Epic Guitar Riffs
Published on Tuesday 10 December 2024
What makes the guitar such an expressive and impressive instrument? Is it the look? Is it the ninja-grade solos? Or is it just the sweet acoustic sound? For me, personally, the answer is simple… it’s the riff, dummy!
What’s a Riff?
A riff is a series of notes or chords that together, form an immediately recognizable melody. One riff can form the base of an entire song, where it’s repeated over and over again, or sprinkled here and there to keep the listener hooked. A good riff is one that sticks in your head and one that, the moment you hear it, immerses you in the vibe of the song. And one final detail – while many have tried and failed to make a flute or organ riff epic (unless you count that sax on Careless Whisper, of course) an epic riff is always played on a guitar.
Before we go any further, it’s also worth pointing out the difference between a lick and a riff. Is there even a difference? Opinions on this are pretty divided and the experts have yet to agree. The most glaring difference I can find is that, while a riff serves as a sort of repeating theme within a song, a lick is a standalone musical idea that only happens once.
Anyone who’s just started learning to play the guitar will know (and anyone who’s been playing for decades will no doubt remember) that it feels great to be able to play a riff that your friends and family immediately recognise and can vibe with. A tip for all the beginners out there though: learn the whole song! This will save you some embarrassment later when you start jamming with people and realise you can’t get past the opening riff.
Examples of Epic Riffs
I also feel like I should add a little disclaimer here… and a confession. Your humble writer is already well over forty and that dizzying temporal height will no doubt influence what’s to come in my epic riff lineup. My age also might be the reason why I have the view that no new epic riffs seem to have emerged any time after… maybe the turn of the century (?) Feel free to school me in the comments section below but, for now… you have been warned!
To gain a brief history of the epic guitar riff, take a look at the video clip included below, where the American music teacher Brodie Cummings bullets through the history of guitar riffs – covering no-less-than 100 riffs in one go! This is definitely one for the pub quiz… can you name every riff?
Keith Richards
Short and sweet history lesson over! Now I can move on to some of my personal favourites. The first is Keith Richards. While his most iconic riff (the one that kicks off Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones) is actually in standard tuning, much of his guitar work is played in open-G tuning – something he’s well known for (among other things). Some of the most famous Stones songs that used open-G tuning include Honky Tonk Woman, Brown Sugar and Start Me Up. Playing in Open-G does take some getting used to, but once you have the hang of it, it’s actually really easy to come up with tasty riffs. As Keith once said himself: “All you need is five strings, two fingers and one a-hole”. This might be exactly why I used open-G tuning a lot.
Black Sabbath
My list of favourites just wouldn’t be complete without Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath pivoted away from their jazz roots in the early ‘70s because they wanted to respond to the prevailing hippy culture of the time with music that made people feel uncomfortable and even anxious. How did they do it? They harnessed the dark magic of the ‘flat fifth’ – also known as ‘the devil’s interval’.
What also helped was tuning their instruments down a notch or two. The guitarist Tony Iommi was actually forced to use drop tunings after he lost part of his fingers in a factory accident. To adapt, he managed to create the completely new and much darker guitar sound that would become a crucial part of the Black Sabbath legend.
ACDC!
And onto yet another essential name in the realm of epic guitar riffs: AC/DC. Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young wove catchy riffs together for over 35 years. Sadly, Malcolm passed away in 2017, but the band surprised everyone – both friend and foe – when they released a new album in 2020.
Here’s a very trimmed down round-up of some of the most memorable AC/DC riffs. You’ll have no trouble finding both the songs and quick and easy riff tutorials online.
1. It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock & Roll) is driven by a deceptively simple ear-worm of a riff that even has a somewhat hypnotic effect – especially since it’s combined with bagpipes. I also have some really warm memories associated with this one, especially because Metallica would always play it during the run-up to their shows at the end of the ‘90s – good times!
2. Riff Raff features a really tasty riff that goes super easy on the ears and is a real kick to play.
3. Whole Lotta Rosie – you’ll recognise this one from the first bar alone
4. Highway To Hell – a stone-cold classic. Simple yet effective
5. Hells Bells in a lot of ways has a really special riff. This song opens Back In Black which was the first album the band released after their lead singer Bonn Scott had passed away. After around 20 seconds of chiming, this spooky and slow guitar riff emerges and then, it’s not until the 1 minute 20 mark that fans hearing the track for the first time got to hear the voice of the new singer for the first time.
6. Back In Black. To be fair, this whole album is packed with brilliant and immediately recognisable riffs.
7. For those About to Rock……… this track ends with exactly 21 canon shots. How much more epic can you get?
8. Thunderstruck isn’t exactly my all-time favourite, but it’s the song that heralded the band’s return to the top in the early ‘90s. Not that they ever really went away.
9. Rock & Roll Train was released in 2008 and, when I first heard it in the car, I was pleasantly surprised that it features a classic AC/DC riff.
If you’re fully inspired and itching to go nuts with your SG guitar, then try to resist the urge to crank up your amplifier or open up the gain of your distortion pedal. Young’s valve amplifier was incredibly loud and, when you add too much gain to all of that volume, the riffs (a lot of which include open chords) can quickly start to sound like a mess. Also, if you really want to get into it, then you need to find your own partner in crime. A lot of the classic ‘DC riffs were only made truly possible by the perfect partnership between Angus’ SG and Malcolm’s Gretsch. From there, you just need a solid rhythm section backed up by a drummer who can keep things tight as well as swinging (Phill Rudd himself is apparently available again), and your band is complete!
Naturally, there are plenty of riffs (so many insane riffs!) that we haven’t covered here but unfortunately, there’s just not enough space to talk about every single one of them.
No comments yet...