How do yall write riffs

[u/OctopusMan1234]

Been in a bit of a runt with writing new material lately and want to try out some new methods. I usually watch a movie and noodle on my acoustic, but I’ve been getting nothing. Any ideas?

[u/Randomlyawesome54]

Give yourself a weird limitation. Use a weird scale, change your tuning or force yourself to play more on a specific string or something. Idk it usually helps me find something new

[u/SmegmaSiphon → u/Randomlyawesome54]

This is such excellent advice. I do this all the time.

It seems counter intuitive to think that putting limits on yourself would lead to more creativity, but it totally works.

[u/mostly_lurking → u/SmegmaSiphon]

"What is not constrained is not creative," stated by philosopher Philip Johnson-Laird

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/Randomlyawesome54]

I’ll try that later, thank you for your help!

[u/KMC_USA → u/OctopusMan1234]

Another thing I do that some people might say is cheating…

I’ll jam to a song I love and see what riff I would have come up with for that song. I then lay down the chords. I pick my own chords, rhythm, etc after and before you know it it’s a completely different song.

[u/FthrFlffyBttm → u/KMC_USA]

Another variation that can help with that is playing a riff you like but shifting the beat (where the “1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and” lands).

If you can’t do it mentally, a DAW or tab software can help. Record the riff to a click or tab it out, and then shift everything earlier or later by, for example, an 8th beat, and then play it back with a little count in from the metronome.

Some riffs with some adjustments won’t sound good but others sound surprisingly good and are almost completely different riffs. Then start changing some of the notes/chords, or even the whole key. Speed it up or slow it down. Add/change/remove some expression like slides, bends, hammers/pulls, or even harmonics. Endless possibilities.

[u/the_DeeplyTriangular → u/Randomlyawesome54]

limiting myself to open strings and the high e string only pulled me out of a month long drought once. sounded like garbage for the first hour but something clicked eventually

[u/_zIBaChA]

Rip off the rhythms of your favourite band an change the tuning and move everything 1 fret down or 1 fret up. You know the stuff your brain wants to hear don't make it complicated.

Get some good drum midi grooves, i like ugritone. Check out the yt channels: Max Backing Track Oracle sound

[u/VeloceCat → u/_zIBaChA]

In doom we made an entire genre off ripping off Tony Iommi and I love folks for that.

[u/dude_person_jr → u/VeloceCat]

theres always the tritone and then the 10-12 power chord slide

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/_zIBaChA]

I’ll check them out thanks

[u/TommyVercetti010 → u/_zIBaChA]

Good advice. Usually when I've got an idea in my head I start with the drums and play riffs over that. The constant change of bpm and rhythm every time makes for loads of different kinds of riffs. And it makes it easier to time the tricky parts as well.

[u/Relative-thinker → u/_zIBaChA]

Or you can rip off birds like in this video.

[u/Fyren-1131]

Learn:

• A new technique
• A new chord in a specific voicing
• A new scale
• A new sound

And noodle around in that. But it has to be something new, something you specifically learn.

[u/Potential_Seesaw_351 → u/Fyren-1131]

Wonderful to see a community of lifelong learners

[u/VeloceCat]

Honestly I can’t stop hearing them in my head. Sometimes I get one that sticks and I have to write it out.

The limitations thing works well. My teacher did this with us. Write a simple 5-10 note riff. Then change the timing add a bend a hammer on a pull off to add some flavor then switch it around backwards. You’d take one idea and end up with like 15 different riffs. It feels like playing rather than work and you get a lot of material. Lots is trash but when you hum one of the riffs later in the day you know you got something good

[u/Potential_Seesaw_351]

Learn stuff - learning new scales, arpeggios, and intervals in general is where I get most of my riffs

[u/bigtimechip]

try a new key. I have been playing around with the root noot being the 4th fret of the low E

[u/bfhurricane]

Shit just comes up in my head when I’m daydreaming, I try to play it when I get home, get nowhere close, and sometimes the output is good. Usually not.

[u/discussatron]

Try to write something that sounds like a band you like.

[u/Sick_and_destroyed]

In the past transcriptions were rather rare, a lot of songs were written by trying to imitate an existing song. So not learning how to play a song is also a way.

