Sometimes situations arise when your group urgently needs to perform an unfamiliar, for example, pop song. In any source, you can easily find a detailed sequence of chords. That's enough for rhythm guitar. Information on bass, as well as on drums, is much less. What to do? You can, in parallel with the guitarist, diligently hammer the tonics, or start thinking using several patterns (templates) and rules.
There is no single correct solution. In a given harmonic sequence, you can offer 10,000 options for equally competent bass lines.
We start with the tonic on the strong beat, add the fifth degree (fifth) and use the octave from the tonic. It is impossible to make a mistake, these are the most stable intervals, suitable for any chord, because they have no tonality. Not minor and not major.
By this the simplest circuit: tonic, down fifth, up fifth, octave, most bass lines are built in disco, jazz, pop, reggae, funk, fusion, country, pop rock, and hard rock arranged pop styles.
Independent bass line
Main take- playing a chord. Adding a third step to the tonic and the fifth step, we get a classical triad performed sequentially (arpeggio). The third degree of a major scale will give a major chord, a minor scale will give a minor. Add "passing" notes from the chromatic range, for example, as links before changing the key, or complementing the vocal line.
For example, rock and roll, a typical example of an independent part based only on a major scale.
Walking bass. Achieve a smooth, continuous pulsation in equal strong beats.
- A note of the chord is played for each beat.
- Notes of a chord, but on the last beat a passing note (further change of key).
- The first and third beats of the notes of the chord, the second and fourth beats are passing notes.
- The first and second beats of the notes of the chord, the third and fourth beats are passing notes.
Either scheme works equally well.
Using an additional sixth step, you can go into areas close to the blues.
Sliding (swing). With only two notes (a fifth and an octave) you can easily come up with quite a lot of jazz and funk patterns. Try shifting the accents to get even movement. Let the first beat sound a little longer. For example, the size of a half, a quarter, two eighths. Use syncopation (shifting the accent to the weak beat).
Don't overload musical composition superfluous notes, believe me, there will be porridge. You are not Yngwie Malmsteen, but the bass guitar in the ensemble has other tasks!
Let's take, conditionally, four chords, and evenly drive them in a circle. It is the bass part superimposed on top that will indicate the style of the composition for the listener. Without changing the harmonic sequence, but radically changing the bass line, rock and roll turns into disco.
Bass guitar in heavy styles
The case when using only a tonic works great. A huge number of songs are based on such parties. This is all punk, post-punk and all its derivatives, including core, classic heavy, power metal, shred, neoclassical, most grunge, black metal. The task is to provide an even, dense, heavy lining, providing solo guitarists with freedom of action.
So-called, bass leader, built according to a similar scheme, only contains more elements of the reef, and passages. Trios and quartets with one guitarist. The loaded bass is brought to the fore, determines the severity of the sound, and in fact is already a rhythm guitar.
Riffed bass. Duplicate guitar riffs, or generate independent ones. All hard rock of blues origin, industrial metal, thrash, techno thrash, doom, death and all its derivatives, nu and alternative. The bass part consists of one, more often two riffs. But in especially neglected cases of death and techno-thrash, you will have to generate up to eight riffs at different tempos in one composition.
Vitaly Myakotin 2014
In this lesson, let's take a break from theory and look at some interesting rock 'n' roll riffs.
I want to focus on two types of reefs. Let's call them conditionally "reef walk" and "octave riff". These reefs have been used in many famous songs, such as "Riders on the Storm", "Another One Bites the Dust", and "Peter Gunn".
Note. All of the bass lines below are written in the key of A major. Unfortunately, I do not remember how the originals sound, but I think you can easily translate them into any key.
Attention: All transcriptions below are distributed for educational purposes only.
reef walk
Note. As before, chords are denoted by Roman numerals (I-IV-V), indicating the number of the note in the scale, on the basis of which the chord is built; and the notes included in the chord, in Arabic numerals (1st, 3rd, 5th) or special names (prima, third, fifth)
Reefs of this type are based on the sequence 1-3-5-6-7. The seventh note is the dominant (G), which is typical in rock and roll (remember to play a major note (G#) if the chord explicitly requires it). You should start the walk (key of A-major) on the fifth fret of the E string. Of course, you can also play the open A string, but then you will have difficulty moving the riff to another key. The application is shown below.
G|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---
D|---|---|---|-6-|-7-|---|-8-|---
A|---|---|---|-3-|---|---|-5-|---
E|---|---|---|---|-1-|---|---|---
Lesson 3 described how the standard walk is played. It used the key of G major, but you already know that the transition to another key is not difficult. It is enough just to move your hand two frets.
