Using Scales for Your Guitar Riffs
- The American Guitar Academy
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
To some people, it would appear to be natural to think of scales when creating riffs. In that situation you might find it helps the person visualize the scale in advance, or perhaps map out where it could go. Other people do not think about scales at all and would instead write a riff based around chords, or simply take it in whatever direction they want it to go. There is no right or wrong answer, but in this blog post I want to explore the former point I made - how we can use scales to visualize and create new riffs.
Which Scale Do We Use?
The general concept we will be talking about today can be applied to any scale, but for the sake of keeping things simple, we will stay with E natural minor. The E natural minor scale has the following notes:
E - F# - G - A - B - C - D
Below you will see the tabs for this scale in one of the first ways you may have learned it - this is also a good opportunity for you to take a step back and learn this scale if you have not done so before now.
As I have explained many times before, learning just one shape of a scale is not the most productive way to improve your skills. You should make an effort to learn the notes, start off with the open position (if there is one!) and then try some other ways of playing the scale up and down the neck.
Once you are comfortable with that, we are going to play the same scale horizontally across one string, which in this case would be A. I have explored the idea before in YouTube shorts and other blog posts/videos, but that was always for melodic purposes - on the higher strings. Please study the music below - notice how I am not starting on E as you might think. I am starting on the lowest possible note I can play from that scale, but on the A string. From the notes written out earlier, we know that the lowest note is A, so we will start from there and work our way up.
Playing the scale this way allows us to do two things that guitarists love, especially in a rock and metal context. The first is that you can use power chords built from each of those notes - awesome! The second, is that you are adjacent to the low E string - this means you can palm-mute and riff away to your heart's content, safe in the knowledge that the low E string is right next to where you are already playing.
Examples
Let us have a look at some examples, and see what we can achieve just by learning some riffs in this way.
Iron Maiden - Where Eagles Dare
This is a great song that not only incorporates the scale in the way I discussed above, but also includes some triplets, palm-muting and legato. Try the riff out using the tabs below, but if you want to learn some more of the song, check out my YouTube short on the intro and verse riffs here.
Judas Priest - Turbo Lover
This is a riff that still hits hard despite being relatively sedate compared to other heavy metal songs, or even that of other Judas Priest tunes. Again, I have put some of the music below for you to try and learn, it should not take you very long. One thing to point out, especially in the bigger picture of writing a song, is that the vocal melody copies this riff. Sometimes doing this works really well, other times it does not; I think it is worth trying a unison approach and seeing how you feel about it.
Just so that you are aware, the second guitar part for this part of the song is just playing a steady E power chord. This provides a solid foundation for a more melodic approach as detailed below.
Foo Fighters - My Hero
This song is not in E minor, but instead uses the E Major scale, it is similar but uses the following notes instead:
E - F# - G# - A - B - C# - D#
The chorus, which is the part being demonstrated here, uses the open A string and then E string to represent the I and the IV chord, but the octave chord melody is moving around the E Major scale being played on the A string. It is a fun one to try!
What Can I Do With This?
There are so many different things you can add to the initial concept. Countless articulations, rhythms, time signatures and underlying harmony that could work. You do not have to stick to just the A string either - string skipping is a common technique in both solo playing and riff writing.
In just the three examples above, you can see octave chords, legato, crescendos, palm-muting and triplets. There is always the danger, in fact it is quite likely, that your riff will sound similar to an existing riff. This is completely fine as long you do not blatantly rip off another’s work.
Additionally, there is more to a song than just the riff itself, even if it is clearly the coolest part of the song, second to only the solo. The bassline, extra instruments and especially the drums can have a monumental impact on the feel of a song. Do not feel like you need to put every articulation, every subdivision and every note of the scale into your riff.
I recommend you check out some of the Drumeo videos on YouTube, where they invite a famous drummer to create a drum track to an existing track that he has never heard off. It is extremely cool how different the song becomes as a result, and the comparison sections at the end of the videos are enlightening for both the drummer themselves and the viewer too!
You should also be aware that, whilst it is slightly easier using a scale that has a root note represented by an open string, E or A are best, you can do with any scale in every key. Try and play the riff that I have written below in the key of Gm:
Final Thoughts
There are so many benefits to be gained from just being comfortable with a few scale shapes, and being able to craft riffs in this way is just one of many. Some people are experts at applying a similar method to a chord focused guitar part, and using notes from a scale to spice it up a bit as they go - Jimi Hendrix was the undisputed king at this.
One final piece of advice would be something that also applies to creating melodies and solos too - you do not have to use all of the scale, all of the time. Skipping over a few of the notes in the scale, or even just one note as you can see if the ‘Turbo Lover’ riff by Judas Priest above, can help create space and make your note choices a little more expected, but not completely alien.
A good guitar teacher should be able to not only show you how to play a scale, but also how to interpret said patterns in your own way as well as how to use them in as many different ways as possible. Not all guitar teachers are made the same, but the ones at the American Guitar Academy are experts at this - make sure you reach out for some guidance on how to rock the night away with your own riffs!
