Lesson video

Hello and welcome to the third Lesson in our unit entitled, "The Sound of 90s Grunge." This lesson is entitled, Riffs and Power Chords in Grunge, and my name is Mr. Norris.

I'm gonna be taking you through today as we start to build our broader understanding of grunge beyond our focus so far, which has mostly been on the drum kit.

We're gonna learn about how we use riffs in grunge, and then we're gonna have a go at doing some composing as well.

Our outcome, therefore, is I can create a grunge-style riff using power chords and a bass line based on the riff.

Let's look at our keywords.

First keyword is riff.

And a riff is a short repeated musical idea that forms the basis of a pop or rock song.

You might come across this word where you've been looking at other styles of pop music beyond grunge.

A power chord.

Now a power chord is a two notes chord, often used on guitars, and it uses the root note and the fifth of a triad chord.

We'll explore that more later.

And then finally, fifth, and a fifth is a distance of five notes.

For example, the distance from C to G is a fifth.

Again, we'll explore the concept as we go through the lesson.

So the first part of our lesson today is entitled, 'Riffs and Power Chords in Grunge.

' Let's get to it.

A power chord is a type of chord that is usually played on the electric guitar, and uses two notes.

We're gonna listen to two riffs here.

The first one does not use power chords, the second one is the same riff, but using power chords.

How would you describe the difference between these two? Here's our first one, this is without power chords.

(upbeat instrumental music) And now the same riff with power chord.

So how would you describe this difference here? (upbeat instrumental music) So have a quick think about how you'd describe the difference between those two, and then we'll move on.

So here's how I might describe the difference.

The power chords sound stronger and more powerful.

That's where the name power chord comes from.

Distortion, which is that fuzzy effect that we looked at previously, helps to create an even stronger sound.

So if we just listen to that second riff again, we can hear it's quite powerful, it's quite strong.

(upbeat instrumental music) And that's created through the use of power chords and also through the use of distortion.

So well done if you describe that using a similar sort of language there.

So power chords with added distortion as we've said, will help to give your music that typical grunge sound.

This is such a key feature of the style, is riffs that use power chords and distortion.

Although typically played on a guitar, power chords are very easy to work out using a keyboard.

We find the triad, which is our three note chord, and we just take out the middle note, or we can take the root note and work out the fifth, and they come up with the same thing.

So there's our C triad on the left hand side, that's C, E, and G member of triad has three notes.

If we just take out the middle note, we're left with C and G, and that is our C power chord.

Power chords only use the root and the fifth.

The root, as we already know, is the bottom note of the triad, and it's also the note that the chord is named after.

So if we have a C chord, our root note is gonna be C.

If we have a F sharp chord, our root note is gonna be F sharp.

We call the second note the fifth, because it is the fifth note in the scale.

So if we have a C scale there and our C, the first one, is our root note, the fifth note is gonna be our fifth, and in this case that's G.

So we've got our root C and our fifth G.

And there's our power chord there.

So we've taken the root, we've counted to the fifth note, and we've added it on.

So there are two ways there to create our power chord, we either take the triad and just remove the middle note or we take the root note, and then we count up to the fifth and add that on.

For G chord, we can use the same process then.

G is the root, so the fifth of the scale would be D.

We can see there number one is G, and then if we count five notes up the scale we get to D.

So our G chord, G power chord is G and D, two notes.

So we can work out any power chord by counting up five notes the fifth of the scale.

Have a go at this one.

We want to work out the notes of an A power chord.

We know that we start with the root note, which is A.

Can you work out which note we would add to make an A power chord? I'll give you a few seconds to do so.

So hopefully you got that the fifth note is E.

So the roots of the A power chord, are A and E, and that'll be forming our A power chord there, and we follow that same process, whatever power chord you're trying to create.

So let's check your understanding.

Which notes form a power chord? Two notes, the third and fifth.

Two notes, the root and fifth.

