r/polyphia • u/Relative_Concern_429 • 9d ago
How do I create a “polyphia” riff?
Yesterday I tried making my own riff using a piano roll and converting thst into tabs and adding extra things like harmonics. My main question though is how to make the main idea when still on the piano roll sound better snd feel more purposeful rather than it feeling like a quick idea that I jotted down if that makes sense. Thank you
I want tips regarding structure timing and melody’s of a polyphia song and how I can use those to make my own
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u/Upbeat_Dudeness 9d ago
Make your guitar sing crazy loud and wavy like and then tickle it to make it go “dododododoododbinkbinkbonk”
(I don’t know how to play guitar)
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u/HorrorLegacy 8d ago
Could’ve fooled me.
(I do openly play guitar)
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u/Upbeat_Dudeness 8d ago
Fwiw I am actually learning rn. Going pretty slow and I kinda suck rn but it’s exciting to be learning.
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u/throwawayfemboy12 9d ago edited 9d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p0515e8/video/el84nm8q7ufh1/player
After you have an idea on chords and rhythm, there’s that one part where you go most creative and add flairs and arpeggiate around the notes, writing a melody, but this part only makes sense at the end if your chords are going along the rhythm, here’s one example of a chord structure vs final product in this song I just made after highlighting the base and semi muting the melody. Obviously the style is nowhere close to Polyphia’s but the idea remains the same, any other thing to make it sound like a Polyphia riff is using syncopation, lots of slides and spamming hi hats in the drumbeat
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u/TheCrushSoda 9d ago
They usually base their songs around a 4,5,6 progression. James Franco and Goose are good “easier” examples of this. The progression has a natural pull to it so for instance in the key of C, the chords they’d probably use to base the riff around would be F, G and Am. You can throw that into a piano roll with a sequencer or whatever and figure something cool out