Coming up with riffs on the guitar

A

Artist Unknown

New member
I completely suck at writing riffs on the guitar. Everything I write is pretty damn basic. Sometimes a simple riff fits well into a song, but sometimes I wish I could write something really nice like the guitarist for creed, the red hot chili peppers, or metallica. My stuff is childs play compared to what they write and I've been playing for almost 10 years. Am I missing something? Anyone know of any good methods for writing riffs?
 
I am in the same boat as you. I think most of my problem is PATIENTS! I can't seem to sit there and work out the perfect riff without getting antsy and giving up. PATIENTS! Work it out note by note.
 
Doesnt it just have to happen, it's not like you can just sit down and come up with a fantastic riff. When you start to put a song together, you probably have a basic idea and the rest just happens as you progress. The way I do my bass lines is by playing the song in the background and play along until I get on to something I like. This may take many weeks. Since it is just me there is no rush. I work on several songs all the time. Another idea is to get a drum machine and play the same beat as the song and play along with it for hours.
 
The most important skill that I use for writing on the guitar is being able to play what I hear in my head. I "write" riffs in my head and then figure out how to play them most of the time. Other times, I am just playing something else and get a good idea. Learning other people's songs inspires me to put ideas to work sometimes.

Matty
 
Writing is work, and you have to work at it. YOu have a seed of an idea, and then you have to have the fortitude to sit down and hammer it out. Everybody wants songs or riffs that just pop out naturally and sound spontaneous, but 90% of cool songs or riffs are wrought through good, old-fashioned sweat.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
I find if I find something I like floating in my head, I pull it out and record it (on a cheap recorder). Then Ill put a base line to it, yes this can take weeks, then all go back and replay the original riffs with the only the base line and the original riff will usually change a little to complement the base line. Some times all follow this procedure many, many times. This can be frustrating at times, and not always a good thing.

Another good way IMO is to play in different places, I like playing outside in the mountains or where ever fits the mood.
 
Man this is my major problem with writing songs. What almost always happens to me is I come up with a cool riff while I’m just goofing around on the guitar. Next I manage to squeak out some type of chorus riff related to the original riff. But then I almost always get stuck on writing some type of bridge/refrain part that fits with the rest of the song. Then, after weeks of frustration, I just basically give up on the song entirely.

I have been trying something that might help. Recording on the PC allows me to take different guitar riffs and piece them together to see if they fit. The only problem is, since I’m new to PC recording, my cache of recorded riffs is rather low.

One thing that also helps me is collaboration. It doesn’t even have to be another guitarist. A good friend of mine is a drummer and he has been helpful in suggesting things I could do on the guitar.

But what I’m curious about are people’s specific strategies when songwriting. Everyone says it’s all about “sitting down and working on it” or “it just takes hard work”… but what do you mean by work? What exactly are you doing when “working” on a song?

Do you try harmony parts (same riff but different position), or maybe slight variations on the same riff. Perhaps writing a new riff but in a different key related to the key of the main riff—like writing a bridge part in D when the original riff was in Am.

What are the different things you guys do to “work” on a song?
 
Here is what I do:

Seperate "writing" from "editing" or "arranging" or "producing". They are different parts of the process, and will come in their own due time, but when you are "writing" you should tell the "editor" in you to leave the room.
Ok, now that he's gone, start throwing ideas into your computer. If you come up with something you think sounds dumb, get up, beat the crap out of the "editor" in you, and throw his sorry can out of the frikkin' room!!! He needs to be gone while you are writing!
Just start getting ideas into hte computer. Get as many as fast as you can. Brainstorm. Forget about guitar tone - it doesn't matter right now. Forget about double-tracking this or that just so it sounds cool. Forget about all that crap. Just get you ideas in the DAW.
Once you have some stuff to work with, start dragging clips around until you have something that flows. Copy and paste stuff to create choruses and verses. Don't worry about trimming the edges of clips or getting rid of pops. You are not "producing" right now, you are "writing"!

more...
 
Work fast. Throw ideas around. Once you have a song laid out, with parts all laid out in something tangible, then let the "editor" back in.
What you should be thinking about at this stage is how different parts work together and song structure. Does this song work better with 2 verses and then a chorus? Should the bridge go after the chorus 2, or after the solo? Would a 4th verse help the song, or slow it down?
If you find that a part just isnt' working, go to your big pile of raw ideas and see what you have. If nothing there works, throw the editor out again and come up with some new ideas.

Finally, after the "writer" and "editor" are done, you can bring in the "arranger" and "producer" and let them start to flesh the song out a little. Would a harmony vocal sound good here? Should we double this guitar?

Too many guys spend so much time thinking about the guitar tone and how cool it sounds to double-track and add chorus and delay, that they get bogged down in all that stuff and never finish a song. Others try to edit everything as they write, and end up with nothing but a big pile of "stupid" ideas.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
riffing to a beat

try this. write a short drum pattern with the tempo you have in mind and loop it continuously. jam with the beat. make sure you have the record button at hand. the drum beats will induce riffs in your mind which will translate to your jamming. not kidding. only technique I know that gets me a lot of good riffs in a few minutes of playing. The riffs you come out with will also fit together immediately coz you're playing them to the same beat. go on. try it!. ;)
 
Good info! I wish more people would contribute to this thread.

Another thing I've noticed about writing riffs on the guitar is that sometimes what I hear in my head is actually two guitar parts.

