What is a riff and lick??/

[reddiva]

Where do they come from.

[Christoph]

What do they mean, or how did the terms originate?

[reddiva]

What is a riff and a lick,what do you do with it.

[Mr. Vai]

A riff is just so to speak, a part of a song, i guess u could say, a bar of a song i guess u could say, lol never been asked to explain it

[Christoph]

A riff and a lick are basically the same thing - a short sequence of notes comprising a solo; usually begin at one root note and go to the next.

[Mr. Vai]

what he said

[Artemis]

I think of a "lick" as a piece, a section of a song or solo... it may only occur one time, though often it occurs more than once in a song or solo, not necessarily in constant repetition.

I think of a "riff" as a repeating piece, like, say, a repeating chord progression or series of notes, sort of like a repeating loop.

By that definition, I guess a "riff" could be a "lick" that repeats... but not all licks are actually riffs...

That's how I understand the two.