I almost lied when I started this article. The original headline was going to be ‘how to write a good riff’.
I wish I could teach you that, but the fact is I can’t. Writing a good riff requires inspiration, coming up with something musically unique. That can’t be taught. But I can teach you the characteristics of a good riff so that when you do have a good idea, you can recognise it.
Simplicity
One of the basic important characteritics of a good riff is that it is simple and short. Most good riffs are two or four bars long and don’t use many notes.
Interesting Rhythm
The best riffs have some sort of interesting rhythm. What counts as interesting? That’s a very difficult, but a good place to start is by adding a little syncopation. A few off beat notes can go a long way to making your riff engaging, whether it’s part of a well known clave rhythm or simply having half your notes off the beat, as in the ‘la-la-la’ hook from this song.
Marking out the root notes.
A good riff might take the root notes of your chord progresiion, maybe add a passing note or two, and use an interesting rhythm to mark out the chord progression.
Enter Sandman by Metallica is an obvious example – The chords are Em and Am, so the riff uses the notes E and A, with a Bb in the middle as a passing note. Lots of blues riffs also follow the root note of the chord progression.
For a little more depth, and because I’ve decided to experiment with new media, here’s a video on the subject:
Songwright.co.uk – Riffs on a Bass Line from Tom Slatter on Vimeo.
I can’t teach you how to write a good one, but what I’ve covered in this post, and what I cover in my next post, will hopefully give you a few new ideas for discovering your own riffs.
 |
 |
Related posts:
