I've been playing for bout 4 yrs. and i got into the deathmetal music about two yrs. ago....ive try to write my own riffs and songs but its really hard doing it without the help of a drummer ....would any have any advice on how to write riffs without haveing a drummer.

Theory, Theory, Theory. Start opening up the books, and get a teacher to teach some common practices.

yep. theory is only a key to the potential that is within.

i hate guitar teachers...the only ones around here like to teach country

u dont need a teacher. u just need to read up

theory is not the "key to within". dont listen to the post whore above, thats just a lazy one line response.

theres tons of ways to approach creating death metal. deathmetal is a very varied and open area to write in, which can be a blessing and a curse. decide off the bat if you feel like making a tremolo riff with a meat beat thats fast and pretty much melodyless. or decide, if you want an in flames guitar riff with harmonies and more possibilites. if you just say to yourself WRITE its going to very difficult, because your fingers and "potential within" dont have any place to start. if you feel like writing a melodic riff, think of a melody IN YOUR HEAD before you play. and try the other way, just jamming around untill you come across things. so thats the melody aspect of writing.

another important aspect to writing death metal like you said , is the rhythm. writing without a drummer is very frustrating, as you dont have anything to even start with and its 100% on your shoulders. trust me, ive been there, and writing with a drummer is much easier. so, to help, hunt around on the net for drum samples or drum programs. maybe buy a drum machine if you think your lack of a drummer is going to cripple your writing that much. or also, download guitar pro. you can create drums easily in that program,and that could be a huge help. you wouldnt even necessairily have to write your own drums, just copy paste drums that you like from other songs

i hope this was of use?

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Helped me!

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you also have to find your own way to approach writing aswell. some people will come at it from a completly theorized angel, start somewhere on the fretboard and just start picking random notes till shit sounds good, or like the trans-man said come up with something in their head and try and figure out where it goes. I have done all three many times, one doesnt really work better then the other for me just depends how it comes out. several times I will have an idea in my head, and while figuering it out on the board, it will get almost or completly changed into something else which is also cool sometimes.

learning/knowing theory isnt the key to open the magic vault, but it sure as hell will help, its like a direct short cut instead of taking the 3 hour detour. i suggest visiting our theory section to start with if you do want to learn some theory

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Hmm... I've come up with a bunch of DM-ish riffs without the help of drumming, mostly based of other bands' material but I've come up with some original shit too. I'm sure having a drummer would be much better though, but it's not impossible to write some DM without one. Yeah, use guitarpro and get your hands on a drum machine(or drum machine software) if you can't find a drummer.

I just started writing my own shit by myself. I use Fruity Loops. It rocks. You can build your own drum kit, like mega kits, and customize their sounds. Then just sequence out any pattern and it will make a mp3 file for ya to jam with. You can even add the bass. It's perfect for the lonesome guitarist.

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Yeah basically a drum machine. I use the Alesis SR16, it was cheapish (100$us) and I basically use it as a metronome. It's a hell of a lot funner to practice shit and write riffs to drums though, as apposed to *beep* *beep*.

Or just practice up on the drums and learn it all, then record yourself drumming to have something to play to...

i honestly dont think this guy has the $ to buy a drumset, and then the time to learn to play one :P

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Fruit Loops is drum machine software, dumbass. j/k

if you had read my post, youd understand that i had posted regarding fruity loops. i know what fruity loops is, and i was talking about this guy

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I write music too and I do drums with fruity loops. I have one complete song.
I agree what Transient said.

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You can listen to whoever you want to on this matter, but people will never know what theory can do until you have reached a very high level of theory, which takes alot of time. Instead of sitting down or doing stupid school work during study hall, go to the computer lab, and learn different theories(when that time comes in september ).

i know a fair deal of music theory regarding four part harmony (chorale) writing, and its come in use not once on guitar. you can write with theory or without, but dont pressure someone into thinking youre not going to be able to write without it


edit

yes, that time is coming fast

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well if you're in a band with another guitar player, jam with that person, or the bassist. sometimes when you're jamming with something just randomly you get inspired to just randomly play something that sounds cool, with no theory. but theory is a good factor... so i say jam with someone else.. thats how I/Other guitar player came up with some riffs.. I also suggest recording it 'cause i jammed once and i had a good feel to it and came up with good riffs, so did the other guitarist.. and we didn't remember any of it.

