so one of the most common questions I get is Ola how the f%&€ do you write
your riffs and the reason I haven't really made a video on this is because
I have no friggin clue how I come up with riffs, I did a video on how I write
leads because I kind of know how I do it and click here
if you want to see that approach, but for this video I've actually thought long
and hard how I go about writing riffs and just as a disclaimer for snowflakes
this approach is how I look at riffs and how I go about writing them, it might not
apply to you or the type of music you like so take
all of this with a grain of salt okay but hopefully this video might inspire
you to change up your writing or try something new who knows, what's important
is that you find an approach that works for you, I kind of feel like I'm the
responsible parent right now here to tell you that you don't have to listen
to my shit, first of all I always thought that a very crucial part of why it is
relatively easy for me to write riffs has been because I've always been
writing riffs, like since ever I started playing guitar so about 20 years or
something like that so it's basically the same as practicing speed, you also
need to practice writing and the more you practice the quicker you will come
up with riffs, it's just simple as that, anyway for the purpose of this video I'm
going to break down the different ways that I come up with riffs but let me
explain to you what I consider makes a good riff now one of the first riffs I
ever heard that really affected me in the sense that like this is a really
good riff it was the Pantera riff for the song Walk that goes like this
now what makes that riff rememberable and why is it good first of all it's
easy, it's easy to get a grip off even for non guitar players and it sticks in
your head and you never forget it, it has that awesome groove you know that make
you nod your head also it has a small element to it that makes it unique and
it's that simple bend you know,
rather than going...
I mean all these elements to
this simple riff is what makes it great so when I'm writing riffs I'm trying to
go for the same type of approach I try not to overwork the riff I try to make
a riff that sticks and I try to find a groove now there are a couple of
different ways for me to write riffs and the first approach which is what I've
always been doing is just to sit and have fun with the guitar, fool around and
just randomly play and very important that you take your time with this allow
yourself to be bored with it, sit for hours I promise you, if you
sit down for two hours you might at least make one great riff and with this
if possible record yourself as well press record and just noodle around like
for instance I have Logic Pro X that I use but you have Cubase, Pro Tools or
whatever your simple program that you can record yourself with and just sit
and record yourself playing
I mean I start recording and if I come up with something that's cool I just cut
it out like this maybe I make it a different color who knows okay green
means okay so I basically just cut out that part and maybe I rerecord it better
or whatever and I mark it in another color and that way you won't lose those
ideas that comes randomly and after this I saved that riff into a folder of riffs
so let me show you real quick I have here, so in Dropbox for instance I have
a folder called "Riff and Ideas" and it's very simple here I categorize riffs so
whenever I'm writing a song that needs a riff and I feel like I can't really make
anything up at the moment, I can go to my riff library and I can quickly find something that
would fit and it might not be a sexy approach but this is a very efficient
approach to writing songs for me okay now the second way of me writing riffs
and this comes from me playing together with a band is to jam out riffs together
with a drummer and when I was a teenager I would go with my drummer to the
rehearsing room and just jam and with that you would write riffs and ideas in
a totally different manner than if you were by yourself now unfortunately I do
not have the time anymore to go jam with a drummer which of course is a shame but
you know how this you know you have family life you have work you have video
games you know but what I do instead is that I try to emulate this type of jam
session with using a drunk track in Logic Pro X so what I do is that I load up a
software drummer like this and then I just wait for it to load maybe
*hotdogs*
yeah okay so I find a groove maybe would have slightly more impressive drumkit so
I make a drum pattern or just find one in Superior Drummer 3 here and I
just jam along to it until I come up with something cool
okay very stupid but you know at least you're playing something because you
have to play along with those drums and it forces you to kind of come up with
ideas basically and it's basically you're just improvising up riffs and
this just gives a totally different vibe of riff and usually the more simple
riffs are written this way for me so if you
don't have a drummer to jam with just load up a drum track and jam to that it
works I promise okay. now those are the main ways that I go about writing but
you also have to remember that why one riff can be very powerful you can add
more of a dimension if your second guitar plays something different you can
add a harmony or a dissonant chord or just a total of different riff that
accompanies the main riff and the possibilities are endless with this and
the most simple riff can become absolutely monstrous if it's accompanied
by second riff a great sample for this is a part of the song The Haunted song
Brute Force, I have this really cool picking riff that goes like this
very simple and while that riff is cool by its own , I decided to add a
very simple pattern of chords underneath that riff that goes like this
very simple but together let me record that real quick
*f€%cked up sound I know*
okay let me record a second guitar
that simple small little detail makes the whole riff sound even more eerie and
more haunting in that way no pun so when you have that awesome
riff try to you know change it up can you make it better can you add something
to make it even better so think about that and just be careful not to overwork
it if you just layer a lot of harmonies and riffs and guitars together it will
turn into mush after a while and if you feel like nothing is coming out you're
just sitting there and you're playing and you know no good riffs coming out of
your system and even if you use the approaches that I mentioned and not a
single good riff is coming out of your fragile fingers a simple trick it's just
to listen to new music that you haven't heard or old music that you like for
that matter I mean listen to the music that you enjoy and get inspired and I do
that all the time when I'm in a rut and I feel like I'm not riding any good
riffs and it really inspires me to you know find something new and you know
think out of the box it's really good for you okay okay I hope some of these
approaches might give you an idea or two and like I said in the beginning I think
it's just as important to practice this just as much as it's important to
practice any other guitar technique that you want to improve eventually it will
be easier for you to make up riffs and songs and just have a bit of patience
okay and please if you enjoyed this video subscribe ok I've noticed that
half of my viewers today are non subscribers what the hell is up with
that don't miss out subscribe okay be a nice
guy but before leaving I would like to give you my secret weapon of riff writing
this approach is something that was brought down from generations upon
generations of riff writers and it's something we riff writers don't talk
about that much but I can assure you that 80% of all the great riffs you love
are written using this approach and now I'm passing
secret to you guys so let me show you
yes all right let's see
not too bad