Hi, my name is Ayla Tesler-Mabe and today we're going to be looking at
how to write catchy riffs that stick in your head.
By the end of this lesson, we'll have explored some of the elements of some really catchy iconic
songs that we all know and love and hopefully, you'll be able to use these tips and tricks to
write your own catchy songs or even just write catchy guitar solos and parts for your band, for
you, for a jam you head to; whatever it is, you'll be able to write really, really strong parts
hopefully by following these tips. So, obviously, I don't claim to know the answer to this because
this is the ever-elusive question that has stumped songwriters for generations, really,
and sometimes it's hard to even figure out what makes a certain song a hook - pardon me - what
makes a certain song a hit more so than others. But, the reason songs are usually hits is because
they have strong hooks in them. That's why i got the two confused because hit and hook basically
mean the same thing right because a hook is something that grabs the listener it's memorable
it's catchy it's usually something people want to sing along to and when we go through all of these
songs that we'll be exploring today and applying it to our own song that we'll be writing together
hopefully you'll see that this catchy memorable hook is kind of the through line of the whole
thing whether you're trying to write a catchy song a catchy guitar solo whatever it is so in case
you're still a little confused as to what a hook is what it generally is is a melody a vocal melody
a guitar melody a horn part something that people can sing along to but it could even be a drum fill
it could be a catchy hand clapping part like and take the money and run by steve miller band
could be any of those and to give an example we're going to take a look at a very iconic song by
michael jackson billie jean and there's a reason that most people find themselves humming the bass
line to this song all day if you just hear it one time so in order for something to be singable it
needs to be accessible enough and understandable enough for people to be able to grasp onto it
their very first listen so let me give you an example by playing the opening bass riff
of billie jean that continues throughout pretty much the whole song sounds like this
and it's very simple but it's really catchy and memorable and even if you don't
sing the exact pitches you might find yourself just sort of like
you know finding the the rhythmic part of it memorable or just the feeling of it whatever
it is but even so once that song starts playing it's not uncommon to hear people start saying
so catchy right so a good trick when you write a hook that you think is catchy
maybe try playing it for a trusted family member or a friend or a fellow musician whomever and see
if they can sing it back to you so obviously this isn't an absolute requirement for a hook i don't
think you need to put so much pressure on this you know sing test let's call it and think well
if they can't sing it back to me then this must be a bad hook not necessarily but i think it's
worth a try because it usually is a pretty good indication of how catchy something is so what is
the importance of referencing a song like billie jean well let me tell you i think the best thing
you can do as an aspiring songwriter or a guitar soloist or whatever is to reference great works of
art from the past billie jean obviously succeeded at being an ultimate hook i don't know if it was
michael jackson or quincy jones who came up with that you know iconic bass line that everyone knows
but obviously because everyone loves that song decades and decades later it succeeded so there's
a lot to learn from it and keeping that in mind you know the singable accessible nature of that
let's try to put it to the test with a jam track that i created which you can download
down below but let's see what happens if you know i try a couple hooks see which ones are
single and accessible see which ones aren't and this might help give some direction as to how to
write a really catchy effective and memorable part threw an envelope filter on my guitar for
try something up all right so i'm curious feel free to leave a comment down below of which one
of those you thought was a better hook and as much as i'd love to hear your feedback right now that's
not possible because that's not how the internet works so i'm gonna have to keep filming the video
and i'm gonna let you know in my opinion i think number two is a more effective hook
so the first one i thought in isolation was a pretty cool line but right now we're thinking
about what is accessible what is singable so just think if you can't sing a hook all in one breath
without you know getting caught on your tongue or you know running out of breath before the end of
the phrase how can you expect that someone's going to be able to sing along or hum along
to your song on the radio when they're driving home or when they're you know hanging out with
their friends or at a party or whatever so keep that in mind think about the sync test
think about leaving space so that it feels like every note has intention in what you're writing
and that'll probably lead to a very strong hook so my challenge to you is to use the jam track
try some hooks out play them for your friends or family see which ones they think are catchy
and which ones you yourself think are catchy you know you can always trust your gut even if it goes
against what other people think that doesn't always mean you're wrong just it's nice to use
other people as reference right because if you're writing songs for people that's great so once you
have a hook that other people are singing along to you can move on to the next point point number two
make it repetitive in a lot of iconic songs such as billie jean that bass line that we've
been talking about actually repeats throughout pretty much the whole song it's kind of the
driving force and the momentum in the backbone of the whole thing so what i challenge you to do
is to listen to songs that you find catchy and pay attention to where that hook is in the song
like for example if you listen to billie jean you notice that this part repeats throughout pretty
much the whole intro all of the verse it cuts out for the pre-chorus and then it comes back for
the chorus so it's there pretty much the whole time so now i'm going to apply this to the jam
