Ive just written a song, for a band im trying to start, which has turned out dam good in my opinion. But im struggling with another one. I just can't seem to think of any riffs or chord sequences. I have some for it but nothing else seems to go. Is there a special technique or something for writing or is just just trial and error? cheers x

The key to writing good music is to have someone whose opinion you respect sit and jam with you whilst you write. If they say 'that riff is awesome' then you probably have a riff. Otherwise drop it.

The best thing to do is to write using only the chords I, IV and V of a scale and never deviate from scales ever. Especially the major scale. Never deviate.

Matt_Wazza wrote:Is there a special technique or something for writing or is just just trial and error?

Neither, I don't think it's possible to just sit and write a song, you need to feel inspired and know what direction you want the music to go in. My best advice is just play guitar and jam out (even by yourself), just mess around with some riffs and ideas, then something should come out of it! Even if it's just practice, it's all good, but the more ideas you experiment with, the more likely you are to be able to write riffs/ a song that you like!

I've not written a Thrash riff in years but I used to find that I'd get a rhythm in my head then just play it in E Minor and I'd have a riff.

natural songs are the best, i write a lot of our riffs by accident, and i just run with it and usually come up with another one, i play over drum tracks of previous songs and press record. i think having an idea of vocal melody helps as well, it depends what kinda thrash your playing, with us im always thinking about where the vocal melody should go.

Just rip other bands off. 90% of our material is ripped off.

MartinC wrote:Just rip other bands off. 90% of our material is ripped off.

aye man, thats the best way to go, see writing thrash as like writing an essay without references and still get away with it, which i do quite well actually haha

amok wrote:im always thinking about where the vocal melody should go.

vocal melody?

aye or line or whatever you call it these days lol

Writing songs for thrash is too hard! I have loads of songs that I write that are aaaalmost finished... I just need to make some parts connect better and flow more smoothly. Its so hard to get the right balance between repetitive and interesting.


Aaaaah I hate music!

Atom wrote:Writing songs for thrash is too hard! I have loads of songs that I write that are aaaalmost finished... I just need to make some parts connect better and flow more smoothly. Its so hard to get the right balance between repetitive and interesting.


Aaaaah I hate music!

aye man, ive got so many verse riffs that dont go fuckin anywhere! GAH haha

Yeeeeaah man, exactly!

amok wrote:aye man, ive got so many verse riffs that dont go fuckin anywhere! GAH haha

aaaaaah, what you've gotta do then is stick them all together to make a song!!!!

I'm writing a very silly song atm, you'll hear it when we play a gig, it's gonna be funny as fuck!!!

I don't have to worry about writing songs for Heretic anyway, Lyall does it all. I concentrate on writing pop songs.