{"id":1806,"date":"2011-11-17T13:34:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T18:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/?p=1806"},"modified":"2019-05-16T15:51:05","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T22:51:05","slug":"born-under-a-bad-sign-style-blues-guitar-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/born-under-a-bad-sign-style-blues-guitar-lesson\/","title":{"rendered":"Born Under A Bad Sign Style Blues Guitar Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Albert King with his signature Flying V. Image from Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alright so today I want to talk about cool blues riffs – and in particular I’m going to use Albert King’s “Born Under A Bad Sign” as my demonstration riff.<\/p>\n

Now, your first question might be, “What’s the difference between a lick and a riff?”<\/p>\n

I’m glad you asked… now I’m no expert on grammar (my expertise ends at the end of the guitar neck \ud83d\ude42 but to me, a riff<\/strong><\/em> is signature melody or chord progression that is fairly short and recognizable. It’s generally the basis for a song, and not part of a lead break.<\/p>\n

Some famous ones are the intro to “Smoke On The Water,” “Sunshine Of Your Love,” “Back In Black,” etc.<\/p>\n

Now a lick<\/strong><\/em> is a little different to me… I would say something like “check out this lick at the end of the solo to Pride & Joy” for example. It’s one little flurry or group of notes that isn’t repeated throughout the tune.<\/p>\n

This tune has a riff<\/strong>, it’s repeated throughout the tune and it’s well worth a few minutes of your time \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n