How to Spice Up Your Rock and Metal Riffs: 

Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio answers questions from off of his Guitar Blog website...

Q). Rock and metal are my favorite styles but I'm new to inventing the guitar riffs. I want to get this into my playing because this summer I started a band with my friends. Could you make a video lesson that gets into how to spice up rock and metal riffs? My riffs are all sounding boring & the same, so I could really use some tips. Marty - Springfield, IL, USA

A). After you can play the typical power-chord progressions for rock and metal then the next step is to start composing riffs. Like a lot of things to do with writing on guitar I always suggest doing a ton of transcribing. By learning the songs by your favorite bands and taking stock of how they perform their lines you'll build your own riff concepts. Find out if your fav bands use chromatic ideas, blues concepts, or if they apply fast sixteenth-note phrases. Learn how to interpret parts by your favorite players, and notice what they do on guitar. For the video I've developed a collection of solid ways to get you going with adding a little more spice to your rock and metal guitar riffs.