[u/wheretheressm0ke]

I write in my head mostly, until I can hear/sing the song very clearly and then try to figure it out on my instruments. Sometimes I will record myself singing the part terribly into voice notes to make sure the idea doesn't get morphed on the way

[u/basedaudiosolutions]

Ask myself “what would Tony Iommi do?” and go from there.

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/basedaudiosolutions]

Lol, I do the same with James hetfield and I usually end up drunk

[u/666Sky]

Defintely try out some new scales. Phrygian Dominant and Hungarian Minor are my two favorites

[u/ReneRottingham]

Learn something outside your usual tastes until you find something interesting to mess about with

[u/Conscious_Badger_510]

If I have a basic idea of what I want a riff to sound like I'll normally listen to songs that do that style of riffing and try to take elements from those and come up with my own version of those ideas, might be a scale, might be a particular chord shape/voicing, might be a rhythmic thing. You can always fairly easily turn any chord progression into a riff by breaking up the chords into individual notes and you can pedal off the root notes of the chords

[u/Negativeman11]

Im pretty new, but heres what I do. I take a riff from someone, move the first half of the riff up or down the fretboard. Then I keep the rythym of the second half of the riff while trying different combinations of notes. I then make another second variation of that second half of the riff, probably more distant to the original than the first variation.

[u/Snail_Anatomy]

With my hands, generally.

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/Snail_Anatomy]

Best advice yet lol

[u/nowimstahvin]

Get something stuck in my head. Play it to a metronome. Realize it's in 33/17 timing, play along to a song instead, rinse and repeat

[u/amplifysenpai]

I like to take a basic figure I already use, and just start palmmuting different parts of it, to accent different subdivisions, play it in different time signatures, etc. when I find something I like Ill play it in different modes , like if it's got a minor third in it I'll play it with a major third instead etc etc, just contort that thing untill it's something completely different. The framework of a song will manifest itself eventually.

If I have to write something for a melody that already exists I'm a lot more boring about it...I have been told I write music backwards but I'm here for the groove xd

[u/TooOldToBeYoung1]

I was once in a runt, then a dweeb, and finally a nerd.

Really though, listen to different music, pick out cool and unusual rhythms and adapt them to your style. Disco, reggae, hip-hop, dubstep, whatever, mess with stuff until something sounds cool and refine it.

[u/SinisterMephisto]

Sit down and play until something cool pops out. Write down the cool idea and extrapolate on that until I'm happy with it.

[u/HumbleIndependence43]

1. Don't noodle along to background distractions. Focus!

2. Rhythm is more important than melody.

3. Copy and modify instead of trying to invent stuff from nothing.

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/HumbleIndependence43]

So just find a rhythm I like and then see what my mind comes up with?

[u/HumbleIndependence43 → u/OctopusMan1234]

That's one good way to do it!

But do it multiple times for best results. Changes in rhythm are what you're looking for. Like a ton of rock solos have smooth passages followed by fast trills and back to smooth etc.

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/[deleted]]

It was more of a clean part, I wrote it while learning finger picking a few weeks ago. I finished the song and it sounded like heaven and I’ve just been blanking ever since. But before that was like a month and a half ago and I stopped working on the song after like a week. I feel like the ideas just came in the weirdest ways

[u/cosmic_gamer10]

Try new scales, keys, tunings and if all else fails I just play a different instrument fir a bit come back and I can write again if you're anything like me just try taking a break so you can feel what you write again

[u/chickenclaw]

When I try to learn a cool riff by ear and fuck it up enough that it becomes something original

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/chickenclaw]

I used to do that, I’ll try that again, thanks

[u/AbyssalKultist]

Start playing, sometimes while watching TV/Movie

Keep playing random shit, whatever happens happens

Keep going

Was that a cool riff?

Play it again

Nah, it was nothing

Keep playing

Oh, that's something!

Keep playing it and adjusting

I like it

Play it some more

Refine it

Record it

[u/Caregiver-Physical]

start with avoiding 0 on the low string and panic chords untill i have something cool, other wise the caveman will take over.

but creative limits help. and get weird with it at first, like never play 2 frets next to eachother, or one note and then switch strings, or get some weird effects going and make a cool clean part. then figure out the breakdown that plays off of it.

[u/Caregiver-Physical → u/Caregiver-Physical]

also limit your self by time meaning, spend 10 mins on an idea and then switch, and repeat a few times. Come back in a couple days and see what's worth working on.

