How to Write a Riff in 6 Steps

Whenever the subject of writing or playing riffs comes up while talking to students, I always light up. To this day, riff writing remains the ultimate pastime for me and has been the catalyst for countless songs. (Both finished and….y’know, those other ones.)

If you’re a guitar player, then you already know that writing a great riff can (and frankly should in my opinion) serve as one of if not the main hook of your song for which everything else is built around to support. Classic bands like Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin come to mind as I think of this songwriting approach. This groundwork undoubtedly influenced the later crop of riff writers the likes of Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Lamb of God and…Man, just countless others! Too many to mention here!

In this article, I’m going to walk you through a very systematic way to kickstart the writing process. Specifically, I’m going to show you in six steps how to write a riff. This is not the only way to write music but think of it is something to keep in your back pocket if you ever feel like you’ve hit a wall with your own songwriting methods or are simply looking for some new inspiration.

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Before we begin though, let’s define what a riff actually is.

What is a riff?

In very general terms, a guitar riff is a short, melodic and often catchy repeating line or pattern serving as a key element of a song’s structure and sonic identity.

Riffs vs Licks

Though it’s debatable in the guitar community of what constitutes a guitar riff verses a guitar lick, generally speaking, guitar riffs tend to be played on the lower strings (for example, the low “E” “A” and “D” strings respectively) in lower and mid ranged registers. A guitar lick however is generally considered to be played on the higher strings much further up the neck. Though both riffs and licks share similar characteristics in that they’re both short memorable phrases, what sets them apart from each other is their respective functions.

To keep it simple, think of it like this…

– A guitar riff functions as the key element of how the song is built. It’s the focal point of a piece of music. It is structured and intentional.

– A guitar lick is used as a building block for solos and or melodic lines that serve to enhance the energy and add flavor to the song. Licks can be more improvisational in nature because of this.

In other words…

– Riffs provide structure of a song

– Licks add decoration to the song.

Okay! Now that we’ve defined what’s what. Let’s write a riff!

Lay out your tools

There are so many different approaches to riff writing and obviously having a real guitar on hand is ideal, but you’d be surprised at what you can do on the computer. Today I’m going to be showing how I approach writing riffs working inside of Logic Pro X using a few handy tools to help streamline the process. This is one of my go to’s when traveling or when I have an idea that I need to capture immediately, and a guitar is not within reach.

That having been said, all the steps provided below will give you will need to get started. Grab a note pad, a guitar and something to help keep time.

6 Steps to Writing a Guitar Riff from Scratch

1. Find the heartbeat
Take your time to decide a rhythm, feel and tempo that inspires you and take down all the information. As guitar players, the reality is that we are dependent on rhythm so whether you find a steady beat from a metronome, a real drummer or a drum sampler, the mighty groove is going to help dictate how we flush out our riff ideas. Start by asking yourself the basics on the tempo of the song: Do I want a slow riff or fast one? Simple enough right? This may seem overly simple but answering this simple question is enough to get you to take action. To go from “I have no idea what to write” to “Oh cool! I’ve got something going!” It is this taking of the action that takes you out of a “thinking” state into a “doing” state which will prompt more ideas to follow.

– Next, ask yourself what kind of rhythm you want the riff to have? Is it in 4/4 or an odd time signature?

– Next, ask yourself what kind of feel you’re looking for. Do you hear something in straight time? Or does the riff have a halftime feel? Maybe you’re looking to experiment with a shuffle?

These can all dramatically affect the outcome of the riff. Tap your foot, bob your head, set the rhythm and tap the tempo that feels the best to you in a metronome app.

2. Find or make a drum groove
Though I love using Ez drummer personally for this purpose, today, I’m going to be using loops taken from the beef and potatoes sample pack from Luke O Kelly. This will help me save time and stay focused on writing the guitar parts instead of fashioning a drum beat together from scratch as these are all pre-played (and quite tasty I might add!) Check them out at the bottom of this page.

3. Decide on a key of your song or riff idea and what scale to use
Is it going to be Major? Minor? Pentatonic? Harmonic Minor? Etc. (Or what kind of root note you’re going to base your riff on.) This doesn’t have to be set in stone. If you’re unsure of what scale to use, start with just one note. Find a tonal center for your riff. In other words, find a root note for all the other notes in your riff to revolve around.

Because this rhythm has a super funky groove going on, I’m going to base my riff around the root note of G. As mentioned before, this root note will be my tonal center and allow me to freely explore different note choices by feel. If I get stuck, I’ll pull from a specific scale.

4. Follow the groove
In this part of the process, we want to grab it any low hanging fruit as much as we can so let’s start by just improvising a simple bass line that locks in directly with the groove. Specifically, I’m going to focus on following the kick drum pattern only. Even if we don’t like the sound of the outcome, let’s just take action first and see what happens. Always trade expectations for curiosity when beginning to write music and just get into a state of doing.

5. Create contrast
Okay so I’ve got my bass line, I’m happy with that. Now that I’ve listened back a few times, I will wind up asking myself “What would happen if I did the opposite now and wrote the guitar riff that is contrasting the rhythms of the drum and bass? What I wound up coming up with is a riff that decorates the bass line with some additional 8th and 16th notes taken from the G pentatonic minor scale.

As a result, I have a first draft of something that sounds more interesting to my ear. It sounds more of like a conversation between guitar and drums.

6.Listen!
Sit back, push play and passively observe what the music is saying to you. What is the feeling you get from the riff? Is it tense? Or resolved? This can lead to call and response riffs. What note in the scale does the melody or riff end on? Is it relaxed? Or does it give you the feeling like it needs to end?

Going back to my example, I’ll take that first draft riff and continue to explore going back back-and-forth creating contrast between the instruments and the riff itself until I come up with a number of variations that I find interesting.

From here, it’s all rinse and repeat baby! This can and will lead to much more music.

Thanks so much for reading!

-Aaron-

▶▶ Check out Luke O’Kelly’s drum loops and samples.