Made my First Riffs and an Acoustic Chord Pattern Today.

Had a really solid writing day today and wanted to share the process behind it, not the riffs themselves. I made a cool acoustic chord progression that incorporates G major, but I made A into A7. I then turned it on its head and straightened it out to make it Metal.  

I’ve been working through some blues lessons lately. Like how blues players use turnarounds and simplify scales to make riffs feel more musical. I used the G major scale I learned this morning, and another about making a pentatonic scale. I took the G major scale and stripped out the 4th and 7th. It was cool because I figured it out myself instead of just memorizing a shape.

Using that pentatonic version of G made everything fall into place. The notes all sounded good over an open A string pedal tone, and a simple pool of tones to build a riff. I shaped the idea into a 6‑bar phrase with a turnaround in the last two bars, just like the blues structure I’ve been learning, but with a heavier feel.

I wrote the whole thing down in a tab format that makes sense to me and saved it as a PDF so I can revisit it later. I also recorded it on a Boss GT-001, which I traded for my old pickups from my Jackson. I have the free version of Audacity that I used.

Guitar Tricks has been an awesome place for me. 

Hey Kyle

if you ever feel like sharing would love to hear it. I envy those who can come up interesting riffs. 

BTW, a bit off this topic, but on metal. I recently found out that Ian Gillan recorded one album with Sabbath. The album born again recorded in 1983. 

I was never really into Sabbath, and there is good reason for that, because when I started listening to music, we had to go buy it at either the local record store or the Kmart. And since I started buying albums when I was 10 years old, with money I earned shovelling snow or delivering newspapers my budget was extremely tight. So I had to be very careful with my money and my money went to Alice Cooper and Kiss. This pretty much got through my teens. 

Anyway, I downloaded the album and I think it’s fantastic.

Good luck with the song writing.

Bill

It's pretty cool following musicians or seeing were they got there start. I think I would have been standing next to you buying Alice Cooper albums and asking you if I could tape a few KISS tracks haha. I see Alice every chance I get. His guitarist just changed recently from Nita Strauss to another lady. I'll record it on my phone tomorrow and talk my way through how I made it. I'll give you the YouTube link when I'm done. Is this the best way to reach out? 

Also, I just watched a video on the guitar blog.the new one is them boys playing across the neck in pentatonic major. It's cool. I recommend checking it out. 

I figured the best way to apply my lessons is to add a day of something creative. I'll have that YouTube link for you late tomorrow. I usually work 11 hour days, Monday to Friday. Sometimes I get lucky and only work 8 or 9. 

Sounds great. Looking forward to it.

 I’ve always used YouTube and my phone. 

Bill

Yo, Bill! Here is that riff I made. I hope the guitar isn't too quiet for you. I had to use my GT-001 because my wife was watching TV in the next room. 

This is how I made my riff and what it sounds like. My Power Grooves Riff

Hopefully you like it, dude. ✌

Dude!! Yeah very cool. That metal riff has potential and I like that acoustic riff as well. Something started going through my mind as you started to play that acoustic riff, but it didn’t really materialize, but I was thinking to myself that almost sounds like something that could be used by Zepplin.

Anyways, I really appreciate you sharing this, and by the way I’m talking into my phone right now so if there’s grammar errors, that’s why. I hope you keep out writing songs personally I really enjoy it, and even though I say, I can’t write music, I normally start just like you did either on a guitar or I have a keyboard in my practice room, and I start looking for notes to match my my voice, as I was doing tonight. And these are just stupid little things, because most of my songs are stupid little songs about stupid little things sometimes serious but mostly not.

and a lot of times what I will do is I have my phone going as I’m messing around with either a guitar or the keyboard and I just recorded it into GarageBand. If I can figure out a way to share what is now on my phone, I’ll upload it so you can have a listen. It’s all shits and giggles but it’s a good way to pass the time. 

Bill

I just figured out how to screen record my GarageBand from my phone and then I uploaded to my YouTube channel, so below is what I was messing around with. Typically what I’ll do is come up with some little word, phrase and start messing around and create a verse and a chorus and upload those lyrics into Suno and try to find Suno to give me the sort of style that I was looking for when I began to write the song. That’s really no different than when I wrote songs with friends of mine because as we’re talking through a song I would be saying like hey this is sort of what I’m thinking of what do you think? Can you come up with the music. So on this thing here that I’m sharing I’m not really sure where it’s gonna go, if it goes anywhere, but if I ever do finish that song, I’ll upload a link to. Of the songs that I’ve written, most of them are probably in the genre of acoustic blues, acoustic grunge that sort of thing. stuff that is fairly easy to play

https://youtu.be/qQesucn4m1Q?si=tAYnRsFGz__xHuz6

I never tried writing a full song, dude. It's got a chain gang thing going there. haha. I haven't messed too much with alternative tunings yet. I understand why your tuning is so low, so it doesn't sparkle over your voice. Pretty neat!

Thanks for letting me share a bit of what I was doing Sunday. I wish my arms and hands wouldn't tire so much, and I had a drummer buddy to play with.  

Hey man, hope you don’t mind me using your riff, I think it’s really good  

https://youtu.be/NDbjkOX56Kg?si=Wnv19oxPJakKqj-O

Pretty Cool! If that simple chord progression gets you inspired, that doesn't hurt my feelings one bit, bud. I'm sure a lot of music has similar chord progressions, just different rhythms to tie the knots. I was actually thinking about playing that cheap Fender I leave next to my bed a little more often. I love the guitar. I wonder what would have become of it if I hadn't hung it up nine years ago. I was a prick person then. Maybe it was for the better at that point in my life. I'm confident God stepped on me and then picked me up for a good reason.