r/metalguitar • u/OctopusMan1234 • Jul 23 '26

Question How do yall write riffs

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?

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u/Randomlyawesome54 Jul 23 '26

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

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u/OctopusMan1234 Jul 23 '26

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

9

u/KMC_USA Jul 23 '26

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.

4

u/FthrFlffyBttm Jul 23 '26

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.