4. Song Writing Intrumentals... So, in summary.... the first effect of the electric guitar was to add more rhythm to the basic sound of songs, and to add colour in the form of intros and solos. Those added effects soon became so important to the songs that they changed the song writing. Many guitar players in the 50's and 60's got their start, as I did, by learning instrumentals by groups like the Ventures. .... songs like: Pipeline, Apache, Walk Don't Run These songs and the Surf Music trend that went along with them, allowed guitar players to continue to explore the possibilities and expand their bags of tricks. What if a song featured dominant guitar parts but also had standard pop vocal? The Big Intro: From afterthought to first thought. The big intro shouts out – it catches attention. The song wouldn’t be the same without it, but the song CAN exist without it… The intros got longer and more intricate... Consider…Takin' Care of Business / Money For Nothing / Sweet Child of Mine Sometimes a single chord is all it takes. Think… A Hard Day's Night Chord Pattern Song Writing Sometimes a recognizable chord pattern is the main feature in a song's identity. Often they just take the chord pattern and use it as the intro. Louie Louie /  You Really Got Me   / Wild Thing – through Gloria and Proud Mary Either way - from the first seconds - you can't mistake the identity of that song. More examples: I Love R& R / Hit Me With Your Best Shot / Smells Like Teen Spirit Riff Based Songs A Riff is just a signature melody, usually repeated... and repeated. Riffs were there in the blues way back, but the songs could and did exist independent of the riff. Hound Dog by Elvis is an early example. Others have done the song without the riff found in the Elvis version. Crossroads is another one. Clapton really made that one his own. The electric guitar enabled the riffs to stand out. The secret to a good opening riff is that the audience recognizes it right away. Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison was perhaps the first important instance. The song just wouldn’t be the song without the guitar part.  It is then indispensable - no small town cover band can play Pretty Woman if they don't have a guitar player - with an amp. The Beatles and the Stones quickly took this to the next level with songs like Day Tripper and The Last Time. One More Variety The Arpeggio Riff involves picking the individual notes of the chord one at a time ... over and over. The House of the Rising Sun by the Animals is the most enduring example. A Good Riff Is: Immediately Recognizable / Usually Simple / Repetitive / Sticks in your head. (Like a Vocal melody) Some are even a bit hypnotic... Don't Fear The Reaper / Pride (In the Name of Love) / Immigrant Song To the Next Level... The Satisfaction story... Keith wakes up with the riff in his head, records the riff, but doesn't like it much. It reminds him of something that should be played by a sax or trombone. Then he gets a "fuzz box" and... The added punch and sustain made it the quintessential rock riff. Fifty years later they could still kick off a concert with it. The Next Generation of Melody Riffs.... The riffs developed by Roy Orbison, The Beatles and the Stones were pushed to the next level by... Jimi Hendrix /  The Yardbirds, and Cream Hendrix took it to a new level, perhaps Purple Haze didn’t even need the vocal to be an instant hit (especially with guitar players). And with songs like... Iron Man. Smoke on the Water, and Godzilla - which began as a parody of a Heavy Rock riff. Led Zeppelin built whole albums around the riff. When Mike Campbell came up with the guitar intro to Runnin’ Down a Dream in the mid 80’s, Tom Petty later remarked that up until that point he had though Jimmy Page had already patented every possible killer riff. And let’s not forget My Sharona. (No matter how hard we try.)   Putting it All Together Shook Me All Night Long is an example that showcases all the elements of Guitar Based Song Writing - Strong Intro / Distinctive Chord Pattern  / and a strong Solo… all of which now seem essential to the song. Crazy on You by Heart is another example. The Power Chord The ability to make a guitar distort and sustain brought a new power to the guitar. As we know, strumming styles evolved as volume increased. With lots of volume and sustain the guitar chord could simply be hit and let ring as opposed to strummed. Why I Love the Stones (Reason #23) ...and other diversions. Before the Rolling Stones were even writing their own songs they were changing Rock n' Roll. The intro to "It's All Over Now" demonstrates an early use of the guitar as a blunt instrument. The first chord is fired as if from a gun, followed by a little lick, and then fired again. And again… Chords...struck not strummed. Pete Townsend was the King of the Power Chord, with the Who's Next album perhaps setting the standard for its use in song writing. Many others from Deep Purple through Green Day couldn't get by without it. Just for fun give a listen to Baba O'Riley from Who's Next then try Green Day's Homecoming from American Idiot. In each case you have to be patient - songs had intros in those days. With Homecoming the power chords don't appear until 40 seconds in. Pete Townsend tells us that he saw Keith Richards do the windmill motion and asked if he could copy the move. Keith gave him the OK – it wasn’t really Keith’s style, and perhaps even then he knew it didn’t fit the music of the Stones as it did the Who’s material. Of course Pete Townsend was also following in the footsteps of Chuck Berry when it came to making a visual statement about the role of the guitar. The Power Chord, combined with Distortion, changed the way we play rhythm guitar. So much so that just two notes in harmony, played in three positions, were enough to carry a whole song. A standard major or minor chord is three notes in harmony. The first, third and fifth notes of the do-ra-me sequence. A power chord (or 5th Chord) is just two notes the first and the fifth notes. In the sixties thousands of garage bands were using those two note chords to play Louie Louie before they had the skill to play much else. The Kinks took the idea, and when Dave Davies slashed a speaker on his amp to get that buzz saw sound, a career was made.  Pete Townsend heard it and said, "I can do that." and at times added the third note to make up the whole chord. Power chord riffs became even more dominant in song writing. As described in our look at intros - sometimes a particular chord pattern is used as either the basis for the whole song or a distinctive intro or recurring theme. An aside: Although some of us novice guitarists were slow to figure it out, Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple took the two note chord, turned it upside down so that the instead of 1st and fifth, the chord was made up of the fifth, then a higher 1st. Smoke on the Water was the result, and the power chord riff was now a go-to building block in song writing. It is worth mentioning that later he took that same idea and created the riff for "Burn" perhaps a prototype for the whole heavy metal thing.