Musical Termonology

Demon in Veins

New Metal Member
Apr 24, 2002
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Crawley
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Hey, I was wondering if you guys could help me out! I've been in Metal (mostly Thrash and Black) for about 7 years, but have never really had the internet or took much notice of musical terms/referrences (too old probably haha) and I was wondering if any of you guys wanted to help clear some of them up for me by explaining what they mean - or perhaps directing me to somewhere else I could find out.

  • Hook
  • Lick
  • Riff
  • breakbeat
  • bridge
  • power chord
  • blast-beats
  • the difference between melody and harmony
  • overdub

Thanx in advanced
 
most of those are kind of arbitrary. a hook is just the catchy part of the song, like the chorus, or a guitar lick, a vocal part,a structure, whatever. like the intro lead to in flames embody the invisible or soilwork millionflame. the parts that grab the listener and get stuck in your head. a riff is a guitar part. usually a rythm part. a lick is a lead line, or melody or something like htat. a melody is a melodic part of the song. like a vocal line in a power metal song. harmony can support a melody part by playing different notes to build of chord or a larger sound. iron maiden does this with guitars all the time. same with soilwork, in flames, whoever. even morbid angel, but they are more abstract.

bridge is a middle section of a song usually. doesn't work in more abstract or linear songwriteing, but it can be a lot of things. it bridges two parts together.

power chord is a root and a fifth chord on a guitar, sometimes with the octave. actually i guess i would be any diad chord. you could use root and third, whatever. usually its the fifth.

a blast beat is usually a really fast one two beat. there offset blasts, what i call the black metal blast, there are the cannibal corpse blast where you hit everything at once. whatever. just listen to suffocation or dark funeral or whatevr. its just something you have to hear adn you'll figure it out.

over dubs are a recording technique of just recording something after somethign else has already been recorded. you record all your rythm tracks say, and then you overdub the leads.

none of these are really set. there aren't real strict definitions for these, except maybe overdubs.
 
The Wanderer explained those well. I just want to give some specific examples of songs you've likely heard.

Hook, Melody, Harmony
Iron Maiden - "The Trooper": That guitar part that everyone remembers... the one after Bruce sings "whoa-oh-oh-oh..." etc. That is a hook, and also a melody. Now, notice how two guitars are playing it? They are playing the same thing, but one is higher pitched than the other. This is used to create a fuller, richer sound. So, harmony is the simultaneous use of a melody by two or more instruments (guitar-guitar, guitar-vocal, whatever), with each instrument playing a higher or lower version of the melody.

Bridge
Slayer - "Angel of Death": the guitar part that comes in as a contrast to the "angel of death!" chorus part.... it leads up to the part with the vocals "pumped with fluid..." This whole section is called the bridge. Notice how it is different from the parts of the song before it and after it.

also;

Overdub also refers to the practice of layering guitar riffs so as to create a wall of sound.

Blastbeat is a general term for a kind of drumming pattern. The bass drum plays fast and continuous 16th notes accompanied by the hat or the ride cymbal and punctuated by snare hits and cymbal crashes. If you listen to black metal and neo-thrash, then you're hearing blast beats. Most older thrash doesn't use them as much.

Finally, riff and lick are somewhat interchangable words for each individual guitar (or bass (or sometimes even drum)) part in a song. Riff usually refers to a rhythm part whereas a lick is usually a lead.