Three notes, the root, third and fifth.

Or three notes, the third or fifth.

I'll give you a few seconds to work this one out.

And the correct answer then is B, two notes, the root and the fifth.

Remember, we count up from the root note up to the fifth note of the scale, and we just have those two notes.

Which instrument typically plays power chords? Is it the bass guitar, the piano or the keyboard, acoustic guitar or an electric guitar? I'll let you work this one out for a few seconds.

And well done if you've got the correct answer then, which is an electric guitar.

Typically they're played on an electric guitar.

That's not to say that you wouldn't hear power chords on a piano or keyboard or an acoustic guitar, but most typically we associate them with the electric guitar.

How do we work out the notes of a power chord? For this one, pause my video, and come up with your answer.

So there are two ways that we can work out the notes of a power chord.

We can either find the root of the chord, which is the same note as the chord name, and work out the note that is a fifth higher.

Or we can take a triad chord and just miss out the middle note.

So either of those is fine, or if you know both of those ways, that's really good.

So well done if you remembered one or both of those.

For Task A then, for question one you're gonna work out the notes of the following power chords.

A D power chord, an E power chord, and a C power chord.

I've given you the scale there.

What you need to do is pause my video and then number the notes starting from one to work out the two notes of each power chord.

So you can pause my video and have a go at that now.

For the second part of Task A, we're now gonna do a listening task.

There are three chords here that I'm gonna play for you, and I would like you to identify for each one if it is a power chord or not.

So in the table you're gonna write yes or no.

I'm gonna play you each one twice.

So here's our first example, this is example one.

Is this a power chord, yes or no? (instrumental music) I'm gonna play you that one more time.

So example one again, get your answer down.

Here we go.

(instrumental music) Okay, example two now, is this a power chord, yes or no? (instrumental music) Alright, one more time.

Example two.

Here we go.

(instrumental music) And then finally, ready for example three.

This is the last one.

Is it a power chord, yes or no? Here we go.

(instrumental music) And for the final time, example three.

(instrumental music) Let's move on then to looking at our answers for both parts of Task A.

These were your answers for the first question.

So for a D power chord, the notes are D and A.

For an E power chord, the notes are E and B.

And for C power chord, the notes are C and G.

You'll notice for each one we have the root note first, which comes from the name of the chord.

So D power chord, the root note is D.

E power chord, the root note is E.

C power chord, the root note is C.

And then in each example we've counted up to the fifth note of the scale and added on making sure we've only got two notes in the chord.

So well done if you got those correct.

For the listening task, the first one was not a power chord.

If you listen to that, we can hear there's just one note playing.

(instrumental music) So well done if you identified that.

The second one is a power chord.

It's got two notes playing in this one, and it's the root and the fifth.

(instrumental music) And then the third one sounds like a totally different type of chord.

This has got quite a lot of different notes playing in it.

(instrumental music) I think probably six notes in that chord, so it's a much more complex chord than a power chord.

So no, yes and no.

Well done if you've got those correct.

Now let's move on to the second part of our lesson, which is creating a riff using power chords.

We can create a simple grunge riff by choosing a few power chords and creating a pattern with them.

These power chords are a good set to choose from, and the A chord is the home chord.

So that's the one we want to sort of use quite a lot.

There's A, C, D, E, F and G.

Those power chords are a really good set to choose from, and different combinations of those will work really effectively for riffs.

That's not to say you can't use other power chords, but these are a really good starting points, so I'd recommend that we stick to those for now.

We're gonna watch a video now which shows us how to find power chords on the keyboard.

I'll play that for you now.

Before we create a riff based on power chords, we need to look at how we find power chords and form them on our instrument.

Now obviously power chords are normally used on guitar, but we can also play them on the keyboard, and when we're sequencing through software like Garage Band or Band Lab, then obviously we're gonna need to do that to get our midi tracks recorded in.

