Lick (music)

In popular music genres such as country, blues, jazz or rock music, a lick is "a stock pattern or phrase"[2] consisting of a short series of notes used in solos and melodic lines and accompaniment.

Jazz licks are usually original short phrases which can be altered so they can be used over a song's changing harmonic progressions.

Single-line riffs or licks used as the basis of Western classical music pieces are called ostinatos.

[3][verification needed] Licks in rock and roll are often used through a formula, and variations technique in which variants of simple, stock ideas are blended and developed during the solo.

[4] A lick may be incorporated into a fill, which is a short passage played in the pause between phrases of a melody.