Reef Octave
All these riffs start with an octave jump and then return to the main tone. There are many blues variations of these riffs. The example below is not quite bass line. This is the intro to the song "Swingtown" by Steve Miller.
Swingtown - Steve Miller
Octave jumps were widely used in disco. Below is the bass line. It is written in the key of D major, but you can also play it in A major.
Get Down Rangle - (Disco Tune)
With some practice, you'll be able to add walks and octave riffs to your kit and use these lines in any song.
Try to memorize the intervals between notes by ear. When you learn to clearly distinguish between them, you can come up with very interesting things. Try to improvise based on the following sequence 5-6-7-8.
my favorite reef
Very often when evaluating new guitar people focus on the frets above the seventh. I agree, most of the fast riffs are played there, but you and I need a BASS guitar. That is why it is very important to evaluate the sound of the first frets. I want to bring to your attention a riff from the song "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mack. With it, you can determine how good low frequencies sound on your guitar. So, everything starts with an open E string, then an open A, then a progression from A to C and back to G. All this should sound fast and clear, without any muddiness. Next, play an open E to get a growl with good sustain. The fifth fret slide on the E string should sound powerful. Then play an open A that weakens the E. This is not a bad test for the guitar either.
The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Next time we will talk about the theoretical and practical aspects of tones.
Rock music has long been something more than a thing that makes parents angry and calls for rebellion. Rock is not only a certain "denim" aesthetic, in which there was a place for guys in ties like The Battles, and painted brunettes from Black Veil Brides. But both of them in their work used guitar riffs. Moreover, all rock - it's 70 percent, if not more, consists exclusively of downhole, well-remembered riffs on guitars. Next, we will look at what a riff is in rock music, and what it is eaten with, types of riffs, and also analyze the most famous tabs that any self-respecting rocker should know. So, let's go.
What is a guitar riff. Definition. Main use cases
Some guitar riffs have become so iconic that an entire song is recognizable from them. For example, Come as you are or Smoke On The Water.
Types of riffs
Riffs are monophonic, chordal, in "open" keys, performed on the basis of fifths, blues in the key of E-major, as well as riffs with a "pedal" tone. However, this is a conditional classification, since the same riff can be a combination of several fragments. Coming up with your own riff is not so difficult, the main thing is not to be afraid of experiments.
1. Riffs in open keys (E, A or D)
These riffs are used in music that evolved from blues, rock and roll, blues rock, hard rock, glam rock, etc. They are performed on a clean sound or with a distortion effect. Often muted during gameplay right hand palm muting. The basis for such rhythmic figures is a power chord, i.e. A chord consisting of a root and a fifth, with the addition of various degrees of the scale as it is played. The keys on which the riffs are played are mostly “open” - mi, re, la. The most popular tone is A major.
An A power chord in the "open" position looks like this:
- The first (index) finger during the performance of riffs muffles 3,2 and 1 strings.
- The thumb mutes the 6th string.
If you add one note on the fourth string (sixth), you get the simplest blues riff, which is used in many songs, for example, in AC/DC – The Jack.
After adding one more note on the fourth string (sevenths), a somewhat complicated version of the first riff is obtained, which is used in both "open" and "closed" keys. Example − Alice Cooper. Dirty Dreams.
With an extra note on the fifth string, you get a major and minor third. Often, notes on the fifth string, as well as on the fourth, are taken by Hammer on and Pull off techniques. Great illustration of this game - riff Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks.
You can also combine additional notes on the 4th and 5th strings into one riff.
Combined with Hammer on and Pull off you can play riffs Led Zeppelin - Rock & Roll or J. Satriani-Extremist. If you add a second on the third string, pulled up with the help of the bend technique to a major or minor third, you get a riff Extreme-Decadance Dance.
You will find these and other tabs in the section.
As you explore these riffs, try playing them in a different "open" key.
2. Pedal tone riffs
So called riffs with a constantly repeating tone. They were common in the 80s in the style of hard rock and heavy metal. The bottom line is that a pedal note is a tonic (most often taken on an open string), against which interspersed intervals are played, most often quarts, which correspond to different chords.
As a pedal tone, you can use not only the 5th string, but also other "open" strings, for example, the sixth and fourth.
Examples of pedal tone riffs: Ozzy Osbourne, A.V.H., Whitesnake.