So we've got six different power chords that we've looked at, and I've chosen these ones because they all use white notes, so they're fairly straightforward to learn.

The first one that we've got on our list is the A power chord.

We take the note A, (piano music) and then we find the fifth of that chord, the fifth of that scale, which is E.

So we've got A, and then we've got E above it.

So A a power chords A and E.

(piano music) That shape is gonna be the same for each of our other power chords.

So if I take my next one on the list, which is our C power chord, it's gonna be the same shape.

So move up to C and then find the fifth note in that scale, which is G.

So C and G is our C power chord.

You'll notice that I'm not just choosing any C and G, I'm playing a C, and then the G is up above it, not below it.

So a power chord always has the root note at the bottom and then the fifth above it, not the other way around.

So our A power chord, A and E.

We've got C, C and G.

D, D and A.

We've got our E power chord, E and B.

And we've also got our F power chord, F and C.

And our G power chord, G and D.

And as well, as going up the way to find them, I could go down, so there's my A power chords, G, just next to it.

F just next to that.

E next to that.

Then D.

C.

And then down to A.

So before you start creating your riff, just get familiar with those power chords.

Get used to the hand position, get used to moving up and down them in different combinations so that you've got the tools in order to create your riff really successfully.

Now let's watch a second video that shows us how to take those power chords and create a riff from them.

I'll play it for you now.

Now that I've practised playing my power chords and I'm confident moving between them, I'm ready to have a go at creating a riff.

For our riff, we're gonna be creating a two bar pattern that repeats four times in each eight bar section.

So we're looking for a two bar pattern and we want to keep it relatively simple, so we don't want to use loads and loads of different chords.

We want to keep it fairly simple because you want a rift to be catchy and memorable.

So I'm gonna use a maximum of four or maybe five power chords, and I'm gonna try and create a pattern that I think sounds quite good.

To do that I'm gonna loop a two bar section of my drums, and I'm just gonna improvise as we always do when we're creating things, I'm gonna improvise some different patterns until I come up with some ones that I like.

So here we go.

(upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) So I found one that I quite like, which is this.

(instrumental music) I quite like that pattern there.

You have noticed that a lot of my patterns that have started on the A power chord, with the chords that we've chosen to use, A is quite a good one to use as your sort of home power chord.

So to start on that one will be quite effective.

That's not to say you won't be able to create an effective one starting on one of the other power chords, but that is a good one.

If you're deciding which one to start on, the A will often work quite well.

Okay, so I've come up with a pattern I like, I'm ready to record it now, so I'll just record it once.

That's for two bars.

And then I'll find a suitable distorted guitar afterwards.

Here we go.

(upbeat instrumental music) So I can loop that for eight bars, and I'm gonna quantise it.

My particular pattern there only used quavers.

So I'll quantise to an eight note, then I'm gonna put it onto a suitable guitar with some distortion.

I'll do that now and then I'll show you what it sounds like, the end product.

So I found a guitar that sounds more like a distorted rock guitar, and depending on which software you're using, you'll need to find, do a bit of exploring until you find the one that you want.

Let's have a listen to how my first riff sounds then, so my first eight bars.

Here we go.

(upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) See how you get on, create a two bar riff, keep it simple.

Use those power chords, and find a suitable rock guitar, and then that will be your first section and your first riff complete.

So a few reminders from those videos.

Firstly, make sure you practise finding the power chords on the keyboard and changing between them before you start creating your riff.

Keep the riff simple.

So only use up to four or five maximum different chords.

If you use too many, it'll just sound overly complicated.

You wanna keep a riff nice and simple.

And finally, make sure you loop two bars of the drumbeat while you're improvising your ideas before recording.

So try lots of ideas over the drums to see what works.

Let's check your understanding then.

So which of these would be most likely to be a suitable number of different power chords to use in a riff? One, four, or eight.

I'll give you a few seconds to work that one out.

So the best answer here really would be four.

