I think that I'm all riffed out

[bbottom]

I've been really struggling lately coming up with decent riffs. What would you suggest that I do to get back the magic?

[mortlock]

listen to some free jazz.

[zachoff]

Get drunk, hit record, and play.

[mortlock]

smoke bongs

[everdrone]

play another style, learn a new song or scale

I want to get fretlight and learn, I think that would take my shizzle to the next leval yo' http://www.gtr.fretlight.com/videos/

[jibberish]

I say, look at some of the 40's era music, guys like hoagy charmichael were writing crazy good tunes, crazy chord progressions. check out some of django's antics.  that shit is a total 180 to anything you can hear today.   also classical music is a place to swipe little chord progressions from and 2 part things and stuff that applies to metal really well. 

or, ya, ez way out: get really baked, hit record, and go.  I do that a lot because I am lazy

[Ayek]

Try thinking riffs before playing them, if you don't already. I find that often when I just pick up and play something, especially by myself when trying to write, it'll often be familiar territory that my hands have played before. Playing what you've played out in your head can often be a departure from the usual ol stuff sometimes

[neighbor664]

1)Put your guitar down.
2)Go out and do a bunch of other stuff.
3)Come back and "tell" your guitar all about your adventures.

[RAGER]

yep new scales.  play outside you comfort zone.  play to different time signatures and different feels.  Force yourself out of the rut.  Listen to some stuff you wouldn't normally listen to. you're bound to find new chord structures.  learn those chords.  Form riffs out of those notes in those chords.  Works like magic.

A great teacher about such things is Paul Gilbert=youtube

[VOLVO)))]

I felt the same way for a while, then I started listening to music that I don't like that much, picking shit that I actually do like out of it. The only downside, now I kind of like this shit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSid_tFAShU

Jawbreaker is kinda lame, but I quite dig his use of slides and interesting dissonant chord shapes... This song is also pretty infectious.

Using those chords in other applications makes for a pretty excellent flavor...

[jibberish]

spend some quality time with Robert Fripp. He will re-arrange your reality for you.

[mutantcolors]

Another vote for Paul Gilbert. Endless supply of god-level playing. Just one I dug up in 15sec:

Also, listen to King Crimson.

[bbottom]

thanks for all of the suggestions guys

[clockwork green]

One thing that often helps me is to whistle or hum riffs instead of trying to write them with the guitar.  When I'm playing guitar I get stuck in the same old ruts all of the time.  When I'm free of the guitar it helps me to just focus on the actual progression regardless of tuning, tone, intervals etc... and this can cause a lot of breakthroughs.  Once I find something good I try to figure it out on the guitar.  This also helps train my ear which is always a good thing to improve.

[Ranbat]

Are you in a band? Let somebody else come up with the riffs and work from there. In the band before my current one, the bass player came up with great stuff and it was easy to work off of what he came up with. You might also try grabbing a cheap keyboard with the drum presets. Then just start jamming to different beats. If you have Garageband you can do the same thing. Try to stay away from the typical rock beats and jam to the salsa, waltz and disco beats. It can be alot of fun 

[hisheroisjon]

Nothing lame at all about Jawbreaker! But yeah, when I get stuck I tend to gather inspiration outside of metal/doom/whatever. Lots of Fripp, especially his collaborative stuff, krautrock, ambient, shoegaze, slowcore (god I hate callling it that).

[AgentofOblivion]

It always helps me to dial in a tone I wouldn't normally use.  Whether that's an amp setting, a different way to run pedals, a different guitar, rolling the tone knob down, cutting back the gain...etc, just something that sounds significantly different than what you normally do.  When I do that the riffs I write are usually a lot different to accommodate the new tone.  But this advice goes along the lines of everyone else's:  do something different and do it for more than 10 minutes.

Edit:  and I have noticed that it comes and goes in waves for me.  Sometimes I'm on and it's effortless, sometimes it's torture.  You're not the only one.

[mutantcolors]

Here are couple Gilbert vids that give you a look into his ridiculous chops/how his brain works a little better.

This one is some serious WTF business.

[Pissy]

One thing that can help you come up with a riff is listening to a radio station just barely audible, so you can't tell what's playing. What ends up happening is you develop a riff in your head akin to what your hearing, but likely in a completely different way from the song that's going on. Timing is different and everything. Then do the hum thing.

It's helped me anyway.

[black]

Everything mentioned here is great advice.

Maybe try some open tunings. When I did that it opened my brain up to some possibilities I was missing when messing around in my familiar tunings.

[Andrew Blakk]

So how did it go? Have they escaped you?

Or did they turn up again?

Imo if you just have a bit of patience they always come back after awhile. Those bloody riffs... They should sinceraly stay put and not wonder of like that.

[bbottom]

Well I primarily play bass so I've actually been playing guitar a lot more and I think that it's helped out a bit.

Once my job is finished in March, I'll get six months severance so I won't have to worry about finding a new job for awhile. In that time period I'm planning on either joining, or starting another band that is different from the doomy one that I am in now. I think that will help out a lot as well.