Guitar riff
A short, recurring musical phrase played on guitar, often serving as a song’s main hook or structural anchor.
Ostinato: A persistently repeated musical pattern, rhythmic or melodic, that can appear in any voice or instrument. A guitar riff is a recurring instrumental pattern within this broader musical idea.
Smoke on the Water: A 1972 Deep Purple song known for its four-note guitar riff. Its riff became a widely recognized example of a phrase that carries an entire song.
Melody: A sequence of pitches perceived as a coherent musical line. A riff can be melodic, but its defining feature is its recurring role.
Song form: The arrangement of sections and repetitions that gives a song its overall structure. A riff can mark sections, connect them, or serve as the song’s recurring foundation.
Repetition (music): The deliberate recurrence of musical material within a composition or performance. Repeating a phrase gives a riff its recognizable shape and structural force.
Day Tripper: A 1965 Beatles song built around a repeating electric-guitar riff. The riff supplies the song’s central hook and shapes its verse groove.
Hook (music): A memorable musical or lyrical idea designed to attract attention and recur in a song. A riff often functions as a hook, though hooks can also be vocal or lyrical.
Rock music: A popular music tradition centered on amplified instruments, strong rhythms, and diverse song forms. The electric-guitar riff became a signature device across many rock styles.
Guitar tone: The distinctive sound of an amplified or acoustic guitar, shaped by its instrument, technique, and signal chain. Tone can make the same riff sound clean, distorted, heavy, or sharply defined.
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction: A 1965 Rolling Stones song whose opening fuzz-guitar figure became its defining hook. Its repeated figure demonstrates how a riff can dominate a song’s identity.