If you use one power chord, you're not really creating a riff, you're just playing one chord.

It's not gonna sound very interesting.

And if you use eight, it's a little bit over the top, it's gonna sound a bit too complex.

You wanna keep it nice and simple.

So four would be about right.

It's time for Task B.

So for this task, you're gonna create a riff using some of the following power chords, A, C, D, E, F and G.

And I've put there for you both notes of each chord as well.

Your success criteria is that the riff is two bars long.

It uses a maximum of four or five different power chords.

It uses an electric guitar sound with distortion.

It is quantised.

And you have written down the power chords you used.

So make sure you do that, that'll make sense why we're doing that a little bit later on.

So now you can pause my video, have a go at creating a two bar riff and aim to achieve those success criteria there.

It's time for the second part of Task B now.

So we're gonna watch a video of this composer's riff, and I would like to know which success criteria could this composer work on? So I'll play this for you now.

(upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) Pause my video and see if you can come up with your answer.

So there are a couple of things that this composer could have done.

The first is that they need to make sure they choose a distorted electric guitar.

In this case, they were using just an acoustic guitar, which doesn't create that typical grunge sound.

The second thing is that they need to make sure the riff is only two bars long.

In this case, it was actually three bars long, which meant it didn't fit within the eight bar section that we'd already created in the drums. So make sure that it is two bars long.

Really well done if you picked up on either of those two.

Now let's move on to the third part of our lesson, which is creating a bass line from the riff.

In grunge, the bass guitar often plays a bass line based on the riff, and it does this by playing the root note of each power chord.

Have a listen to this riff that uses power chords.

(upbeat instrumental music) So that's quite a typical riff.

We've got a few different power chords.

It starts on that home power chord, which is A, and it's using a distorted guitar.

We could create a bass line by just taking the root note of each of those power chords and playing it on bass.

That might sound like this.

(upbeat instrumental music) So we can see there we've got the root note of each chord being played in the bass, where the riff is playing an A power chord, the bass is playing the note A.

Where the riff is playing, for example, a D power chord, the bass is playing the note D, and so on.

We can also change the rhythm to add interest to the bass line.

So in that example I just showed you, the rhythm of the bass was the exact same as the rhythm of the riff.

Have a listen to this example instead.

(upbeat instrumental music) So that uses exactly the same notes as the bass line that we heard before, but rather than just playing sustained notes, it adds some quavers and it adds some crotchets to make it more interesting.

So the same root notes, but it's much more interesting because of those different rhythms. Let's watch now then this first video, which shows us how to create a really simple bass line from our riff.

I'll play that for you now.

Now let's look at creating a bass line based on our power chord riff.

As we've looked at, often in grunge, the bass guitar will play the same riff as the electric guitar, but instead of playing power chords, it would just be playing the root note of each chord.

If you wrote down which power chord you used, you're just gonna work out the root note of each of those.

So if you used an A power chord, the bass is gonna play the note A.

If you use a C power chord, the bass is gonna play the note C.

If you didn't write them down, you can open up your guitar riff and work it out this way.

If I hover on that note there, it says Pitch A one.

So that was an A power chord to start with.

Then I went to C, then D, then G, then F.

Next up, I wanna find a suitable kind of bass guitar.

I've already found one that I like here.

I think this works quite well with the style of my song, and I'm just gonna quickly practise that riff, just playing the root note.

So it's A, (instrumental music) then C, D.

(instrumental music) And then G.

(instrumental music) Then F.

(instrumental music) And it's that simple.

So I'm gonna record that in.

Here we go.

(upbeat instrumental music) So it should match up exactly with the rhythm of the electric guitar, quick quantise it, and then loop it for eight bars.

So now I've got the bass and the electric guitar playing together.

Let's have a listen.

(upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) Now let's take a look at how we can develop that bass line by changing the rhythm.

Here we go.

