[distressed_romeo]

Which do you find easier to write?

Personally I'm wierd, as I tend to write riffs on guitar, and melodies on the keyboard or by singing them, but rarely the other way round.

Anyone else?

[metalfiend666]

Definitely riffs on the guitar and melodies my huming.

[Shawn]

Yeah, I do that too. I'll write riffs all day, all night but the melodies come later even while im writing the riffs, i'll write melodies. Sometimes, i'll write the melodies first.

[Drew]

I've been fighting to write melodies I'm happy with of late. I can come up with a half-assed riff easy enough (good ones are always challanging), but it's the lack of memorable hooks that's been holding my back on my album.

I need to listen to more pop, I guess.

[Mr. S]

i always find i cant come up with even a half decent melody on guitar, but ive always found playing keyboards is a great help becuase im not really a keys player i dont fall into the same traps i would on guitar, i feel a lot more freedom on keyboard... either that or i have a shower and mutate some pop song or another cool melody into something original

[Nik]

I'm pretty decent at writing chord progressions and melodies over them, but I've always had a hard time writing actual riffs. When I need a riff, I usually call up one of the other guys in the band

I only use riffs when a song needs that extra 'ooompf'. [shameless self-promotion] Otherwise, I usually write lush chord progressions comprised of 20 instruments harmonizing each other and painting a vast sonic landscape. [/shameless self-promotion]

That sounded pretty poetic ^ i'm totally putting that in our CDs booklet

[kung_fu]

Melodies seem to be easier to come by for me, which can be frustrating when the current goal of the band i'm in is to do a brutally heavy tune. It really depends on my mood or the time of year. Sometimes the riffs just pour out uncontrollably.

[Naren]

Riffs come so easy to me. I'm a riff machine. I can pump out thousands of cool riffs a day. And, if I've got a cool drum beat, bass line, or other guitar part, I'm inspired for even more riffs. Unfortunately, on the other hand, I usually don't come up with lead guitar melodies unless I focus on creating them (I can create vocal melodies pretty easily, which is coo'). That's the main reason I always try to push the lead guitar/melody guitar parts onto the other guitarist in the band. Oftentimes I'll even write the melody parts and say, "Play something like this... but make it cooler." and they'll be like "Say wha-?!" But they do it. Yep. Cuz they know I'll kill them if they don't.

[Durero]

I find it easy to write riffs, and easy to write melodies (by themselves), but hard to write a melody that fits well with the riffs I've written.

Oh well, more work needed.

[All_¥our_Bass]

You could also try turning a chord progression into a melody or vice versa.