I know a little about "call-and-response' licks... looking for examples


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05-26-2008, 03:11 PM
I've read a bit about the call-and-response approach to Blues guitar soloing. There was a UG article that recommended playing a short lick, letting it hang on a tense note and to reply to it with another lick.

Could someone give an example/s please of what might be termed:

-- a "call" lick
-- what is meant by ending on a "tense note"
-- a "reply" lick

I'm mostly conversant with the A minor Pentatonic Blues scale... Many thanks.

05-26-2008, 03:22 PM
It's all here, self-explanatory, in this song:


ze monsta
05-26-2008, 04:32 PM
Call and response is best described as a conversation. In the case of Mannish Boy by Muddy Waters, Muddy's singing is making a statement this is the call, and then there's a guitar lick or riff in reply, this is the response.

A lick is a riff, usually improvised. So for example, you might say "On Black Magic Woman, Peter Green plays some sweet licks." Which would be true! :p:

I've actually never heard of the term tense note, but I'm guessing it's a note that you really emphasise! Usually a bend I suppose?

I think the way to explain this tense note thing would be to play the riff in Mannish Boy or Hoochie Coochie Man, and then play a lick (in the E Minor Pentatonic found here - http://www.freeguitarvideos.com/LJ_R1/LJ10c.html) for one round of call and response (we'll call it CnR for short :p: ) with the lick ending on the 14th fret of the G string being bent up to the 16th fret, then a call of

E|0-5-0-3-0 (just an easy example) -----if you wanna do this in A, just capo the 5th fret and move it all up 5 frets. Or of course, play it on the A string. :rolleyes:

Then a response again from that bend with a lick leading to the root note.

The CnR is a very simple way to write a blues song, and done effectively it is great. It's one of the best ways of telling a story, used to great effect by Muddy Waters, unlike his friend and rival Howlin' Wolf who's songs (even though both's music was mainly written by Willie Dixon) were usually based around a more complicated lead riff rather than the droning riffs of Muddy Waters' numbers.

I hope it makes sense. Excuse any mistake.



05-28-2008, 09:57 AM
Thanks for the advice... very useful.

05-30-2008, 01:13 AM
Call and Response isn't limited to blues.

John S. By Sonny Rollins is a good example of the technique used in Jazz.

Essentially, it is self explanatory. A musical statement is made, and it is answered. It can either be in a solo context or an ensemble context. John Lee Hooker is a prime example of this. In his song It Serves Me Right To Suffer, after every spoken line, he put a nice little lick at the end.

Oh, and a lick is an individual musical phrase, while a riff is a lick repeated over several measures, usually for the duration of the song. A hook, if you will. For example, the riff in Howlin Wolf's song Smokestack Lightning. It's one simple riff based off of 4 notes, played for the whole duration of the song.

Other than that, gus answered pretty well.