Lick
The lick is an instrumental phrase in jazz - and rock music . These are musical "words" or "sentences" played on the guitar or bass (or other melody instruments) that are used, among other things, as vocabulary and to learn improvisation .
Licks are short melody lines that are usually only a bar or two long. They are often structured in such a way that there is no chord change during the lick. This makes them easy to transpose to other chords within a song. In this way, the same musical phrase, possibly transposed up or down, can also be used across chord changes. Among other things, licks can also be used as "building blocks" to put together a solo.
The lick can be repeated several times as a motif , both immediately one after the other as well as in the song itself, possibly also in variations .
Licks outside of the solos (at least in rock and pop music) are usually always played in the same way, in a solo the licks can vary between the studio recording and a live performance or from musician to musician (e.g. with a cover version ). This is mainly due to the fact that there is often improvisation within the solos.
Riff is often used as a synonym for lick , which is at least imprecise. A riff is recognizable as a thematic element, it defines an important, mostly rhythmically concise basic idea of a song or part of a song. A riff is usually associated with "his" song. If you quote the riff in a different context, it will be recognized as a quote. A lick is usually not thematically recognizable, so it can be used in a different context without causing the listener to immediately associate a certain song.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sokolow, Fred (1997). Complete Country Guitar Book , p.9. ISBN 978-0-7866-2841-4 .
- ↑ http://top-guitars.co.uk/what-is-a-riff/