Ozzy Osbourne
3. One voice riffs
These riffs do not use intervals or chords. They were used in rock music of the 70s, mainly by Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Currently playing them famous group Rage Against The Machine. Most often, monophonic guitar riffs are built on the basis of the pentatonic scale in the first box and are duplicated an octave lower on the bass guitar. To play these riffs special exercises I don't need it, that's why I immediately make tabs of such rhythmic-formulas of famous rock compositions. Examples: Led Zeppelin - How Many More Times, Heartbreaker; RageAgainst The Machine - Bombtrack, Killing In the name; Muse-Ashamed.
4. Chord riffs
Chord riffs on clean or slightly overdriven soundsIt's easy to guess by the name that these are riffs using chords. So that the notes of the chord are not distorted, they are played mainly on a not very overdriven sound. The founders of this game Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. By the way, Jimi Hendrix rarely played barre chords. Instead, he played each such chord with notes from the major pentatonic scale, and also used intervals. How to take, see the link. An example of such a game can be found in the riff Jimi Hendrix.
Fast paced riffs on power chords
This is the easiest and most fun version of the game, which is, as it were, a special case of chord guitar riffs. But here the chords are played on overload (distortion or overdrive), and such chords include only two notes: the main (tonic) and fifth (fifth step). These consonances are played with quick downward strokes (chesom). This performance is very common in rock, so I had to single it out separately. All kinds of punks and thrashers continue to develop this direction in creating riffs. After all, it's understandable - while you are hitting backhand on the chords, you can take any courageous poses, throw picks into the crowd (if the chord is good in duration) and build cute faces to the public. Slayer, Metallica, Green Day and Linkin Park were here. There are plenty of examples, so I give one of my favorite punk-rock compositions from Green Day's repertoire. Look for the rest yourself.
I hope that helped. Loving fans and killer riffs to you, friends!
The history of this lesson begins with the video "TOP 10 hard rock guitar riffs" from the foreign site WatchMojo. Where, according to the intention of the authors, ten compositions with signature guitar riffs were selected. Which have become the hallmark of not only the group and composition, but also the guitarists themselves.
Actually, the profit for a novice guitarist is that in addition to improving their skills and learning new exercises, there is an opportunity to boast of their new achievements by playing a part of a famous hit. In other words, we combine business with pleasure. We learn new phrases and enjoy the fact that we can play riffs from our favorite songs on the guitar.
Moving on to the Top 10 Hard Rock Intro Guitar Riffs.
10 – "Walk This Way" - Aerosmith
The simple chromatic guitarist Joe Perry made this song recognizable to all Aerosmith fans in the 70s. In our time, this song also does not lose its relevance. Apart from the intro, the entire rhythm guitar part is of interest to guitarists. Something similar we can meet in later bands, the guitarist of the guitarist of Extreme, Nuno Bettencourt. Actually, they themselves do not hide the fact that they were influenced by the work of Aerosmith.
9 - "Rock You Like a Hurricane" - Scorpions
For those who don't yet know how to play fifths on the guitar, this riff can be the first lesson. There is no particular difficulty in performing the introduction, but you can recognize Scorpions from the first notes. This song sounded both in games and in films, and they also made covers of it.
8 - "Photograph" - Def Leppard
Another simple intro to the song. Simple yet musical. It also shows how you can play with intervals and their inversions, chords.
7 - "Still of the Night" - Whitesnake
There is no introductory riff in this song. More precisely, there is a simple intro, and the first guitar riff is already included in the verse. But he also makes the song "Still of the Night" - Whitesnake recognizable. The guitarist, having learned it, will learn to play riffs in sixteen notes, if before that he did not know how to play them. And also impress your acquaintances and friends with your achievement in playing the guitar. This riff, despite its simplicity, will be difficult for a beginner and will require some patience to learn.
6 - Smoke on the Water» —Deep Purple
This guitar riff is not worth introducing. It's easier to find a needle in a haystack than a guitarist who didn't play this intro immortalized in rock history. For those who do not know this riff yet, this article will provide tabs. For those who wish to study this song in more detail, we recommend that you refer to the article.
5 – "Back in Black" - AC/DC
One of the most interesting guitar riffs of this TOP 10. Of course, it did not take the first place, but for a beginner guitarist this is the most important. It is much more important that after learning the introduction, he will learn to play in fifths and with inserts of a melodic line in the form of a simple blues phrase and a bass move.
4 - "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" - Van Halen
For those who don't yet know how to play a jumping arpeggio with a plectrum, this riff can be the very first exercise. Van Halen plays the riff with a pick, using distortion with a little muting of the strings at the bridge.
3 - "Sweet Child O'Mine" - Guns N' Roses
One of the most popular songs from Guns N' Roses has produced one of rock's most interesting riffs. Slash gave guitarists a great exercise in practicing picking through the string.
