KEYS
RIFFS AND RUNS | David Pfaltzgraff
Have you ever been around a guitarist who has ‘ that one riff ’?
You know the one . The first thing they play once they plug in their guitar , after they ’ ve tuned up , during every break in rehearsal , and it seems at literally every other possible moment .
What any exact guitarist ’ s ‘ one riff ’ is , varies widely , but most guitarists it seems do have a single riff they ’ ve worn down into the ground , buried , and somehow brought back to life .
So perhaps it ’ s a good thing that us keys players might not fixate as easily on riffs , eh ? Nevertheless , I was recently discussing with a friend how interesting the difference is between riff-based guitar players and modern worship keys . The consensus of our conversation was that keys players often have just as many riffs , but perhaps aren ’ t even aware we have them to begin with .
What would it look like for us to practice , prepare , and utilize riffs and runs from the keyboard intentionally , instead of by chance ?
Let ’ s see if we can find out .
JUST RIFFING
To start , we must define what a ‘ riff ’ even is . A useful working definition for our purposes might be any relatively concise , melodic and rhythmic sequence of notes that is versatile enough to find a home in multiple keys , tempos , and ideally , genres .
Many common guitar riffs are built around the pentatonic scale , which , due to its lower note count compared to the chromatic scale , makes it less likely to provide undesirable dissonance when played over any chord in a key .
In my experience guitarists are much more familiar and comfortable with moving around the pentatonic scale than keyboardists , perhaps because of the scale ’ s heavy usage in blues , rock , and many other guitar-centric genres . It ’ s also quite easy to play chromatically on the keyboard , since the movement is linear compared to a guitar fretboard with its multiple strings and note positions , so that probably furthers any keyboardist ’ s tendency to favor playing chromatically .
Becoming more acquainted with the pentatonic scale and being able to finger it with both hands is a great skill to work on if you ’ d like to get more comfortable playing riffs and runs on the keyboard , because you can pull direct inspiration from the way the scale is used by guitarists .
PLAY ATTENTION
More than just learning a new or different scale , deftly utilizing riffs and runs in your keys playing requires that you pay attention to the ruts you ’ ve already fallen into . Perhaps you tend to always pivot back and forth between your thumb and index finger any time you play a chord in your right hand . That ’ s a riff . Perhaps not a groundbreaking one , but a riff nonetheless . See what I mean ?
The act of slowing down enough to notice what you ’ re already doing is the key to changing or improving it . As you do so you ’ ll start to notice