Your favourite riffs stand out to you for a reason; learning them can help you dollop their special sauce into your own music
Without knowing it, we as guitarists can paint ourselves into corners. Sometimes we are so focused on writing and satisfying our creative desires that we neglect our need to practice, learn from others, and expand our skill sets. That harms our creativity.
It’s important to try and take a step back from time to time. Shift the focus away from creativity and into bettering yourself as a guitar player. It can reap so many rewards, and being able to write better riffs is chief among them.
If you’re feeling like your riffs are lacking a little spice, or you're struggling to write a riff that stands out from the rest of your creations, it helps to look outward for the answer. Learning to play other people’s music – and studying it as you do – can help inspire new ideas, kick creative ruts to the curb, and inject freshness into your writing.
Widen your vocabulary
Nick Broomhall – who you may know from his Thick Riff Thursday videos – is the G.O.A.T for converting the riffs he hears in his head, into riffs you can throw down to. His secret? Learning how to play other band’s music.
“Learning the songs and the riffs that you love will get you the vocabulary of all your favourite guitarists, and inevitably, you make that your own,” he tells Guitar World.
This way, he is able to understand the nuances of what makes a certain guitarist or band sound the way they do. He’ll pick up on their go-to phrases, experiment in their tunings and preferred scales, and dissect their structural tropes to better understand, not just how to play a riff, but why it slaps so hard in the first place.
So, when he hears a riff in his head and it has a strong Spiritbox energy, for instance, having an understanding of how Mike Stringer’s brain works when constructing his riffs will help him translate that idea as it is in your head.
Instrumental relationships
Another benefit of learning songs by the bands that excite you is understanding the relationships shared between instruments. For instance, polymeters – which we have a handy guide to here – play off the drums and guitars playing in different time signatures. The one beat of the guitar lines will therefore fall in different places across the measure, which gives it a different feel each time. Understanding the principles behind something like that makes it easier to execute when getting creative. Not only do you understand the science behind it, but you are able to then transfer that thinking into your riff writing.
It can also teach you about how closely linked different relationships are. You might find that the bassline is extremely tight against the kick drum, or that it’s purposefully weaving in and out of the pocket. What difference does that make to the song? Understanding this also helps you construct better demos and bring your song ideas to life.
Browne talks a lot about “intent” when it comes to songwriting. As listeners, we often enjoy the end results without thinking twice about them. But to become a better songwriter, you’ll want to hone in on something you find cool and ask the question: Why?
Production wizardry
Instead of simply learning to riff along with songs, sometimes Broomhall goes one step further and reproduces them on his DAW from the ground up. Again, this helps him fully understand the bigger picture; not only is he learning to play someone’s riffs and see into their musical soul in the process, but he’s also discovering the songwriting tricks used to bring those ideas to life.
Of that reverse engineering process, he says: “It taught me so much about dialing in a guitar tone, quad tracking guitars and getting really good takes. Less of your brain power is taken up trying to develop ideas into a DAW. You already have the idea! You're just refining it and putting it in your DAW.”
Learning made easier
At MMA, we understand the value of covering songs. That’s why you’ll see Browne breaking down the techniques and tricks of songs from across his back catalogue in the member’s section. The reaction we’ve seen from our community taking those ideas on board and fleshing out their own covers has been incredible.
Now, we’ve made learning songs even easier thanks to our new video tab player. Here, you can watch tabs playing in real time along with the song’s audio with complete autonomy over the volume of each track (guitars, drums, bass, etc.).
Solo a track, make the drums louder to lock in with the kick pattern, mute the guitar track so you can reign supreme: It’s up to you.
It’s also possible to slow the song down to better get to grips with it, pitch-shift, and transpose them to any tunings to make learning the song work for you and your preferred axe. As someone who plays in half a step down tuning, this is a huge time saver.
It's available for every MMA lesson.
Master your craft
The player offers a comprehensive suite of customization options to guide you through learning a new song without the pesky extraneous things that can mar the process.
The tab player comes as part of our new MMA Masters subscription. Priced at £29.99 a month/£239.9.99 a year, it also grants you access to guided learning pathways from foundational to advanced skills, exclusive live stream masterclasses, discounted in-depth masterclasses, and access to our guitar hacks archive so you can learn at your own pace. New hacks are released each week.
For more information, head to MMA Masters.
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