2 - "Whole Lotta Love" - Led Zeppelin
To be objective, it is worth noting that all the guitar riffs of this song are of interest to guitarists. In other matters, as well as the solo of this song. In the introduction, we see the game played in sixteenths on the open sixth string. This can be seen in the later heavy metal bands of the eighties. Although the Led Zeppelin song itself is dated 1969. In this introduction, an interesting technique is the playing of two identical notes with a simultaneous quarter-tone bend, which gives a bluesy coloring to the riff.
1 - "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" - Jimi Hendrix Experience
It's a pretty tricky riff, but it's worth learning. Typical Hendrix's way of playing around with a phrase is to make the same phrase sound different. When looking at the sheet music of this part, you may get the feeling that it will be difficult to play. But don't be afraid. Play the riff while listening to the recording of the song, it will be easier to learn.
PS. Do you agree with this list of guitar riffs? What's your favorite hard rock riff? Would you like to find sheet music for some riff? Write your feedback and wishes in the comments. Perhaps, according to readers, another TOP 10 will be created.
Thanks to the ubiquity of the Internet, now every novice bass player can learn to play almost any song he likes, and it’s no longer necessary to shoot parts on your own - you can use training videos or read the part from bass guitar tablature. How to read tablature for bass guitar? Let's figure it out!
Recording harmony in tablature for bass guitar
Tablature for bass guitar is a very visual and easy to read way of recording an instrumental part that does not require knowledge musical notation. For each string there is a separate line in the recording, respectively, for a 4-string bass there will be 4 such lines, for a 5-string - 5 and so on. Before each line is an open string setting, which is indicated by a large Latin letter. The arrangement of the strings in bass guitar tabs corresponds to the position of the fretboard lying on your lap, i.e. the thinnest string (G for classical bass guitar) is depicted on top, and the thickest (low-sounding) string (E) is shown below.
On the string lines in the tablature for the bass guitar, the number of the fret that needs to be clamped is indicated, open strings are written with zero - “0” (which is logical - you don’t clamp any fret, but you need to extract the sound). Tablature is read - from left to right, the sound extraction of notes occurs in direct sequence.
An example of recording the note la (A), taken on the 5th fret of the upper string of the bass guitar:
G—————————-
D—————————-
A—————————-
E—-5————————
An example of recording a major scale with open strings (G major):
G———————-0——
D————-0-2-4————
A——0-2-3——————-
E—3——————————
If several strings are involved in the sound production at the same time, then such sounds are recorded in the tablature for bass guitar in a column. For example, it looks like this bass chord tablature:
G—-6————————
D—-7————————
A—-7————————
E—-5————————
If it is necessary to indicate which finger to hold the fret on the fretboard, then at the bottom of the tablature entry is the serial number of the finger (from 1 to 5) that holds the string: 1-index, 4-little finger, 5-big. The duration of notes in tablature for bass guitar is written in small Latin letters on top of the image of the strings: s - 1/16 (from the English "sixteen"), e - 1/8 (from the English "eight"), q -1/4 (from the English "quarter"), h - ½ ("half" - half), w - whole ("whole" - whole). Pauses in the bass line are indicated by the letter r - from "rest". Bar boundaries are traditionally written as straight vertical lines.
An example of tablature for a bass guitar, indicating the duration of notes, finger positions during sound production and pauses:
G——|———-6-|——————
D——|———7—|——————
A——|—-5——-|-5-r-r-5-7——
E-3-|-3———-|——————
Recording sound extraction techniques in tablature for bass guitar
In addition to recording the harmony of the bass part directly, tablature for bass guitar allows you to specify the musician and the technique of sound extraction of a particular note, which makes this recording method a universal tool for recording bass parts. The sound extraction technique is written with a Latin letter, which is indicated immediately after the number of the fret on which it is applied.
- x - dead note (written without indicating the fret on the string that needs to be muted);
- \ - slide up;
- p – pull off;
- b - band;
- t - tap (tapping);
- H - flageolet;
- S - slap (hit);
- P - pop (podtep);
An example of recording tablature for bass guitar with various techniques sound production:
G———3P-5h-3p———————
D————————5b————-
A—0S\3————5S-7S—-7S-7H—
E—————————————-
At first, mastering bass guitar tablature seems to be something very difficult, but after mastering 2-3 parts, you will feel that you are already a little oriented in a new way of recording, and after the 10th tablature, reading skills will come almost from a sheet and you will not waste time to pick a part by ear. If the tablature source is trustworthy, you can be sure that you are playing your part correctly.