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Being retired now, I have the luxury of lots of spare time to ponder trivial things, such as this:
They say that if you start drinking many cups of coffee each day, after some months you will become addicted. They also say that if you use heroin as little as two times, you are already addicted. It seems to me that a musical hook is a mild type of addiction, because you like it and you want to hear it again and again. But how long does it take before your brain registers it as a good hook? Can it happen the very first time you hear it? Or do you need to hear it multiple times?
Most people think of a hook as a series of notes or words or even rhythm patterns that occupies part of a song, and stands out from the rest of the song because it’s more interesting.. This implies that such songs might be kind of boring until the hook kicks in. It seems to me that the boring part is the time when the writer uses words to tell some kind of background narrative. “She used to work in a diner. Never saw a woman look finer.” Then eventually came the hook “Somewhere on a desert highway, she rides a Harley Davidson, her long blond hair, colliding with the air she breathes.”
And here’s the question: What if your song has no words? If you just played Neil Young’s song as an instrumental, would his hook still appear to be a hook? To me, it would not be a good hook without the words. So what can I, as an instrumentalist, do to make my hook stand out?
Toward that end, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of some famous instrumental songs which include a good hook. So far, I haven’t come up with any good examples. Do you guys know of any?
And another question: Can there be more than one hook in a song? Many classic reggae songs have a very distinctive intro (an obvious hook) that is only played once, then the song begins and you eventually come to the chorus, which is yet another hook.
And another question: Is it possible that some songs have no distinct hook? There must be countless songs with no hooks that just ended up in the rubbish pile. Or alternatively, maybe in some cases the entire song is one giant hook. What about Ravel’s “Bolero” – where’s the hook in that?
Any thoughts among my fellow retired people who also have time to think about such trivia?
Sunjamr Steve
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“But how long does it take before your brain registers it as a good hook? Can it happen the very first time you hear it? Or do you need to hear it multiple times?”
That’s a very subjective question that only listeners in mass can truly answer. I can listen to a song and immediately relegate it to the boring category right away when it’s boring. We do this all the time. Then with the good songs, you keep listening to the whole song and afterwards say to yourself “that was a great song”, or “that was a good song”, or it was an interesting song enough to listen to again. Some songs you just know right away they are great, and others are typical or so so. We constantly make judgements about these things.
But this has nothing to do with creating one simple hook that can be molded and shaped into other variations and still have an underlying simplicity to it. Stop thinking complex and complete song and just start with a simple motif that you can work with.
“And here’s the question: What if your song has no words? If you just played Neil Young’s song as an instrumental, would his hook still appear to be a hook? To me, it would not be a good hook without the words. So what can I, as an instrumentalist, do to make my hook stand out?”
You’re over analyzing this like I did at first. The hook in it’s simplest form is a musical melody of some timbre or voicing of instrument. In our case, it’s guitar timbre. Yes, in the context of a whole song composition, there are many other factors involved in hooking the listener and in fact many hooks. In the case of the immediate challenge, I too thought I had to come up with some sort of never before heard riff that knocked me off my seat, but this is not really the goal. It is just to come up with a creative rhythmic string of notes and or chords that define the core emotion that you are trying to convey.
It could also be a progression that is delivered in a slightly different rhythmic way and a few melody notes to make it more interesting. Whatever you do, start with something simple and experiment with variations on that simplicity. If you start with something complicated, it’s much harder to come up with variations. There is beauty in simplicity.
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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I don’t think you can pin down what makes a song catchy to a single criterion, like riffs or lyrics.
For me personally, the overall impression of a song is what matters.
For example, when I happened to hear Joni Mitchell’s Blue album on the car radio, I was electrified by her voice, her guitar and piano playing, her lyrics, and her personality.
In the 1960s, catchy tunes were a given, because most songs had a memorable intro, an equally memorable solo, and an outro, and most of them stuck with me.