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thanks you guys ...i think im going to find a drum machine i can download for now.....

Buy a good drum machine.

Or just download guitar pro. Guitar pro drums dosn`t sound too bad.

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Instead of a drum machine, get Guitar Pro. (as humancorpse says)

If you want some help int he form of "common techniques for spicing up DM songs" I can make a quick instructional video, only thing is I'm not so sure where I can host it...

I also have some videos of 'metal improvisation' (not lead) with just me and my drummer during practice warmups, though at the time they seem like messing around, listening back on them they don't sound too bad, so record your stuff.

Alot of time, people will talk about Theory as if it opens magical doors to otherworlds of Guitar-riffdom.

What I've discovered is that theory is awesome for talking about music , not writing it. If you are jamming with another guitarist and you don't always want to start things off by saying "Okay guys lets play that thing. ", theory is a cool way to communicate.

But as for writing, the only thing that really helps is jamming and noodling. Don't even think, just let your fings move around. Its going to sound like shit for awhile until you come across that Glorious sounding riff you've been looking for, but until then just keep at it.

Besides, if we all stuck to theory, we'd be writing Bach and Mozart and thats been done already. (To quote Luc Lemay of Gorguts)

Is there a thread for us to post .mp3's of riffs we've written?

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hehe, you quoted like all of the gorguts video on guitar.com

no, this isnt to post what youve written

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Dude, Gorguts are like Philosopher-Kings.

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pfft the old guy from that death vid was a philosopher

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that guy was just a child molestor, thats all



and i worship luc haha

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For writing riffs it happens either a. when I'm just fucking around on guitar or b. I have something in my head. I would suggest getting Fruity loops. It is a killer drum machine program.

I think the best thing to do is make up riffs and then add drums. That way the drums sound killer because they are backing up the guitars and not visversa. If you have a rhymically enhanced riff it sounds so much better if that drum is following and not just going off on some boring repetative drum beat. What I mean by rhymically enhanced is something with more attention to rhythm than say speed or note selection...good example would be some megadeth or old metallica...

I don't think I could ever figure out how to make riffs over a fucking drum beat. It seems to be super limiting because you are almost forcing yourself into this rhythm that you or someone else has made. By not having that constraint you can make a lot more weird shit. Recently I was fixing up some powertabs of a few songs I wrote/working on and I noticed that I've written a lot of odd time signature riffs without knowing it. With a drum you probably would haven't that come up nearly as much, unless of course you were trying to...

Did that help?

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Rimsky-Korsakov knew no theory. And that is enough said.


Sometimes things you read will influence you to apporach the guitar differently. Anything on philosophy, physics, anything that will stretch your mind in a new direction will invariably stretch your playing and writing in a new direction.

The way i look at it, you should just try to heighten every aspect of your guitar playing. So if you dont know alot of theory, go learn some. But you all need to understand, theory isnt just, learning four part choral writing or whatever, you need to learn theory that WILL help you with guitar writing (and i would assume it would be metal music, this being a metal forum). So dont go learn stuff about overtones and crazy jazz theories, which i love to learn both, go learn some theories that artists in the metal/guitar virtuoso genre use. just analyze a song, and when you see something that might break a modal rule, go find out why the artist can do it, and why it sounds good to your ear, and apply the same thing to your own music. For instance, use the pitch axis theory, something i just learned about, when you write a song to modulate. Its very simple and easy to understand, so just go find things like this that will help you write in the metal genre. Somebody mentioned learning about four part writing which i got into, but most of you are writing metal/shred/guitar virtuoso music, so again, not to be repedative, learn the appropriate theories, not some crazy jazz tritone substitution theories or something like that, (unless you want to be a GREAT guitarist ).