If you ask a hundred people to portray themselves as guitarists and randomly portray something fatal, no doubt 70 percent will pick up an imaginary guitar and give out a formidable intro Smoke On The Water. Fans call it immortal grandeur, musicians call it a seal of particular steepness, but experts have come up with a name for such fragments. “Guitar reef”, - with a look not at all rocker, they “conclude”.
Real Guitar Reef: Know and Know
When you are told that this is just an ordinary set of chords, do not believe your ears. Experts teach a guitar game: a reef is a repeating passage of a certain melody, a musical fragment. And they add: this is not necessarily an introduction, it can be the ending of the composition, its culmination, or just the accompaniment. And you can also hear that a guitar riff is the “backbone” of a melody by which the listener recognizes one or another song. If you take rock or blues, then in these directions the lower registers are used for reefs, they are usually “given out” by low-string rhythm guitarists.
Oh how diverse it is - this guitar reef!
Fans of classifications got to guitar riffs, noting, however, that their separation is a rather arbitrary concept.
So, if the air cuts a blues, rock and roll, hard or glam rock fragment, you should know: his name is “a reef in open keys,” the most popular of which is in A Major.
They did not think for a long time about how to name the fragments performed using chords: they called them “chord”. The “fathers” of these chord clusters are the “rolling” of Keith Richards and Jimi Hendrix.
The next type of guitar reefs are single-voiced. They are not aware of chords and intervals. Their birth years are 70s, parents are Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Rock craftsmen from Whitesnake, as well as the “great and terrible” Ozzy, specialized in pedal-tone riffs. This look - with a tone that constantly repeats - was especially honored by the stars of heavy metal and hard rock of the 80s.
The simplest one will be included in this list, and as experts like to say, the most fun type of guitar riffs is fast-paced: when “two notes on an overload” are extracted by striking the strings. It’s clear that such reefs are the favorite “things” of punks and fans of hard trash.
The best guitar riffs: now and forever
What are the most famous guitar reefs in the world? There are different opinions on this matter, but the Top 5 of the respected Total Guitar edition is invited to your attention. In 2013, the magazine interviewed its readers, and this is what came of it.
On the 5th place sits Skydog and its Layla. The place above was chosen by a one-voice reef from the immortal Blackmore Smoke On The Water. Led Zeppelin burst into the top three (and it was not difficult): Jimmy Page in Whole Lotta Love did not leave others a chance to take 3rd place. Well, in some world ratings they are the first, but not on the Total Guitar list: the legendary Gun N'Roses gets silver for the reef in Sweet Child O'Mine. He often competed with the "Hansa" for the "reef" championship and in 2013 reached his goal, so please love and favor:
Jimi Hendricks and his reef from the reefs in Voodoo Child!
And finally ... "Shooting" the guitar with a riff is not difficult at all - you just need to want this. Feel free to pick up the instrument and play a couple of repeating chords. Perhaps the guitar reef you invented will become a landmark for you. Try, dare, and may the Gods of the Blues and Rock and Roll help you!