Hello everybody. I didn't know what to write about, so I decided, "What the hell, I'll teach the masses about some tips that may help with their songwriting." However, as stated by the name, this isn't for lyric writing, but rather, for original riff writing. What is a riff? Well, simply put, it is either an arpeggio, chord or some other type of progression that is not a "lick." A lick is usually a two to three second lead piece, connected with other licks. Now that I've filled your brain with some guitar lingo, lets begin. The following are some ways to go about writing riffs.
1. Write through inspiration.What the heck do I mean by this? I mean listen to a song you really like (or maybe just one that everybody else likes) and then grab your thunder - axe (the term I like to use meaning "guitar") and start playing something. Try not to look at the tab for the song though. Now, I want you to just play something, at either the same tempo and timing, start at the same starting note as the song (or something similar), play with the same feel or whatever you want. Just think of something from the song that you really like, and just sort of fool around until you get somewhere. My favorite approach with this method is starting in the same general area of the fretboard as a riff you really like. And yes, doing it this way means you will probably have to look at a tab, but you don't want to copy the song, so just simply glance at the tab, and then begin. Good riffs are something you have to fool around with to get good at. I'll give you some examples of riffs I have made that complement this approach (songs used for inspiration will be named first, then the artist, and then the description):
- Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns N' Roses) - one of my first and in many people's opinions, my best one, came from me starting at the twelfth fret area, and making an arpeggio riff with some distortion. Sounds sort of space-ish. This song was made when I was learning arpeggios.
- Black Dog (Led Zeppelin) - again, another riff where I started in the same area (technically known as "The Key" of a song), and created sort of a blues-ish, jazz-like riff, but still sounds very different from the original song. Not as fast paced as Black Dog, but a great riff none the less.
- Hotel California (The Eagles) - this riff was made from the "feel" of Hotel California, rather than using the same key, which in this song's case uses a capo at the fifth fret (the key of A). Great rock riff, that sounds as though people could dance to it.
