The Art of the Riff

Someone asked me yesterday: what's the difference between a lick and a riff?

Ok, so lick vs. a riff... Well, a lick is few notes , or a short musical phrase... It usually relates to lead guitar or maybe a "fill" as part of a rhythm.

A riff is more of a musical statement on its own - usually a rhythm part, creating a main theme of a song, often using full chords or partial powerchords... Although sometimes they could be single notes. But maybe you already know all that :-)

Riffs are great to write songs with.

I like how Virtuwul divides up riffs into 2 main categories -- powerchord riffs, and single note riffs. Like he says "ITS JUST THAT SIMPLE." Try this technique -- take any scale, like a major or minor scale, and play a simple melody. Then take each note of that melody and turn it into a power chord. See what you can come up with!





Another really powerful way to learn to write your own riffs is first learn a lot of the all time classic riffs to give your bag of tricks some meat. Then you'll be READY :)

Amazing powerchord trick

This neat little twist on a powerchord will give you a new sound instantly. Most people will tell you to play a powerchord with your first finger
and your third finger...

I'm talking about a 2 note powerchord... Like for example your first finger on the low E string, 5th fret, and your ring finger on the 7th fret of the A string.

That's an "A5" powerchord. But instead, try using your pinky instead of your third finger. This gives you the flexibility of moving your first finger around, for example one fret down...

That gives you the famous "Journey Sus Chord" sound. Try it. It's amazing because its so easy to do yet gives you a whole new sound.

Rock vs. Metal

Who wins?

Metal or rock?

For me — there is no battle. Metal is just rock with a bit more distortion and attitude. And the guy that “embodies that” the most is none other than Jack Frost.

He’s like a metal god with a touch of motivational speaker. Here’s some cool lessons from him showing
you one of Van Halen’s secrets: EPIC RHYTHM SECRETS.

Rock on!

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P.S. I also highly recommend his “Epic Rhythm Guitar Power” course. IT’S EPIC! lol

Sweeping Technique

No matter how sophisticated the sweeping licks that you played, but when it's came in a dark not clear tone ringing, that would make no sense.

The ears of people who would prefer listening to music with the feast melodies that touch the heart, rather than party-tone technique with a tone that sounded abysmally. People play the tapes to listen to songs and beautiful tones of the music instrument, not a finger exercise. Phrasing is the key, and the game is to clean tools.

Like people talking, too fast will be easy to lose articulation, but when mediocrity can be enjoyed like a fairy tale.



So.. play everything first gradually with slow tempo, in order to properly record the brain finger movements on the fingerboard. Practice with a metronome, because nobody wants to play with players who often escape the tempo. (Remember always to go back to basics before attempting the tricky part or something..)

After seeing the concert Strings Chamber Music EVE opening act, there is an appearance that is rather disturbing. Quartet played the difficult repertoire written by Mozart reciprocal-back tone. The violin played very fast, but the tone is played is not accurate. In the ear sounded awful, but the perform with their moving fingers is very clever.



Same thing like Yngwie Malmsteen (Not to offend or criticize the maestro), hello.. the whole world expects to him to compose a very beautiful song, not a fast sweep picking technique show-off as fast as the lightning strikes.