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Key Takeaways
- A riff is a short phrase that repeats through a song, and the word started as jazz slang.
- Riffs, licks, and hooks overlap, and one quick test about repetition sorts them apart.
- Six common riff types run from one-string beginner lines to bass and horn figures with no guitar at all.
- The riffs that win reader polls share four traits, and each one is simple to hear and play.
- Hip-hop and pop have built hits on borrowed riffs since the late 1970s, and stems now let you lift one cleanly.
What Is a Riff in Music?
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A riff is a short musical phrase, usually one to four bars long, that repeats through a song and gives listeners the part they remember it by. It can be a line of single notes, a pattern of chords, or a rhythm on one pitch, and any instrument can play it.
The word entered musical slang in the 1920s through jazz. Count Basie's band built whole pieces from repeated horn figures in the 1930s, including "One O'Clock Jump" and "Jumpin' at the Woodside."
Classical composers use the name ostinato for the same kind of repeated figure, and Ravel's Boléro keeps one snare drum pattern going from the first bar to the last.
Blues players moved the riff onto the electric guitar in the 1950s and played it low on the neck, under the vocal. Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy" (1955) and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" (1970) are both built around one repeated guitar figure.
Riff vs. Lick vs. Hook
| Riff | Lick | Hook | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A short phrase that repeats through one song | A short phrase a player drops into a solo or fill | The moment of a song people remember first |
| Does it repeat? | Yes, the song is built on it | Not necessarily | Yes, usually in the chorus |
| Who plays it | Any instrument | Lead guitar, keys, horns, or voice | Any instrument or the vocal |
| Belongs to | One specific song | A player's personal vocabulary | One specific song |
| Example | The opening figure of "Layla" | Stevie Ray Vaughan's fills between vocal lines | The "ella, ella" line in Rihanna's "Umbrella" |
A quick test works for almost any song. If a phrase repeats and the arrangement is built on it, you are hearing a riff, and if people hum that riff after one listen, it is the hook as well. "Layla," "Sweet Home Alabama," and Eddie Van Halen's part on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" all work this way.
Vocal hooks come from the singer, and in "Umbrella," Pharrell's "Happy," or OutKast's "Hey Ya!" the line people remember is a sung one. Our guide on what is a hook in music covers the vocal side in more detail.
What Are the Types of Riffs?
Every riff is built from single notes, chords, arpeggios, or a rhythm pattern, and guitar, keys, synth, bass, and horns can all play each of those shapes. Bass and horn riffs get their own entries below because so many well-known songs are built on them.
Single-Note Riffs
A single-note riff plays one note at a time. On guitar, The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" fits on one string, which is why it tops lists of easy guitar riffs for beginners.
Raphael Ravenscroft played the single-note saxophone riff on Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street," and Eurythmics built "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" on a single-note synth line.
A clean single-note line leaves room for drums and vocals once you loop it.
Chord Riffs
A chord riff repeats a set of chords in a fixed rhythm. On guitar, the loudest version uses power chords, two-note shapes of a root and a fifth that stay clear under heavy distortion.
The Kinks' Dave Davies got his tone on "You Really Got Me" in 1964 by cutting his amp's speaker cone with a razor blade, and Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" moves the same shapes around the neck to build a guitar riff you recognize in two seconds.
Keyboards play chord riffs too. Eddie Van Halen wrote "Jump" around a synth chord riff, and Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets" repeats staccato piano chords from start to finish. For sampling, a chord riff gives you harmony and rhythm in one clip.
For heavier source material, browse our hard rock and heavy metal songs.
Arpeggiated Riffs
An arpeggio plays the notes of a chord one after another. Slash's intro to "Sweet Child O' Mine" is a guitar arpeggio, The Who's "Baba O'Riley" opens with a looping organ arpeggio, and Coldplay's "Clocks" repeats one piano arpeggio through the whole song.
Arpeggiated riffs loop cleanly because the end of each bar flows into the start of the next.
Rhythmic Riffs
In a rhythmic riff, the timing of each stroke counts for more than the pitch. Jimmy Nolen, James Brown's guitarist on "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," played short, muted sixteenth-note strokes that players call "chank" or "chicken scratch." Stevie Wonder used the same idea on clavinet in "Superstition," and Nile Rodgers brought it to disco guitar with Chic's "Le Freak."
Rhythmic riffs lock to a grid with very little editing. Our **funk **catalog has plenty of them, and many tracks come with stems.
Bass Riffs
In plenty of funk and rock songs, the bass plays the riff and the guitar fills in around it. John Deacon's line in Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" and Roger Waters' 7/4 figure in Pink Floyd's "Money" are two famous examples. Rick James' "Super Freak" has a bass riff that MC Hammer later sampled for "U Can't Touch This."
For low-end riffs you can loop by themselves, browse our bass samples.
Bass Riffs
In plenty of funk and rock songs, the bass plays the riff and the guitar fills in around it. John Deacon's line in Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" and Roger Waters' 7/4 figure in Pink Floyd's "Money" are two famous examples. Rick James' "Super Freak" has a bass riff that MC Hammer later sampled for "U Can't Touch This."
For low-end riffs you can loop by themselves, browse our bass samples.
I'll Stay Right Here - Take 1
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A Total Guitar poll of Guitar World readers put Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" at No. 1, and a Muse Group survey of 1,500 people picked Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine." Look closely at the best guitar riffs on those lists, and the same four traits come up again and again.
- They are short. A riff that lasts one or two bars fits in a listener's memory after one play, and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" repeats a two-bar figure for nearly the whole song.
- They repeat in fixed places. The riff opens the song, comes back after each chorus, and closes it out.
- They are rhythmic first. Keith Richards' riff on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" uses only three pitches, and the syncopated rhythm is the part listeners remember.
- They leave room. Riffs played on the lower strings stay under the vocal, and producers use the gaps between phrases for a rap or a new vocal once they loop one.
Why Riffs Matter for Producers Who Sample
Hip-hop and pop producers have borrowed riffs from older records for more than four decades.
- 1979. The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" used the groove from Chic's "Good Times," replayed by a studio band.
- 1986. Run-DMC re-recorded Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and reached the US Top 5.
- 1997. "I'll Be Missing You" looped the "Every Breath You Take" guitar part.
- 2001. Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious" looped the opening riff of Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen."
- 2011. Kanye West and Jay-Z's "No Church in the Wild" looped Phil Manzanera's "K-Scope," a part that blends guitar with harmonica.
Each of those songs started from a part that already repeated at a steady tempo, which is why a riff is one of the easiest parts to loop. A vinyl rip brings the drums, bass, and vocals along with the guitar, and stems give each instrument its own track, so you can solo the guitar riff, pitch it, chop it, and build new drums underneath.
Our **guitar samples **page gathers licensed master recordings with guitar parts from rock, soul, funk, and blues. Once your loop is ready, our guide to music clearance walks you through licensing before release.
Andy Summers recorded his part for a Police album, and it became the base of a new hit fourteen years later. Pick one of the six types above, find a riff in our catalog that matches it, and loop the first two bars.