[gaunten]

hey everyone, I have a problem, I've played for like 6 years or so, and started out with learning other bands songs like most people, and about two years ago I started playing in my first band (two bands actually).

Now, ever since I started playing in bands, I've tried to write songs and riffs and such, and I just have a hard time writing cool riffs, either I hate them after 10 minutes, or I realize I've pretty much copied a riff that already exists.

I want to write kickass heavy meshuggah style riffs, or fast deathmetal advanced shit. (which I have no problem playing) but most of the stuff I come up with myself sounds like crap to me. maybe it's just that I don't like my own riffs, or maybe I need to learn more theory, like scales and modes and shit, to make my riffs more different and exciting. same goes for soloing. I almost feel I'm worse at soloing now, than a year ago... tips anyone?
btw, I play mostly 6 string since my bandmembers are to lazy to bring their 7 strings and 5 string bass to rehearsals, but I am getting an 8 string soon to record crazy shit at home with dfh

[dream-thief]

1) Improvise around until you find something that sounds good, play around with it until it gets longer.

2) Find a riff that's already been written and change one thing about it at a time until it's a completely different riff.

3) Look through instructional videos or listen to music to find a small Idea you like, and play around with that as much as you need until you have something relatively original.


That pretty much the ways I write all mine anyway, Hope to be of use. Learning scales will probably help, but my friend Daniel knows no theory at all and can stil write awesome stuff, it just takes him a little longer to get the right notes.

[gaunten]

thanks!
I often use the second way(changing a riff bit by bit) but before I've changed it enough I've managed to turn a great riff to crap
the first way never seems to work that great for me, and the third I haven't tried that much.
one thing that annoys me is that when I'm driving or working or anything else that means I can't play my guitar, I always come up with killer riffs in my head, but when I get home I always forget them, or they don't turn out the way they were in my head, and the worst part is that these kickass riffs never come to my head when I actually am playing.

[courtney2018]

Go buy yourself a cheap digital recorder to carry around. I've got one on me all the time except when I'm in the shower....when I sometimes come up with not just great riffs, but awesome sounding complete songs.

Take 5 riffs that you like the most from other bands. Actually write down on paper the things that you like about those riffs the most. Maybe write down 5 things per riff. Take those aspects and perhaps add to that list something or several things that you'd like to try to incorporate into a riff - actually write them down too - whether it be a techinique thing or specific sound or whatever...think out of the box. Maybe you want your riff to be in a particular scale. Maybe you want to take an aspect of somebody elses riff and use that in your riff. Take that list and use them as a guideline to constructing a riff of your own.

To continue with that, look at the neck, close your eyes and touch random places on the neck. Write down what those notes were. Don't use the same key every time. If you want to force yourself into a different key just randomly point to a particular string and fret. Use that note as your key...force yourself to write around that key. Then for the notes in your riff maybe start off with 3 notes for the first exercise. Maybe do 5 notes for the next exercise. The notes that you wrote down, make sure that those notes are in your riff. It kind of "bookends" your riff somewhat....gives you a framework to work in.

Also, instead of concentrating on using a tempo that's balls to the wall speed metal, try different tempo combinations. Maybe do a slow-funky-blues tempo. Then try a typical 80's metal tempo. Mix it up. Choose different notes to accent. You can always take what you came up with and speed it up into a speed metal context.

These exercises should yield some quality riffs. If it doesn't then you're not trying.

[Naren]

I almost always come up with riffs when I'm just jamming around (but not with any intention to come up with a cool riff to use for a song). Let's say I'm sitting in my apartment with my GNX3000, one of my guitars, and headphones on. I play for about an hour and I come up with 1 riff that I really really like during that time. I play through about a zillion different variations of that riff and then pick the one (or two - one of my songs starts out with a riff being kind of death metal/thrashy at a high speed, then it stops and the riff is played over slower in a groove fashion with lots of slides and with all the open notes removed) that I like the most and later build a song around it. The other guitarist in my band oftentimes writes songs by stringing together different riffs that he thinks will go together. I'm different in that I usually start a song based around one riff and then I write all the other riffs based on how I want the next section to sound (discordant, fluid, thrashy, sludgy, melodic, punch-through-the-wall-agressive, or whatever), and I build an entire structure around the song, changing riffs that I think could be improved and adding new sections where I think they belong. I usually use the first riff as a basis for the "feel" and atmosphere of the song and don't think so much of individual riffs as with the song as a whole. I don't just want a cool riff and then an unmatched boring riff. I want the entire song's riffs to be balanced.

The best way to write cool riffs is to play a lot of guitar and play what you want to hear. An ability to imagine cool riffs is also important.

But, yeah, about 85-90% of my songs start out from riffs, arpeggios, chords, or whatever that I play when jamming.

[7 Dying Trees]

Jam around, and then start pushing yourself with tail endings, make each riff something that stands out on it's own in a way, be it pure simplicity or complexity or catchiness!

[Demeyes]

I find that even the most mundane riffs can be brought to life with the right accompaniment. Programming drums and riffing to that can help no end when trying to solidify a section. Adding synth or bass can help a good deal too, it'll fill out the sound and you can get a great indication of if it'll work with the band.
Jamming around a lot helps. If you still mainly play other bands songs, then you'll have a hard time creating. Spend more time just improvising. Its pretty much all I do when I play guitar and I find it helps when writing a new part.
Theory can help. I don't know if you know theory or not, but I find trying to write in a new key or by playing to a certain progression or harmonising a part can all make them more interesting and it can inspire new ideas and progressions you just wouldn't have thought of just messing around.

[S-O]

Messin around with DFH will help you out, it helps you think of cool rhythms.

Also, I posted in Mathcore scales a couple times explaining I come up with über cool rhythms and such.

Listen to a bunch of Meshuggah and Textures and analyze the music. Notate the guitar, bass, and drum rhythms. Take some of their ideas and mutate them into different ideas by changing some intervals, leaving/adding out/in a couple notes, moving it around in the key, etc...

Then take some old grandpa's guitar music and come up with über heavy riffs that follow (or disregard) the chord changes. I came up with a brütal version of Hotel California.

[abyss258]

I must be weird because all of the songs I write start by playing me acoustic, then throwing distortion on whatever I'm playing. I just happen to be very happy with the results, too.

[gaunten]

thanks a bunch everyone, I'll try thinking of your tips when I jam around. I've been thinking of getting DFH, but my computer at the moment aint up for it... getting a laptop soon, so I'll get to it soon enough