track and i of course challenge you to do the same but i'm gonna try taking hook number two
that i came up with and playing it along to the track and let's see what that sounds like
again
just like billie jean i'm going to cut out for the pre-chorus and i'll come back in with this
so if you're practicing with the same lick that i came up with here just try playing along to
the track try repeating it the way i did see what that sounds like and feels like but if
you come up with your own lick that you love that you think is singable try that as well in context
and have fun exploring so step or tip number three is to add more depth to the hook by
following the chord changes because you may have heard that the track i was playing over
had more than one chord in it and most songs do an example of this put into action would be
you know the ending solo of hotel california the very end there's that iconic melody that
i would love to play for you but i don't want this video to get taken down for copyright so
feel free to take a listen to that song and you'll hear that that iconic
follows the chord changes for quite a while and that's probably why that part of the solo is so
memorable but going back to billie jean this also happens uh you know with this
catchy bass riff we've been talking about a lot
at a certain point the chords change and this whole motif moves up a fourth because
the chords do as well and now to apply this to the track we've been playing over
i actually took the chord changes from lovely day by bill withers and in the chorus part of the song
you know we have our a major our one chord
and it moves down to f sharp minor that's one to six then it goes to four d major
and then we have an f major and e major and that f major comes from a different key and
it's part of y such a cool chord progression but the chord change i want to outline
is that d major because you may have noticed that the hook i've been playing seems to come from
f sharp minor pentatonic which is the same as a major pentatonic so it works
perfectly over those first two chords but then let's see what happens if we move up to
d major pentatonic for that d major chord let's see what that sounds like
wow so this is especially effective if you have a lick that's repeating throughout the song because
it can be a really unexpected and interesting change for the listener whether it's for your
song for your guitar solo whatever it is and this is just a cool way to keep that motif going but
add a little color to it so so far we've looked at how a lot of hooks seem to be singable accessible
they seem to be repetitive and that's a great way to make something memorable for someone right if
you just keep repeating it over and over again at a certain point they're probably going to start to
internalize it number three you could follow the changes with your hook and that's a great way to
add some movement and something interesting to your guitar solo or your song whatever it is
but i want to give you a fourth tip and this is especially important i think if you're trying
to write a memorable guitar solo or you know a hook with a little bit more of a live feeling
where it feels like you're improvising as you go and this is adding embellishments and again
if you follow just any of the previous tips for writing catchy hooks that'll probably give you
a really good starting place and you might not even need all four of these tips to get the job
done but i wanted to explore this because it can be really effective and to give an example the
song oishikomova by tito fuente originally has a really iconic flute opening that sounds like this
and it just repeats a few times
so what's interesting about this song is a lot of people
know it because of santana because santana does a really iconic cover of this song
and what he did was take the original hook from the tito puente version and then he adds
embellishments to it as the song progresses so then it turns into something like this
so this tip here is so useful if you want to transform a maybe more catchy pop feeling
motif into something that has like i said earlier more of a live feeling this is
commonly used in rock makes sense that santana would have used it you may have heard that he
you know adds all of these licks and embellishments throughout it that feel
really improvised but they never take away from the core integrity of the hook itself and so to
give an example of this put in action i'm going to play along to the track using the hook that
i've come up with and i'm going to try adding little embellishments throughout it to
maybe transform this into more of a memorable guitar solo or at least a hook with more of a live
feeling to it so just so you know what to look out for and what you could consider trying yourself
i'm gonna try adding some notes in between the hooks so i could add a little
extra notes like i did there still making sure to come back to that hook
you know at the right place just to never take away from its core integrity and another
thing you could consider trying is you know ending on a different note so for instance
that's the original i could try ending like this you might have been able to
hear there i ended on a different note and so that's an example of something else you could
try
cut out for the pre-chorus now let's come back in for the chorus
and then i went into a little bit of a guitar solo there that was not the point of this exercise
but i'm sorry i just couldn't help myself so my ultimate creative challenge and homework to you
is to give this a try yourself feel free to go through this exercise with the hook that
i created or another hook from another song that you like but then take off the training wheels so
to speak and try this yourself and just have fun with it there's no better way to get better at
writing than to just do it and you know use the sync test try to come up with something singable
and memorable try to take a motif that has passed that catchy sing test and repeat it throughout you
know entire section of the song or the whole thing uh try to follow the chord changes with it try
adding some embellishments in between the lick and the hook as well to see what that experience is
like for you so once you've done all that i'd love to hear what you come up with record it film it
leave a link to the video down below or the audio i'd love to check it out and i hope you have fun
the whole point of this is to have fun and be creative and i hope you have a wonderful day.