Welcome back to the second half of our course mastering riffs! In this course, we will be taking a look at funk and indie riffs and give you two more tunes to practise! There will be a new 16th note technique to master in the funk section, whilst the Indie section will help us practice dynamics and more complicated single note strumming! As always, take your time with each section, put the practice time in, and have fun!
Your first job is simple... Just listen! We'll go into all the specifics in the next lesson, so just listen and try to get the theme of the riff into your head. This is always the first step when learning any track!
Funk riffs can be deceptively tricky, and this little groove is no exception. This is a classic, funk/disco style guitar riff that features 16th note picking based around the A minor pentatonic shape 1. The tricky part is the consistent down and up motion with your right hand which we focus on in the video. Take a look at the fretboard diagrams for the scale shape we are using.
Let's now work on piecing the whole track together! We'll be doing a lot of practice here, so strap in!
Your first job is simple... Just listen! We'll go into all the specifics in the next lesson, so just listen and try to get the theme of the riff into your head. This is always the first step when learning any track!
With Indie music, the technique is often less important than other things such as the melody of the riff and the dynamics. This particular riff is very aggressive sounding and features short, staccato notes, giving it that edgy feel. Although it may seem simple at first, it can take a while to really nail that staccato feel. This riff uses the B minor scale as well as the B harmonic minor scale. Don’t worry about the harmonic minor scale for now as that is a more advanced idea, but you should be familiar with the minor scale. The scale shape we are using is the pentatonic shape 4, but then we add the additional notes of the full scale. Take a look at the fretboard diagrams to familiarise yourself with the shapes.
Once you get the two sections learnt individually you need to put them together. Here is the layout of the song: 1. Intro (1 x round the first riff) 2. Chorus 1 (4 x round the first riff) 3. Verse 1 (4 x round the second riff) 4. Chorus 2 (4 x round the first riff) 5. Verse 2 (4 x round the second riff) 6. Chorus 3 (4 x round the first riff)
It's time to get a little creative and start writing your own riffs! When writing a riff try to remember the two main principles of riffing: rhythm & repetition! If you stick to these ideas when writing a riff you will not go wrong. Have fun!
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