Invent your own metal guitar riffs.

What’s new at Zystrix? Read on… January 20, 2026 How to Create Metal Riffs (part one of two) In the last episode we went over the best affordable overdrive pedals for metal (click here for a refresher). This time I’m going to go over some ideas to help you invent your own metal riffs for metal tunes, and we’ll divide them up for the beginner, intermediate and advanced guitarist. And we’ll also hear the new solo piano tune from Dangerous Neighbors called Pin Drop. So sit back and relax. Welcome to Zystrix, the heartbeat of the universe. Where creativity and free-thinking have more value than conformity. Background Artwork The colorful artwork that surrounds the edges of this website is invisible to many cell phone users. It’s included here (with others) for your enjoyment. Multiple copies are tiled together for a cohesive and seamless background seen all around this page. Enjoy. Introduction: How to Create Metal Riffs Before we go any further we should probably define what a metal riff is. Generally it is a short catchy musical phrase with a punchy or driving rhythm that immediately catches the listener’s attention, and it’s generally played on electric guitar with a distorted or over-driven tube amp type sound. Palm muting is very common as is fast single notes (tremolo picking) often combined with power chords for a muscular formidable sound. Minor scales are common because guitar naturally leans that way (especially E minor), although many players utilize other scales to sound a little different than the run-of-the-mill writer. OK, that covers a lot of area. And like I’ve said here before, there’s a million ways to metal. But the following ways to invent riffs can be used for many different styles of music, not just metal. Metal is what we’re concentrating on here, but don’t let other instruments and music styles put you off. Ideas and inspirations can be found everywhere. And the world is brimming over with superior riffs and musical lines of all sorts from over 400 years of music that is freely available. And the available ideas in the public domain to borrow or outright steal is staggering. So let’s do a cursory examination of inventing metal riffs for the beginner, to the intermediate, to the advanced guitarist. And away we go... Beginner Guitarist: Creating Metal Riff Ideas Getting Started -- Tuner Sooner Make sure you are in tune. That’s why you own a tuner, right? For more on must-have or essential guitar stuff see the gear page. Learn how to tune your guitar to standard tuning for starters. This will help train your ear and your tuning and pitch memory. Memorize A 440 so you can hum it. This helps to understand relative tuning. When I started playing I didn’t own a pitch fork and affordable tuners hadn’t been invented yet. At my friend’s house there was a pipe that hung from the ceiling and I learned how to use that pitch to tune my guitar. It wasn’t perfect, but if there’s a will there’s a way. Guitar Sound Get the correct guitar tone, or at least try to dial in one you prefer with the gear you’ve got. And chasing tone can be a life-long endeavor. But it’s hard to be convincing to the listener if your guitar sounds like something other than metal. A great metal tone can be had by stacking various pedals through a clean amp (see the overdrive pedals issue for ideas), or a metal sounding amp can be dialed in to get the crushing tone you desire (see the three part series on affordable tube amps and click on the top wristwatch to go backwards). Start with the EQ settings on about noon (half-way) and tweak the sound to your liking. Don’t scoop the mids too much or no one will be able to hear you in a mix. If you’ve got a decent clean amp sound and don’t mind a great guitar amp tone from a digital modeler check out the Valeton GP-5 pedal for $80 USA and free shipping from Ebay, Reverb, or Amazon. Connect it to your computer and install your favorite free NAM roaring guitar amp sound into this pedal. You can carry it in your pocket. Amazing. The GP-50 offers even more features for only $120 USA and free shipping. Just buy it. Rhythms and Rhythmic Patterns Make sure you are playing your song ideas or riffs in tempo. Tapping your foot to the tempo helps. Rock music, but certainly not all rock music, tends to use rhythms based on 1-and-2- and-3-and-4-and (then repeat), or what’s known as a straight eighth feel. Although all downbeats can sound powerful, mixing up this pattern adds interest to a musical phrase. A simple two-bar phrase in rhythm terms, for example, could be one and and and and one and two four and (repeat). Another way to approach the same rhythm is to play notes not related to the original scale or even the original syncopation. Try a different note selection, or a different key, or a different scale altogether. Buy a metronome to teach yourself to stay on tempo. The