When it comes to the blues, my heart opens up when I hear authentic old blues; the opposite happens with endless, high-speed hard rock solos or metal music.
With Ravel, for example, I’m fascinated by the catchy theme with variations, which gradually and very controlled builds in tempo until the finale.
Dieter
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“I don’t think you can pin down what makes a song catchy to a single criterion, like riffs or lyrics.”
Absolutely, except we’re not talking about final song compositions overall, it is about hooks which they could be based off of but not the final song itself.
I could be wrong, but the more I look at each song (the great one’s) in it’s parts the more I see many multiple hooks in many voices or sounds that individually do not have the power that they do when combined together. So for the challenge at hand it is unrealistic to think that one little guitar hook is the song, it’s just part of the song that has a higher level of interest. A hook is more humble in it’s role and not the end all be all in many cases.
That very simple repeating riff in Gerry Rafferty’s song “Bakers Street” is a good example of a hook that probably wouldn’t sound nearly as great all alone. That complex intro was a composition in and of itself just to evoke a strange feeling of what could be coming next, and a lot of instruments were involved in creating that feeling, but clearly the guitar hook in that song is the sliding guitar riff that enhances the main melody created by the sax player. Heck, that guitar part sounds like an aural chainsaw light saber. I don’t know how else to describe it in words and don’t need to, except that it produces an emotional feeling in the listener that is easy to be hypnotized by. You only hear it three times in those first four bars after the intro, yet it gets repeated throughout the song a total of 21 times without any variation whatsoever.
Don’t over think it guys.
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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Hey Michael, I think you’re onto something here, with your concept of multiple hooks within a song. I can imagine an analysis of a song which reveals perhaps 3 hooks within, maybe mild, medium and strong hooks. In the end, AI will know the answers to all these questions and begin to create songs equally as good as those created by humans.
Sunjamr Steve
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Personally, I believe a hook is not a hook until it is part of something larger (a song). A hook needs context. Without a song or an arrangement, to which it is a part, a hook is nothing but a riff or a lick. A hook is a catchy musical phrase which is repetitive, ubiquitous and attention grabbing. It usually serve as a wildly attention grabbing intro (Layla, Smoke on the Water, Satisfaction, You Really Got Me) or some dramatic, ear-grabbing musical phrase which bridges a verse a the chorus.
John
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Personally, I believe a hook is not a hook until it is part of something larger (a song). A hook needs context. Without a song or an arrangement, to which it is a part, a hook is nothing but a riff or a lick. A hook is a catchy musical phrase which is repetitive, ubiquitous and attention grabbing. It usually serve as a wildly attention grabbing intro (Layla, Smoke on the Water, Satisfaction, You Really Got Me) or some dramatic, ear-grabbing musical phrase which bridges a verse a the chorus.
John
I just asked the great AI in the net and here is the straight forward answer.
Definition of a Musical Guitar Hook
“A musical guitar hook is a short, catchy melodic idea or riff that is played on the guitar. Its primary purpose is to grab the listener’s attention and make a song memorable.”
Characteristics of a Guitar Hook
Key Features:
Catchiness: The hook is designed to be easily remembered and often sticks in the listener’s mind.
Repetition: It typically recurs throughout the song, reinforcing its appeal.
Defining Element: The hook helps to define the character of the song, making it recognizable.What techniques can musicians use to create effective musical guitar hooks?
“Musicians can create effective musical guitar hooks by focusing on simplicity and repetition, ensuring the melody is easy to remember and catchy. Additionally, experimenting with distinctive rhythmic patterns and using techniques like call and response can enhance the memorability of the hook.”
Does a song have to exist first before creating a guitar hook?
“No, a guitar hook can be created independently of a complete song. You can start with a catchy riff or melody before developing the rest of the song around it.”
“A guitar hook does not need a complete song to exist first. You can create a catchy riff or melody independently and then build the rest of the song around it. This approach allows for greater creativity and flexibility in songwriting.”
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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