

KEY / TUNING

It may come as no surprise that the most common key in the list is the guitar-friendly E. In fact E, E minor, ‘neutral’ E keys and capo’d keys based on an open E chord made up almost half of the cohort. What was a surprise is that 20 per cent of the riffs are in the not particularly guitarfriendly G minor, so it seems there’s something satisfying to play and hear around that 3rd fret.

SCALE / MODE Unsurprisingly, minor pentatonic/blues are the most common scales, making up more than a third. However the more ‘sophisticated’ Mixolydian, Major and Aeolian collectively account for half, showing that these riffs are certainly not ‘all blues’. The most complex scale is in Enter Sandman, which hints at both blues scale and Phrygian mode.