How to Write a Riff on Guitar | Metal Guitar Lesson (VIDEO)

An introductory metal guitar lesson on how to write a riff on guitar. As it turned out, it became more how to write a metal riff in the style of Metallica. You can get guitar tabs for the examples by supporting me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rynaylorguitar

I tasked myself with writing an old-school metal riff and thought it might be interesting to film its creation and talk you through my process.

Riffs can often come to us when we’re noodling around with ideas. In this lesson, though, we’re taking a very calculated, tried and tested approach.

We first establish a tonal centre, a note around which we are basing the riff. In the Metallica style, I’m basing my ideas in E minor. Doing this allows me to pedal the open string 6(E) with a heavy palm mute. To that, I want to add some more notes.

A great starting point for writing a guitar riff is using the minor pentatonic scale. The scale can be found on any string but for writing riffs, we’re focusing on the low string 6(E) and 5(A). E minor pentatonic is the notes E-G-A-B-D. E minor pentatonic scale riffs are very Metallica.

To add a little more colour to note possibilities, we can extend to a 7-note diatonic scale. The two that immediately spring to mind for me are the Phrygian mode (the Metallica scale) and Aeolian mode (or natural minor scale). I also add in the b5 interval in the descending part of the riff in a minor blues scale. The b5 interval sounds particularly menacing and metal!

We can create a rhythmically interesting riff with some syncopation. That is when we play notes on the upbeats, or between the beats.