I recently did that with a riff I wrote on acoustic guitar. It was just an easy chord progression with a short single note motiff thing in between chords on the chorus. It wasn't quite working how I wanted until I added a distorted electric part. I just played a power chord and let it ring over the strumming acoustic and then played the motiff in between chords. That allowed the acoustic to keep strumming chords during the motiff part. I was much happier with the result.

Cheers!
 
What about taking something you heard somewhere else that you liked - the trumept line in a funk song, for example, and messing with it - change the tempo, use a different rhytm, turn it backwards, invert notes - & then use that as a basis for a new riff ...

I can come up with riffs - my problem has been to expand them into a song. What do I need to improve that? PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
 
Re: riffing to a beat

relliker said:
try this. write a short drum pattern with the tempo you have in mind and loop it continuously. jam with the beat. make sure you have the record button at hand. the drum beats will induce riffs in your mind which will translate to your jamming. not kidding. only technique I know that gets me a lot of good riffs in a few minutes of playing. The riffs you come out with will also fit together immediately coz you're playing them to the same beat. go on. try it!. ;)
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That's what I do too.Having the drum machine going helps me come up with riffs that groove.
 
Artist Unknown said:
I completely suck at writing riffs on the guitar. Everything I write is pretty damn basic.
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What's wrong with basic? Basic, as in simple, can be really good. The Rolling Stones 'Satisfaction' riff, simple and great.

Artist Unknown said:
Sometimes a simple riff fits well into a song, but sometimes I wish I could write something really nice like the guitarist for creed, the red hot chili peppers, or metallica. My stuff is childs play compared to what they write
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Enjoy THEIR music and take what you can from it, but you are YOU not them. Don't get frustrated because you don't write exactly like the Chillis. Truth is too many 'new' bands sound exactly like what you've heard before! Try to develop your own style glorying in your 'simple' guitar parts.

Artist Unknown said:
I've been playing for almost 10 years. Am I missing something? Anyone know of any good methods for writing riffs?
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Trouble I find with a lot of musicians is that they are more interested in guitar riffs and tones and miss the big picture - its all about a groove and a song! You don't need to be a superb Joe Satriani guitar player to come up with a great song, conversely just because you can play like him doesn't mean you can write a cracking tune.

It took me a long time to realise that. After all, if I want a superb guitar solo in my song I can go and ask a good musician to overdub it for me, nio problem. If I don't have a good song/tune I can't ask a musician to write it for me can I!!

Try not to get hung up on riffs and such - if you can do simple ones that's fine IMHO.
 
Jake's riff invention method:
1: I play a good feeling drum beat and loop it.
2: I just jam every possible rhythmic and harmonic thing I can fit into the beat until some odd combo of chords gives me a feeling.
3: I try to grab the riff by the ass hairs and make it mine.
4: I forget about it because my best riffs never seem to go anywhere in a song.

Oh well, it was fun.;)
 
writing good riffs easily is a matter of practicing writing riffs. monkey around until you hear something you like. in my experience, this is easier to do with open tunings-a majority of the cool riffs i've written in the last year have been in DADGAD-while they tend to make me bias my songs toward d (which i don't mind-i love d!), they sound GOOD, and that's what counts. if you know anything you like the sound of (redundancy time, boys and girls!), play it slower, faster, add breaks, change the time signature, etc. have you developed your ear for music at all? if not, i suggest you do-i would never be able to write anything if i couldn't HEAR what sounded good, by myself, with just my guitar. if you can identify intervals and chords by ear, just start paying attention to the mathematical relationships between notes in various chord progressions, and you should start to have some insight.
 
Artist Unknown said:
I completely suck at writing riffs on the guitar. Everything I write is pretty damn basic. Sometimes a simple riff fits well into a song, but sometimes I wish I could write something really nice like the guitarist for creed, the red hot chili peppers, or metallica. My stuff is childs play compared to what they write and I've been playing for almost 10 years. Am I missing something? Anyone know of any good methods for writing riffs?
Click to expand...

If yer a fan of Joe Satriani, than take a page from his experience... he once said the reason he's able to do what he does is because he took the time to learn as many chords as he could. Learn all the variations of the chord 'A' on the fret board then move on to another and another etc...

I found it quite useful... I still have a way to go, but I've learned to break the chords down to their core notes and I can now come up with some slightly unique rifs now...

Also, one of the all time great Blues masters Mr. BB King himself stated he regrets not taking the time to learn more about chords than he has... he found that it limits his ability to be more creative.

- Tanlith -
Webmaster: Super Loop Library
 
Hey Tanlith,
Did you catch the thread on collaborations? I remember you were working on a collaboration website...just wondering how it turned out.


bd
 
get a drum machine.

mutate a well known riff into somethin unrecognizeable...like Cobain did to More than a Feeling.

get a nice tone. Obviously you'll write a different riff with a clean tone than you would if you had a driven sustaining tone. Sometimes tone and sound WILL dictate what you write.

document everything. Record all your riffs and catalogue them. Then when you're stumped you have a wealth of material to choose from. It can avoid the frustration you're currently experiencing.

try something different. Tune the guitar differently.

Personally, I record everything I come up with. IN my car I have a cassette recorder so that when a lyric melody line hits me, it's instantly documented.

I heard an older musician once tell me that being old meant that he's forgotton more riffs than I've wrote yet.

you never know when inspiration will strike. And some of you have unknowingly forgotton or thrown out ideas that later could have been hits.

doesnt it suck knowing that you've lost a riff or idea that potentially could have changed your life?

I got a casssete recorder in the car after I thought that one over.

Never, EVER throw away the riffs/songs you've written. Always keep it around.
 
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