Ep. 27 How to Riff 2: Slashes
Part 1 Riff is on episode 3. In this series, we will talk about up slashes and down slashes. Previously, we talked about pentatonic scale five tone scale. In classical music, cadenza refers to a series of improvisational notes move around quickly. There are a lot of different elements for this kind of riff. What we now focus is called grace note, in pop music we call it slash.
d-r-m-f-s-f-m-r-d, this is a major five tone scale.
With grace note, dd-rr-mm-ff-ss-ff-mm-rr-dd, this is a little movement above or below the each note of the melody.
Love Song by Sara Barelles
"I'm not gonna write you a love song
Cause you asked for it
Cause you need one"
In terms of terminology, we would think that a riff sounds more edgier than a cadenza and a slash sounds edgier than a grace note. Those are just little baby movement of notes.
Slash Exercise
This exercise is good for agility in general, and is also good for vibrato, as they are both fast moving notes. Here are ascending grace note descending grace note.
hay-ay-ay-ay-ay
la-sol-la-sol-la-sol-la
eeee
descending
hay-ay-ay-ay-ay
sol-la-sol-la-sol-la-sol
Listening more to the pop music, focus on the specific part of the melody to find the gem over and over again, and we may discover grace notes.