Rolling stones, paint it black Bar 9 introduces a vocal melody line. If you now apply the first test I mentioned, you'll find that even tapping the rhytm (no notes involved), will already invoke the drive of the song. These two bars are themselves repeated most of the song, and make up the verse. The notes do not follow a very articulate countour, and the most salient part of the line is the repeated a.b.d. It consists of 11 notes, of which 5 are b, 3 a and 3 d. Rolling Stones, Jumping Jack flash Bar 10 introduces a 2 bar guiter riff, that can be reduced to: b.b.a.b.d.a.b.d.a.b.d. The melody itself may be repeated but the effect is more elaborate than with a riff. in a song, will generally have phrases which may be repeated just once (possibly with some variation), but will then move on to a new phrase. Repetition: Riffs are very often repeated extensively, with maybe just a little variation. It will also often have a cadence on or around the melodic climax. A melody with often follow a more definite progression and include 3 or even more distinct chords. That harmonization will more often than not lack a clear cadence. If you try to harmonize a riff, you'll often end up with one, maybe two distinct chords. Typically, descending melodies start at the fifth, and gradually work their way down to the tonic, ascending melodies usually start at the tonic and work their way up to the fifth, or even the octave. The hinge points of a melody are often the tonic and the fifth. A riff need nog have a very clear contour, and is usually too short to expose the kind of build-up/wind-down action you see in melody. Length: Riffs are generally just 1 or 2 measures long, melodies are often more longwinded: You can easily find examples of 4, 8, 12, measuresĬontour: A melody typically has a definite contour, working its way toward some kind of climax before relaxing again. A melody almost always has a range of at least a fifth, often an octave. In a lot of rock music, the melodic range of a riff often does not exceed a fourht, or sometimes even a third. Range: Riffs typically span a melodic range that is more narrow than that of a melody. I'm not saying that this is a perfect test, but it works remarkably well and is easy to execute. If the material is more melodic, you will find that often the sequence of pitches without any rhythm is enough to invoke a memory of the original material if the material is a riff then in many cases only the rhytm will be enough to think of the original. Then see which one of these best preserves the feel of the original material. Alternatively, eliminate all rhythm by giving each pitch the same length. This actually makes up for a really simple test: if you wonder if something is a riff or not, try to play only its rhythm, but without changing pitch (that is, play the rhythm all on the same note). Rythm vs melos: A riff is generally more characterized by its rhytmic pattern than by its melodic contour, for melody its the other way around. Here are some general characteristics that will typically hold: " as "short rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic figures repeated to form a structural framework". I think the cited definition by Richard Middleton captures it: There is no rule to absolutely distinguish between them all the time but, the wikipedia article does a remarkably good job.
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