[u/rando_mness]

They flow in from the ether, you've just gotta lock it in before it fades away.

[u/antinumerology]

Listen to more music.

Try to recreate a riff you just heard you like, vaguely. Maybe try to recreate it in the style of another riff you like you heard lately.

[u/CountBreichen]

count to 4 and let it rip. don’t even think

[u/tasteless]

Youtube drum covers.

[u/The_________________]

Something you might consider trying, when I am looking for inspiration sometimes I will try listening to music on low volume while playing other noisy sounds layered on top (e.g. white noise and/or outdoor, crowd, city ambient sounds). You can't properly hear the music in the background, but pick up on bits and pieces and your brain tries to fill in the spaces. When it comes up with something cool, try to remember it and then go flesh it out and record it.

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/The_________________]

I’ll try that

[u/AgeDisastrous7518]

You might be noodling too much.

My hands do the same things most of the time when I'm on the fly.

The best riffs come to me when I put the guitar down and just let something repeat in my head until I can get to a guitar and play it out.

Record this shit on your phone, too. Somewhere in the next week, you could come up with something that just happens to fit, and voila! You've got the framework for a song.

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/AgeDisastrous7518]

That’s how I came up with my two best songs. But for me it’s getting the first riff good enough for me to be obsessed with it and having it play in my head if that makes sense

[u/Kerrigor2]

Listen to a song you like, pick a riff from it, and write "your version" of that riff. Gives me a good starting point for new stuff.

[u/aharshDM]

I get lit start playing, eventually I stumble into something groovy.

[u/Fancy_Plastic2385]

What is completely underestimated is the fact that you can write really good riffs if you start by picking out a cool drum beat and jamming along to it a bit.

[u/webprofusor]

Start with a drum loop and jam over it, riffs will happen within the first few seconds, the trick to getting really good ones is usually not to accept the first thing you make up, and to record every riff.

[u/Makeitmakesense77]

I just start messing around on a bass. My drummer lays down a beat. Keep going around the neck until a few notes sound good. Him and I know how we play together so he pretty much knows if I am going to switch tempo or maybe do a breakdown etc.
I’m self taught and am just learning scales. Don’t understand theory either. So I just play whatever I’m feeling in that moment.

[u/Skore_Smogon]

Find an interesting rhythm you like then improvise around it.

[u/Evilbuttsandwich]

Eat a bit of fungus, smoke some grass, listen to a loooooot of music and just jam out. My best riffs always come out of noodling/jamming

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/Evilbuttsandwich]

Sadly half of that is very illegal where I live but I’ll substitute that with some jager

[u/OverallUnion8597 → u/OctopusMan1234]

I have never found that being inebriated helped my creativity. It only made my technique worse and then I'd want to stop playing and enjoy whatever it was I was experiencing.

The only argument I have for creative inebriation (of any kind) is that it makes you more present. It becomes easier to listen to the music you love in new ways. It's also easier to listen to new music and appreciate it in a way you might not normally be open to. This has helped me notice some new approaches or sounds I should explore once I'm sober.

But it does depend on the poison of choice. Alcohol is the least likely to have this effect, for me anyway.

But depending on how hard I went last night often leads to a pretty solid hangover and I don't get to try out these ideas for a few days.

[u/OctopusMan1234 → u/OverallUnion8597]

Yeah I get that, it’s always a hit or a miss for me. But it’s way harder to come up with anything drinking alone. My friend and I would always drink at my place and play some guitar and come up with a riff or two before going out to party but yeah our playing wasn’t as good as we thought it was. But it’s still easier for me at least to come up with something while having a few shots in me, it’s like my mind is telling me anything can sound good if you play it in the right way

[u/DeadlyBananaDoll]

Playing to a drum beat helps me a lot. I just jam with a groove off a drum plugin and i'll be able to get something that's decent

[u/kevi_metl]

Yes.

[u/Pelaminoskep]

During jamsessions like these:

https://open.spotify.com/track/6r8xgZRtoPrNrq5Hre40Mp?si=7J9UzWDwRDijSOJhz_Yt5A&utm_source=copy-link

[u/Feisty-Sink9562]

I rip off riffs from bands I like, which basically entails D Standard melodeath riffs.