Song writing tips (guitar)

[Astral Poetry]

Does anyone have any tips for writing songs, such as riff structure or just basic tips that would help me? I'm attempting to write some new stuff but, as the key word is, i'm attempting. So, if you could send any tips or anything else on writing guitar parts, it would be much appreciated.

 

[Lethe78]

I know that this is not much help, but, I find that the best shit gets written when you are not even trying to write it. By accident.

 

[Sunbane]

Does anyone have any tips for writing songs, such as riff structure or just basic tips that would help me? I'm attempting to write some new stuff but, as the key word is, i'm attempting. So, if you could send any tips or anything else on writing guitar parts, it would be much appreciated.

First, put down your guitar and try to sing/hum the parts you want to write. When you have something interesting, try to transfer it to the guitar. Usually you'll notice that you've used chord progressions that you never even considered before.

Then play around with what you have. Does it sound better with tightly muted strumming or with open chords? Would it be nice as a dual-guitar harmony in some areas? If there are monotonous parts in the riff, play around with the rhythm of it - try to play one bar normally and the next backwords, etc.

'bane

 

[Nocturnal Emperor]

iv written a few riffs and leads they usually start when im just sorta messing around sumtimes with scales etc and i play some thing that sounds good then i just go from there and add stuff to it.

 

[Astral Poetry]

I mean, last night I was messing around with a riff and I had something going for a while, but then i just couldnt figure out a logical riff that could follow it. Any help with that?

 

[Lev]

Sunbane gave cool advice about the sing/hum thing... thats what I always do, I'll have a melody stuck in my head and then just put it on guitar. Also, sometimes I put myself in the singers shoes, and try to come up with a good guitar part that could complement a nice vocal melody. Half the time though I just come up with riffs while jamming and just messing around. To get the next logical step to your riff, just sing (outloud or in you head) the whole riff, and then sing whatever will sound right after, it usually hits you then. Good luck..

 

[plfffffft]

Some of my best guitar riffs came from me fucking up someone else's song. Sometimes they wind up being a little derivative, but not enough to bring around a lawsuit And that's not how I do it all the time, but I'm saying it works for me. So, if you're ever playing somebody else's song, like in my case iut might be a Metallica song, or In Flames, or Slayer, etc. and you fuck up on a chord change, just go with it. see where it takes you. You could possibly come up with something really cool.

 

[nergal_S]

Follow I IV V
or i iv V for minor and somthing will come.

 

[tenuous soul]

Man, that's my biggest problem: coming up with shit to follow riffs i really like. The only answer I can give:
Time
it may be a shitty answer, but man, its worth it. Every now and then when i'm playing through riffs I've written I like, something will just, in a sense, hit me. Either through my fingers' dumb luck, or in my head, similar to what Sunbane had mentioned. Once you get soemthing in your head try to get it on guitar if you can, and when I can't get exactly what my head made up i can usually pick around until i find something that i like jsut as much if not better.
The more time you spend on your riffs and their compilation, the cooler the shit usually turns out. Anyway man good luck, and Rock on.

 

[DeTh^^]

lol its the worst when u come up with a great riff and then realise its already a song

 

[WarHead]

I mean, last night I was messing around with a riff and I had something going for a while, but then i just couldnt figure out a logical riff that could follow it. Any help with that?

Yeah,.,.that pisses me off when it happends,.,.first thing you should do is find out what key its in,.,.like examine the notes,,.,.then think about where you want the song to progress to,.,.like if you want a clean riff after it or something,.,.then find other music that uses that style and examine it and use it as a reference,.,..,,.,.,.,..,eh.,,..,.thats what I do,.,.,.but oh course,...,I frequently get pissed off at the stuff I come up with,.,..,,..,.,.hmmm.,,...,lol.,,.I need to go practice now

 

[nergal_S]

Good advice warhead.

 

[TravisW]

My best riffs have either first manifested themselves in my head first, or else came about by complete accident.

 

[surrealist]

you can write as many absolute goddly riffs as you want.
but if you can arrange them in a interesting way for the listener your doomed.

and dont just make it:
intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/outro.

have a listen to your favorite bands songs and listen to how many times
they repeat certain riffs and how many bars are the riffs played for, how long are the riffs?
are they played for 1 bar, 2 bars, 4, 8 ,16, 32, 64??

check it out.

good luck bro.:Spin:

 

[HarmonyDies....]

YOu can pick up the book, Guitar Zen by Philip Tushido or something. that would help alot.

 

[Bryant]

I used to create riffs to write a song. Now I write songs to create a riff. I know that sounds crazy, but the best investment I have ever made in my life is an acoustic guitar. Some of the heaviest songs that I have ever written (thrashy type stuff)was on an acoustic. I don't write exclusively on acoustic, but it gives me a totally different medium to explore because of it's limitations and in some ways it's advantages of using expression and volume that is more difficult to obtain with an electric.
What I do is create a melody with just a simple chord progression and expand upon it. It works much easier for me to do that rather than try to write complicated stuff and fuse them together. Once a simple melody is in your head and on tape (or hard disc) you can brainstorm while listening to it and create more complicated pieces in your head and then translate them to the guitar.


Bryant

 

[PhiD]

What I do is take a scale. Play it. Get a feel for it... try to understand the feelings or images it conveys. Then I usually construct chords and progressions from the scale.

[Appologies for my lack of help]

 

[Soul Conspiracy]

Bryant, you must be some kind of acoustic guitar salesman, you always say "invest in an acoustic, it may sound stupid, but...."

My advice is smoke some weed. You'll come up with stuff you never thought of before and even if it's shit it'll sound really deep because you'll be mashed.

 

[ChaosDeathcult]

since i play with a drummer, what i (we) usually do is this.
we'll have a part and won't know what comes next. we'll play the part, and from there i can think in my head what speed the drums should be playing for the next riff, be it slower, same speed, faster, half time, double time etc. so i guess we come up with the drums before the guitar. from then on its just trying to find a riff to fit the drums. i've found that this works really well, and since everything depends on the riff before it, it makes songs flow very nicely.

p.s. IRON MAIDEN LAST NIGHT FUCKIN KICKED ASS