There's not much genuinely useful riff writing advice out there, so this is my attempt to fill that gap a little.
These are five habits I hear all the time that make metal riffs sound boring. Each one comes with a fix, and you can use them two ways: to rethink riffs you've already written, and to write more interesting new ones.
1. Your palm muting is predictable ▶ 0:20
Metallica did a great thing by popularising the idea of palm muting the lower notes and letting the higher notes ring out to create a sense of rhythm. The classic example would be something like Blackened.
That idea of higher melody notes popping out is really cool. The problem is it's been done a lot in metal now. What most people default to is palm muting the low string and letting the higher strings ring out. It's part of what gives metal its sound, but it's not the only option. You can palm mute higher notes, or let lower ones ring out.
Palm muting is a really interesting tool for creating rhythm, so use it on purpose. Take one basic phrase and try several different palm muting patterns over the same notes. You'll end up with three or four versions of the same melody that each feel slightly different.
One handy tip: palm muting on the upstroke is a bit more awkward, so fewer people do it. That means it sounds a little more unique. Try bringing your palm mutes in on upstrokes, not just downstrokes.
2. Every riff has its root on the open low string ▶ 1:32
I'm in drop D here. If every riff you write is rooted on the open low D, just in D minor or D Phrygian, you're always going to be limited to the same choices. So here are some other options, whatever tuning you're in:
- Root on the 2nd fret of the low string. Now you've got the open string available as the note just below the root, which is a cool sound to throw in.
- Root around the 5th fret. You're slightly higher up, but you've still got the option to drop down to the open low strings.
- Root around the 7th fret. A similar kind of feel to the 5th.
- Root around the 9th fret. This one almost gives you a more major kind of feel when you drop to the open strings.
There's another benefit. When your root is the open string, it's very easy to lean on it too heavily as a rhythmic tool, because you can chug it while riffing wherever you want on the neck. When you can only hit the root by actually fretting it, it forces you to play a bit differently.
3. You're cramming every technique into every riff ▶ 2:49
Loads of modern metal bands, particularly the ones with more than six strings on their guitars (sorry), seem to try to do every technique across every part of the fretboard in every riff.
To me, what makes a riff identifiable is picking one technique or idea and sticking with it. If you've got a tapping riff, then tap it. Think about Hot for Teacher by Van Halen. That's a tapping riff, and if it was suddenly interrupted with loads of other techniques, it probably wouldn't have that iconic feel.
So create a motif, whether that's a melody, a rhythm or something else, and limit yourself. If you use every technique you know in every riff you write, you'll struggle to tell one from the other.
4. There's no rhythmic variation ▶ 3:29
You don't have to fill the space all the time. Silence goes a long way. Think about Walk by Pantera: the silence between each little phrase is what gives it its whole sense of excitement.
You also don't always need to start on beat one. Put a metronome on, count "one, two, three, four", and make sure your riff starts somewhere other than the one. It's a simple constraint, but it changes the feel straight away.
And you don't need to play continuous 16th notes. I hear lots of people filling every single 16th of every bar. It can sound cool, but not all the time.
5. Your melodies aren't intentional ▶ 4:33
Here's a basic rule:
- If you want a catchy melody, keep your notes close together.
- If you want excitement and intrigue, put the notes further apart.
A melody where all the notes sit close together is quite predictable, but that's often where you find the catchy little moments. Once you start using bigger interval jumps, you get more interest, but it's also harder for the listener to follow.
If you think your melody is too predictable, you might not be doing enough of these larger interval jumps. And if it's not catchy enough, you might be doing too many.
Put it into practice
Take a riff you've already written and run it through these five. Change where the palm mutes fall, move the root off the open string, strip it down to one technique, start it off beat one or leave a gap, and check whether the melody is doing what you want it to. Have a play around with them and see which one changes the riff the most.