nice thing about a metronome is that many are portable, and some are battery powered. There are plenty of expert- sounding free drum loops to download online. Or get a newer used drum machine. Or get a drum app for your cell phone. There’s an app for everything, right? Or better yet (sometimes), play along with a real drummer. Drum patterns can give you many ideas for riffs that stay within a groove. Picking Style Practice all down-picking for a tight and aggressive sound. Try it on a single open string at first. Once you have that try playing on a straight downbeat even tempo like one, two, three, four to add intensity. Now mix in up with the down pick strokes and try to keep them even sounding in tempo and aggression. Play off the downbeat for more complexity which can add more interest to your rhythms. Like I said, straight rock is basically counted like one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and. To play on the upbeat your note choices would be on the “and” beat or the upbeat. Now move on to a horse-like gallop feel or rhythm. Next try triplets for urgency and drive. Experiment putting them at various places in a measure. Triplets are basically a count of one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two- three on a beat, or on two beats in a measure for a slower more dramatic feel, or even slower over a complete 4 beat measure. Like before, play along with a metronome or, even better, play along with a drum machine or a real drummer for doing more complex rhythms. For more attack precision either sharpen your pick or purchase picks that are more pointed. Check out the guitar pick issue for more ideas. Power Chords Don’t use regular power chords (five chords or the root and the fifth) all the time. Try an inversion by adding a note. So for instance, instead of playing only the two notes D and A for a D-five chord (the one and the five notes or played the first finger at the fifth-fret fifth-string and the third finger at the seventh-fret fourth-string) simply add another A or a D an octave lower for a more powerful sound. To do this make a partial bar with the first finger across the sixth and fifth strings at the fifth fret with the third finger at the seventh-fret of the fourth-string. Voila, instant girth. Or try using natural thirds by 5th fret on the E string and 4th fret on the A. Or try a flatted third by moving the 4th on the A down in pitch one fret. The intermediate tuning section below has more ideas . Palm Muting Use palm muting for that percussive chugging kind of sound. To palm mute the strings that are played are damped close to the bridge with the heel of the picking hand. Use louder and softer expressions to avoid sounding boring. Use slides, bends, hammer-ons and pull- offs (snaps) and vibrato to break out of sounding like the same old patterns. This will add interest to your playing. Riffs There is no boring riff, just boring ways to approach it and/or play it. If it’s humdrum for you to play then figure out something that keeps you (and your listener) interested without stealing from the flow of the song. There are many subtle ways to make the moot and uninteresting more sublime. Sure. Try a slide into the riff, or a hammer-on during the riff, or a pull-off (a snap), or try having a note ring (open or not) while the riff is still being played. This latter exercise tends to sound simple but can be quite challenging because it can sound like two guitars playing together. And if you are up for it, play two musical lines (simple or not) simultaneously for some real technical challenges. Lap piano metal, anyone? See the advanced section in the next issue for more ideas. Homework Record yourself using a sound recorder or a video recorder (like a cell phone) while playing to see and hear where your playing needs some improvement. Self examination is always a great thing whether you are a beginner or advanced. If the part is technically advanced use a video recorder to remind yourself how you played the part. There’s nothing worse than botching a part because you can’t remember how you did it, or wasting time repeatedly listening to a part over and over trying to copy yourself. As you write more watch some of your old videos to see your improvements. Time to Move On To conclude this beginner section, sorry, but I’m not going to try to sell you guitar lessons. However, if you can ask the question I can probably give the answer. To me lessons are wasted money. Just purchase an easy metal method book or (better yet) video of someone you like who’s good at teaching beginner stuff and refer to it as needed. I’ve gone through hundreds of books and videos (I’m a sucker for guitar education) and occasionally I refer back to them. But I do try to commit most of it to memory. Teach yourself. Check out the DVD by Hal Leonard called Beginning Metal Guitar for about $15.00 USA. I’ve had