One way we can make the bass line more interesting is by changing the rhythms. So it's gonna keep playing the same notes, but instead of holding them with the exact same rhythms as the guitar riff, instead we're gonna repeat each note.

At the moment, the bass riff sounds like this.

(upbeat instrumental music) Now, particularly for those longer notes, like the first one, (instrumental music) I could try repeating that note a few times within that space.

(upbeat instrumental music) And I could also try it with the longer notes towards the end of the riff.

(upbeat instrumental music) So I'm still playing the same notes, they still change at the same time as the guitar riff, but I'm just repeating them rather than holding them.

Now I've worked out what I'm gonna do.

I can get rid of my bass riff from before, and we're gonna record in this slightly developed more interesting version.

Here we go.

(upbeat instrumental music) As I was mostly playing quavers, I'm gonna be quantising to an eighth note.

(instrumental music) And I'm gonna loop it to last for eight bars.

Let's have a listen them.

(upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) So when you're developing your bass line in this way, make sure that you're still using the exact same notes as your original bass line, which was based on the root notes of your power chords.

And we're changing those notes at the same time that you were before.

But instead of holding them, we're just repeating them, changing the rhythm slightly to add a little bit of interest, and a little bit more of an exciting rhythm in the bass.

Let's check your understanding then.

Which notes from each power chord does the bass line usually use? Is it the root note, the fifth, or is it both the root note and the fifth? I'll let you work that one out for a few seconds.

And the correct answer then is the root note.

So usually the bass line will take the root note from each power chord and make its bass line based on that.

Well done if you got that one correct.

Second question, what notes would the bass play if the riff used an A power chord and a D power chord? I'll let you work that one out for a few seconds.

And the correct answer then is the notes A and D.

Remember, the bass uses the root note of each chord, so the root note of an A power chord is A, and the root note of a D power chord is D.

So really well done if you've got both of those.

For Task C, you're gonna create a bass line for your grunge song, and we're gonna use the root notes of each power chord.

Your success criteria is as follows, make sure you use a suitable bass guitar sound.

Make sure you use the root note of each power chord.

Make sure that you change note whenever the riff changes power chord.

So you need to change the bass notes at the exact same time that the chords change in the room.

And finally, change and develop the rhythm to add interest by repeating the pitch on the longer notes.

So you're not just gonna play the exact same rhythm as the riff with sustained notes.

Repeat some of them to add a little bit more interest.

So you can pause my video and give it your best shot at creating your bass line.

And the final part of Task C, we're gonna analyse this bass line.

What does it do effectively and how could it be improved? Let's have a listen.

(upbeat instrumental music) So pause my video and see if you can come up with your answer.

Here are some of the things that you might have written then.

It uses a suitable bass guitar.

It uses the root note of each chord.

It adds interest by repeating each note.

So those are three things that it does effectively, but it could be improved by making sure that the bass notes change at the same time as the power chords in the riff.

In this example, the bass notes were changing at different times from when the power chords changed, meaning that they sounded a little bit out of sync.

So making sure that they change at the same time would be the biggest improvement this composer could make.

Really well done if you picked up on one or more of those things.

That shows that you're really starting to develop your understanding of how to create an effective bass riff.

To summarise our lesson then.

A key feature of grunge and most rock styles, is the use of riffs.

Grunge riffs often use power chords consisting of the root note and the fifth.

To play a power chord, we remove the middle note from a triad chord, or we can find the fifth note above the root by counting up the scale.

Distortion is often added to electric guitar sounds creating a fuzzy effect, which distorts the sounds.

bass lines in grunge are usually based around the riff using the root note of each chord.

And that was what we were exploring in that last task there.

So that is the end of today's lesson.

Thank you very much for taking part.

I hope you've enjoyed it and have had a really good crack at creating your riff and your bass line.

And I hope you feel that you've developed some useful skills to have in your toolbox as a composer.

In future lessons we'll be carrying on building on this to create a full grunge song.

So I'll see you next lesson.