Riff

What it means

A riff is a short, concise figure that is repeated many times and thereby becomes the load-bearing element of a piece. It is usually one to two bars long, rhythmically striking, and easy to recognize. Riffs can lie as an accompaniment under a melody or a solo, or themselves form the main material. The term comes from jazz and is firmly anchored in blues, rock, and related styles.

Musical use

In big band jazz, riffs are a central device: a horn section repeats a figure while a soloist plays over it, and by adding further sections an intensification arises without the harmony changing. Whole pieces are built from the alternation and layering of such figures. In blues and rock, the guitar or the bass often takes on the riff, which then forms the hallmark of a piece. Musically the effect rests on repetition: what is heard at first as a figure becomes, through repetition, the ground over which other things happen.

Performance practice

Play a riff absolutely evenly; its effect arises from reliability, not from variation. Watch for constant articulation and volume, so that it can work as a ground. Practise it until it runs without thinking, for in ensemble you must also listen to the band beyond that. Adapt rhythmically to the rhythm section, instead of enforcing your own sense of time. With intensifications over several passes, plan the course instead of gradually getting louder.

Bear in mind that a riff moves, over time, from the foreground into the background: what stands out the first time becomes, after a few passes, the ground over which other things happen. Do not change it, therefore, once it has taken on this function. Watch for constant articulation and volume. Well-known riffs are found in the swing of the big bands, where horn sections set short figures against one another.

Check whether the riff is transposed in the course of the piece, because the fingering then changes and must be practised.