Learn How to Play Piano Riffs / Licks – Add to Your Repertoire

Learn How to Play Piano Riffs / Licks – Add to Your Repertoire

Learn how to play piano riffs / licks and add to your repertoire of piano techniques. Knowing Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Boogie Woogie, Funk, Latin, and Country piano riffs will make your piano playing sound lot more professional.

Beginnings of Piano Riffs / Licks

Here’s a little bit of music theory before me move ahead with the explanation. Don’t worry it won’t be long 🙂

Heard of the word Ostinato?

In music theory, it means a musical phrase that is persistently repeated. And since this is music, you have flexibility to use it as part of melody or use it as part of the rhythm.

Lot of musicians in the 1920s, especially those who played more of rock and jazz probably felt that the word Ostinato was too formal. So they introduced the term Riff in their music vocabulary. Over a period of time musicians also started using the term Lick.

That’s how the terms Piano Riffs and Piano Licks came into existence!

A piano Riff / Lick is a repeated chord progression, or a melodic phrase, and can be used as part of the accompaniment or as part of solo playing.

What is a Piano Riff / Lick

If you have played in a band, I am sure you would have realized that playing the rhythms become monotonous after some time.

It would be great to know some amazing “musical runs / short passages” which you can play from time to time to make it sound more interesting. Piano riffs should help you out!

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Recommended Piano Books

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• Not Melodies!
  A Piano riff is nothing but an impressive sounding musical ditty / pattern that you use as part of an accompaniment or as fillers between songs. They are not recognizable melodies as such and are basically used more as a decoration tool on the overall song.
  
  
• Use in Public!
  It is a handy tool to have in your repository since it easily impresses people who happen to be listening to you. If you are playing in a band, it is even more important to be able to play piano riffs; you can use them during breaks or you can use them for your solo part.
  
  
• Build Repertoire!
  Though some of the riffs may look very easy to play, you need to ensure that you observe the correct articulations and dynamics, which makes it a challenge to play riffs.
  
  
  

Piano Riff / Lick Videos

If you’re not sure what a piano riff / lick is, then the couple of videos here will show you what it means.

Video showing you how to play a Blues Riff / Lick

Video showing you how to play a Funk Groove

You also get books on how to play riffs on the piano. Although these books can be used by beginners, most of them are suitable for intermediate level piano players.

With these books, you can learn intros and endings suitable for use in gigs, smooth-sounding progressions for fill-ins, and simple to more complex chord progressions.

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How to Play Blues Piano Riffs / Licks

Here are some videos that will show you how to play Blues piano licks & riffs, some of these are easy to play.

To be able to play these blues licks, make sure you learn the blues scale first. One you know that, these licks will look simple and will be easy to play.

Watch: Great Blues Riffs! – Blues Piano Lesson

How to Play Jazz Piano Riffs & Licks

These blues licks can sound good in any key. These Jazz piano licks will also help you a lot to improve your jazz solos.

Watch: Cool Jazz Blues Licks

Watch: Jazz Piano Lick Lessons

How to Play Boogie Woogie Piano Licks

Here’s how to play Boogie Woogie Piano Licks and runs. The variations sound great.

Watch: World’s Famous Boogie Rock Lick

Watch: Boogie Woogie Riffs

How to Play Country Piano Licks / Riffs

Here’s how to play country piano licks / riffs.

Watch: How to play Piano Country Rock Lick – Easy Lesson

Watch: Piano Riff for Country & Western Style

How to Play Latin Piano riffs

These grooves usually consist of a repetitive rhythmic pattern, generally found in Latin or Afro-Cuban music. Here’s how to play Latin piano riffs.

Watch: “Latin Riff 1” (Salsa)

Watch: Piano Riffs and Licks on a Latin Feel

How to Play Bebop Piano Licks / Riffs

Bebop is all about being able to play any chromatic tone on any chord. Here’s how to play Bebop piano licks / riffs.

Watch: how to play bebop lick on piano (2-5-1 progression)

Watch: Bud Powell Like Bebop Piano Lick

Classic House Piano Riffs

Here’s another example video of how to play Classic House Piano Riffs.

Watch: Classic House Piano Riffs

Watch: Piano Riff for a 90s House Track

Learn to Play Riffs on Your Piano

If you have an acoustic piano at home, and have not been practicing a lot, then you may find it difficult to play Piano Licks all of a sudden, considering that you may have to play it faster. Add to it the hammer action keys, and you may need more time and practice to play piano licks comfortably.

On music keyboards, it may be comparatively easy to play riffs, but then these licks sound much better on a piano (IMHO).

Nevertheless, you still have to learn and practice them!

As always, when learning new things, try learning each hand separately and once you are comfortable try both the hands together.

In general, you can use riffs to add to your repertoire and melodic ideas. You may even choose to use these rhythmic chord patterns for music therapy practice.

Learn how to play piano riffs for various styles of music like rock, blues, boogie, etc. and make sure you always have a handful of those in your bags of tricks. I am sure nobody will see you as a novice once you can play riffs.

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