How do you write your rhythms?

[Xenos0176]

Hey there people, i'm gonna cut to the chase.

We ALL know about a lot of the crazy metal bands out there and their insanely complex riffs. I know that many of us, and myself, are trying to follow in their footsteps to do similar things they are.

Many of you probably HAVE done it already...

SO HERE'S THE QUESTION:

How do you do it? What's your method of choice? Do you actually think of something based on what you hear from other bands? Do you think of random numbers? Do you look at your atomic watch to precisely choose numbers for your newest riff?

Let's hear some ideas!

 

[theo]

I like to create rhythms in guitar pro, program a drum beat (4/4 type patterns played in 7/8 work really well) with the bass drum as a separate track to the rest of the kit.

Guitar lines are usually in hept or septuplets with the bass drum following them.

I'm no pro either, just the way I have started doing it, with quite successful results

 

[cronux]

Guitar Pro FTW, although i prefer GP4 over GP5 because it's simple... have one on my laptop, pc and at work. you never know when an idea will strike

i write all songs in guitar pro, because sometimes i don't have a guitar at hand or i'm at work. think it's great because when i do something i hit my bandmates via e-mail or MSN so they can start doing shit at home, or tell me what's missing. some say it kills creativity and that it's "cheating" but i find it really useful... been using it for 10 years (started with guitar pro 3)

 

[Floppystrings]

Small little note in my phone that is overly simplified.

Like this:

"Meshuggah 3-0-5-0 get funky with it"

 

[theo]

Small little note in my phone that is overly simplified.

Like this:

"Meshuggah 3-0-5-0 get funky with it"

I've recorded audio clips on my phone of me saying "baow-dun-un-un-uunn" etc before XD

 

[Cynic]

I've recorded audio clips on my phone of me saying "baow-dun-un-un-uunn" etc before XD

I thought I was the only one who did this.

 

[theo]

clearly not

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

I have a very methodical process for this, actually.

Step 1. Eat a lot of fruit.
Step 2. Wait a while.
Step 3. Find a piece of staff paper.
Step 4. Put the staff paper on the ground.
Step 5. Drop trousers.
Step 6. Squat over staff paper.
Step 7. Take a noisy, splattery shit over staff paper.
Step 8. Try to decipher the likeness of individual poo drops to note values before they absorb into the paper.

 

[Dayn]

If I have an idea in 4/4 already, well... I just come up with something out of the blue.

Some times I come up with an interesting slice of metre, for instance, 4/4|3/4|4/4|2/4. Then I play around with the beats to see how I want it to flow. Other times I might come up with something interesting to me. That is, I like to play with number patterns and put them to beats. Like... 4, 3, 3, 3. Ooh, that sounds good. Hey, it's 13/16. Let's make the second bar a 4, 3, 3, 3, 3 beat. Hey, that makes a two-bar 13/16|4/4 rhythm! That's nice.

...Yeah. I find it's all about the beats and getting a strong pulse going. Something like 3, 2, 4, 3, 1 makes little sense to me because I don't feel much of a pattern in it, the pulse is just too erratic for me to enjoy.

 

[Asrial]

With tons of agression!

Jokes aside, my riffs are either syncopated (write a riff in 4/4, stiff meters, and then add groove to it!), odd-meters (favored way is just multiplying one or two notes without removing anything on a standard riff. That way you can get some fun 5/4 riffs ), or just play standard power-chugga-chugugga in 4/4 measure, and throw in random-measured riffs in the middle of it all, return afterwards to the 4/4.

Creativity!

 

[Hyliannightmare]

I've recorded audio clips on my phone of me saying "baow-dun-un-un-uunn" etc before XD

i do that all the time,
but to answer the OP i usually will just get a riff in my head at the most inconvenient time when i'm working, or pooping or showering and i'll just hum it in my head until i can record it on my phone or play it on the guitar

 

[kung_fu]

I don't really do "the Meshuggah thing", but one rhythmic device i often employ is taking a riff and play it differently each time. I don't mean a different time sig (though sometimes i might) but simply phrase the melodic motif differently. I find that this is a good way to make otherwise repetitive 4/4 riffs interesting.

 

[Ancestor]

i usually come across an idea by accident while practicing. then i'll save that and put it together with others to make a song.

or i'll take the strongest sounding chords from a key that i like and use those.

or take a riff someone else wrote and play my version tuned down or slightly differently.

or i'll visualize notes from a key on the fretboard and start playing them in different ways.

 

[flo]

Most of my riffs come to me while taking a walk, or while running

The steps act as some kind of metronome, and all I then do is to try to remember the rhythms that pop up by themselves.


EDIT: 666 posts

 

[lemeker]

most times I jam to a "really" basic drum track, come up with a really basic riff and start dissecting it. Its really not the best way to do it.....but it works for me.

I will jot down things from time to time, but find that if I don't put it to tape (or record to my computer) I forget it, because I don't have a drum track or anything, but then I'm a drummer at heart who plays guitar, so I tend to come up with riffs around drum tracks.

 

[pkgitar]

I find that when I try to create riffs and using Guitar Pro to experiment with syncopation, patterns etc, it just turns out shit. The good stuff always comes naturally from practice or noodling.

 

[The Omega Cluster]

I write solely on Guitar Pro (I use the 5).

Sometimes I use numbers (like Fibonacci numbers) to write riffs, chord progressions, solos or rhythms, but that's more of a rare case. I also try to use the Golden Ratio, or Phi number, but it's kinda hard to apply to music (although some have argueably done it).

Most of the time, though, I just write down what comes out of my mind, directly onto the computer. Then I can add or cut times off a measure to complexify it, modify some notes and arrange it with other instruments so that harmonies and counterpoints rise!

I also like to use polyrhythms, it's easy as shit to write, but hard as hell to play.

You'll hear all those methods on my upcoming song, of my project Omega Cluster (shameless self-promotion).

 

[okaymike]

I've recorded audio clips on my phone of me saying "baow-dun-un-un-uunn" etc before XD

i'm gonna use that one!

 

[MFB]

Usually I'll hum a line during work, think of how it goes and try and figure out if it's close to anything I've heard that I may already know so I can visualize the pattern and write it down, then when I get home I'll write in GP and figure out where it sounds best on the board. Other times I'll already have a vocal line down and know how I want the song to go, so then I just repeat the same process of trying to visualize and find where it sounds best.

 

[theo]

Most of my riffs come to me while taking a walk, or while running

The steps act as some kind of metronome, and all I then do is to try to remember the rhythms that pop up by themselves.


EDIT: 666 posts

I've done that a few times! it ends up with me pulling out my phone and employing the verbal guitar technique