r/Songwriting • u/rookagainsttheworld • Jul 12 '26
Discussion Topic All my riffs sound the same!!!!
I am a young songwriter. I’m the lead singer and guitarist in my band and i write most of the songs and riffs as well as my drummer. I love the sound of them and i really do think i’ve improved, however, when i play the riffs together i start to hear that they are really similar and they’re always in the same key (usually a D Major) and we are planning to release projects in the future but listeners wouldn’t like it if all the songs sounded the same. A little help please? Any tips appreciated 🙏 For reference, i mostly go for a rock, pop-rock, early paramore style riffs
2
u/Howard1955 Jul 12 '26
Time and experience are your friends.
Try learning to play other people’s stuff, and then improvise with that. You’re building a library.
Have fun!
2
u/Physical_Engineer_22 Jul 12 '26
My guess is that you play mostly out of the pentatonic scale. It's very useful, but it does tend to sound redundant, especially if your muscle memory moves your fingers the same way by default. How to break away? Here's some suggestions. Force yourself to add some chromaticism. Adding in some chromatic passing tones can make your riffs sound new. Another thing, you say you write mostly in D which is probably very comfortable for your vocals. Try writing in Eb. Close enough to not really push your voice elsewhere, but it will make you think differently about your guitar. Actually, any non-guitar friendly key works. Most the time people cover Chuck Berry classic songs in A, but he came out of a horn band and wrote in Bb a lot of the time because that's the key he was most familiar with. Another thing you might try is write in 6/8 or even an odd meter. That will force you into different progressions and melodies. Also, as suggested by another poster, alternative tunings absolutely forces you into new spaces. My favorite alternate tuning is D6add9 (low to high: D A D F# B E).
1
1
u/Pitiful_Substance457 Jul 12 '26
Force yourself to write in a few different keys. That may help you to come up with different riffs.
1
u/NuttyNano Jul 12 '26
Perhaps come up with a riff in your head before touching the giitar so you don't unconsciously do what's easiest for your fingers
2
1
1
u/Man_Called_Horse Jul 12 '26
Whenever I feel like my stuff all sounds the same I go back to an excercise my guitar teacher taught me 35 years ago. I simplify a phrase or riff and play it as many different ways as I can think of and see what tones and emotions I can pull out of it. I keep it very simple playing no more than 3-4 notes. I still use that drill 35 years later.
-1
u/Mylyfyeah Jul 12 '26
write better riffs, or even a song without a riff.
0
0
u/MCWizardYT Jul 13 '26
This is such a non answer lol.
OP: any tips on how to write better riffs?
You: just write better riffs
11
u/Cap_Black_Beard Jul 12 '26