very good luck with books and DVDs from the Hal Leonard company. Glean what you can for free from the many guitarists and teachers on “Zootube”. On the other hand (and as a last resort), there are many places online that will sell you personalized lessons. Your guitar playing is broken and only they have the miracle fix, or so they want you to believe. Don’t fall for it. See yourself doing it, listen to lots of music, and fake-it-’till-you-make-it. And, over time, you will. Magic can happen when you believe in yourself. Jam with other guitar players for ideas and techniques. Watch other guitar players for playing ideas. Watch or listen to your favorite guitar players and learn to play their riffs. Use those riffs as a starting point for your own inventions. Watch yourself playing in a mirror to use the least amount of effort to play the greatest amount of guitar. Don’t make your hands tired, and if they are then take a break. Use economy of motion, or the least amount of finger movement to accomplish the same riff or phrase. Copy your favorite guitar players and play their riffs until you understand them. Then use those riffs as a starting point for your own inventions. And don’t try to pass off their riffs as yours. That’s a big no-no. Simply put their riffs in your own “mental metal blender” and reap the benefits of something entirely your own. Ahh, I love the smell of home-made metal riffs fresh out of the “oven”. OK, so there’s the beginner section on creating metal riffs. Let’s move on to the… Intermediate Guitarist -- Creating Metal Riff Ideas Advanced Tuning As you progress in your tuning adventures try E flat, try E flat slack key or drop D, try tuning down to D or C. Try an open tuning for an even bigger sound. For more ideas on this see the tuning issue. Team Effort I’m not much on this following method, but many bands write as a team. I prefer to invent on my own tune arrangements because I have my own vision. But many times bands will simply jam together, or someone will have a lick or a riff and bring it to a rehearsal and the rest of the band fills in a part they like for themselves. In my opinion this method can often sound more like chaos, especially if the original riff felt like it was supposed to go one way, or the mode was something in particular and their part doesn’t fit, and/or someone else interprets it differently. It can also feel like the parts are duct-taped together. But if the musicians are all on the same page musically it can be a quick way to great inventions. In my writing I always have a feel and a tempo and a scale in mind and I explain this to the others before someone decides to improvise or jam on my tune and turn it into a train-wreck. From my experience writing as a band can be troublesome, and many musicians cannot play something that fits the mood, or they have trouble playing inside the scale or mode, or for some reason they can’t follow or refuse to take any musical direction. So the musical vision you had turns out to be a mess. “What have they done to my song, ma?” I usually record all the parts and present it as a near finished tune to the band so there’s a better understanding. And whichever way you go, it begs up the question, “OK, guys, now how do we split the royalties on this one?” Back to Recording Again Record yourself on the fly when you invent pieces as a band or jamming alone. Catalog the parts you played that move you. I catalog mine mainly by feel. Or if you write as a band record your band at rehearsals so everyone can remember the sweet spots. Don’t rely on your memory. Another thing to add here is using video to see how you played your part. The video doesn’t have to be extensive, it just has to show you how you played the basic framework. It will save you time because you won’t have to re-learn how you played it. I have had many situations where I had to spend time trying to figure out how the hell I played something. When making a video or audio recording I usually play it slowly at first while describing what I’m playing for finger placement, and then I play the real tempo. This is done like I’m giving myself a short guitar lesson so it’s easier for me to understand it in the future… Intermediate Guitarist -- To be continued… Don’t touch that dial… Stay tuned next time… In the next issue this intermediate section will be finished and we’ll move into and through the advanced guitarist section of creating metal riffs. And that will be the end of this two-part series. Maybe I’ll see you then. Dangerous Neighbors, Pin Drop -- solo piano Maybe it’s a good thing, I’m not sure, but sometimes it can get so quiet you can hear a pin drop. For the MP3 version click here, and click here for the video version of Pin Drop. Enjoy. I always take life with a grain of salt, then a slice of lime, then a shot of tequila.

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