Create Your Own Guitar Riff

Time to explore and let out your creativity!

In previous lessons, we looked at song structures and putting chords together. We even start improvising with the major scale. Now - it's time for you to learn how to create guitar riffs!

This particular lesson won't be part of your practice routine. But - it's incredibly fun! Especially if you're jamming with another musician or someone you met on the JG community.

Time to get creative. Let's get stuck in. :)

Understanding the basics

First, let's quickly look at the difference between riffs and licks. If you've been following my beginner's course - I know you're familiar with riffs! If you're new to all this - riffs are a short musical motif that gets repeated around in a song.

Now - you've most likely heard the term lick before. I tend to think of licks as words. If you're making up a blues solo - you'd have many different licks put together, creating a specific musical sentence.

That's the basic idea of a riff - a little short musical idea that repeats around a lot in a song. There are hundreds of examples of guitar riffs you're going to encounter in your journey - so feel free to learn from them at any point. Enter Sandman is a great example!

Create A Riff Using The Pentatonic Scale

By now, you should be familiar with the A minor pentatonic scale - it's a great starting point for creating riffs! You should be primarily concerned with the bottom few notes and strings. Start with those notes and have a go at creating a little riff for yourself!

Keep in mind that repeatable musical idea that you might want to play around with. Don't be afraid and explore! I encourage you to do this, particularly if you want to venture into songwriting.

No Rules Here!

Scales are an excellent place to start - but you can go anywhere with your creativity! Remember - if it sounds good - it is good! You can make up anything in this experimental stage. Here are some things that might be fun to explore:

Mix two pentatonic scales. Go higher in one, and lower in the other.
Try approaching every note from a semitone below.
Play a riff your love backward.
Develop the dynamics of your riff - Make some loud, others quieter.
Play around with your guitar effects - add some distortion, see how it feels!

Have fun with it - no rules when you're exploring! Hope you have fun with this lesson.

Have some helpful tips you'd like to share? Go to the discussions sections and share them with the JG community. Maybe you'll find some valuable tips for yourself :)

Module 12 is already coming to an end - how crazy is that? Up next, I've got some awesome power chord songs to practice all that you've learned so far. :)