Riffs: How to Create and Play Great Guitar Riffs

by Rikky Rooksby

Overview

(Book). Rikky Rooksby's revised and updated bestseller explores more than 200 classic riffs, from Cream and Led Zeppelin, through Nirvana and Soundgarden, to Metallica, U2, and the White Stripes. The first half of the book analyzes classic rock riffs and reveals the stories behind their creation. Easy-to-read text describes and explains each riff, supported by illustrations and a CD of audio examples. The book's second section shows how to construct great riffs and why they work. Readers learn how to shape a melody, integrate a guitar riff with the rest of a song, enhance a riff with effects, and work with intervals and scales to build riffs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879309930
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/01/2010
Edition description:	Revised and Updated Edition
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	938,710
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Rikky Rooksby (Oxford, England) is an author, guitar teacher, songwriter, and music journalist. He is the author of many books, including Backbeat's bestselling How to Write Songs series, of which Riffs is a part.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	6
	What is a riff?	6
	Why are riffs important?	8
	A brief history of the riff	8
	How many types of riff are there?	12
	How this book works	12
Section 1	Interval-based riffs	14
1.	The semitone riff	15
2.	The tone riff	20
3.	The octave riff	24
4.	The perfect fifth	27
5.	The perfect fourth	30
6.	The tritone	35
7.	Riffs in thirds	38
8.	Riffs in sixths	43
9.	Mixed-interval riffs	44
Section 2	Scale-based riffs	48
10.	The pentatonic minor riff	48
11.	The blues-scale riff	53
12.	The pentatonic major riff	58
13.	The major scale riff	60
14.	The mixolydian riff	63
15.	The aeolian mode/natural minor riff	67
16.	The dorian riff	69
17.	The phrygian riff	72
18.	The lydian riff	74
19.	The locrian riff	75
20.	Chromatic-scale riffs	76
Section 3	Chord-based riffs	80
21.	Pedal-note riffs	80
22.	Drone-note riffs	82
23.	Arpeggio riffs	84
24.	The major chord riff	87
25.	The mixolydian chord riff	89
26.	The minor chord riff	93
27.	Suspended chord riffs	95
28.	Triad-based riffs	100
29.	Inverted chord riffs	102
30.	Unusual chord riffs	104
Section 4	Techniques for playing riffs	106
	Repetition and development	106
	Tempo	106
	Reharmonising	107
	Transposing a riff	108
	Chord shapes	110
	Detuning for riffs	111
	Altered tunings in rock	112
	Form and length of riffs	116
	How riffs are used in songs	117
	Rhythm and time signatures	118
	Arranging and recording guitar riffs	123
	Riffs and the band	125
Section 5	Writing and playing classic riffs: a masterclass with John Paul Jones	126
Section 6	Riffs on the supplied CD	132
	Index of Artists	164
	Index of Songs	168
	Acknowledgements	176