A bit of a general question here but I’ve noticed I’m struggling to perfect riffs a lot more than chords and strumming, I don’t know if this is a common thing, I’m not talking about solos and faster riffs here.
As an example I moved onto power chords and for a month have been learning Sweet Dreams - Marilyn Manson - well, I learnt the song in a about a day or two, and the 4 power chords I found no challenge at all, it took me days to play them somewhat consistently well. The riff on the other hand, I committed it to memory quickly, and slowly worked up to the 90bpm that the song is at. But when I play the song the parts where I play the riff just feel so inconsistent and the only consistency is I’m guaranteed to make mistakes. I know it’s early days in my journey and it takes time but I’ve played this riff probably 1000 times, and I’m playing religiously every day and dedicating a decent chunk of time to this song. But I still haven’t cracked it to a point where I’m happy.
I have considered going back down to a lower bpm, 80% is fine with almost no errors at all. I honestly thought the muscle memory would have completely kicked in at this point, I even spent some time playing it at 110% and 120% - which bizzarely I can do, albiet with mistakes still.
For what it’s worth I have had a problem with learning riffs throughout the entire course until now. How does everyone learn riffs to a point where they are comfortably played?
At 80% you say almost no errors - almost no errors is not no errors. You have to be able to play it slow.
I’ve been learning one of the simpler versions of Thunderstruck by AC/DC on Yousician. I could almost play the riff at 100% but I think much like you there was always errors, not necessarily the same one every time and I could tell myself it’s just a question of time and it will come together… but of course it didn’t, because all I was doing was practicing being inconsistent. It wasn’t until I stepped back down and I could nail it at 80% virtually every time (I’m a human, not a robot), and then 85%, 90% that I finally got it. That might sound like it took ages, but actually once I’d properly got it at 80%, the steps up came quickly. I think in the long run, jumping to 100% too soon actually results in it taking longer to learn properly.
This sounds so familiar and is actually what is happening to me.
It makes sense though. I’ll drop down the BPM and maybe look at recording myself doing the riff for a few mins to see at what point the mistakes are happening. It’s frustrating for sure as I’ve been playing at 100% speed for a while now but it’s probably not been the correct approach.
analyse, very specifically what the problem is
Eg is it hitting the wrong string(s), missing/ muting strings, struggling when moving strings, struggling to form a chord shape, timing issue, the approach into riff etc.
then focus solely on that only. Break it up into smaller parts if required. Find your CTS ,
( Continuous Top Speed). ie. The speed at which you can play it absolutely PERFECTLY for at least 4 repetitions, preferably more.
Increase CTS to desired tempo, either in increments and/or using speed bursts.
Incorporate the problem section back into the music.
Assuming you are not attempting something way beyond your capabilities, which it appears not in this case, then this method will consistently produce results.
This little comment here makes me think you’re somewhat early in your journey - learning your power chords.
Yes, riffs are harder. Both hands are in motion at the same time and you need to be more accurate with your right hand. All of it gets easier in time, including learning new riffs.
Yeah, I’m around 9 months into my journey. I suspected it may be that I need to just put more time in but I was unsure if grinding through was the right approach.
After the feedback here I’ll take a different approach and go back to basics with this riff.
If it helps, I have now been playing for 2 and a half years, and I still cannot get rifts to work for me! As everyone says above, slow the rift down until it is 100% accurate every time. That’s the only way of learning them. All I have to do now is to practice what I preach
This might be way off the mark, and I’m one of those people notoriously bad at sticking to the program and jump up and down between grades, but I wonder if you’ve spent much time on scales?
I definitely ran into similar problems trying to learn riffs in songs, and while I had “done scales”, I hadn’t really internalised the (usually present) connection between the scales (and chords) I had “learnt” and the riffs I was trying to play. I feel like once I starting “getting” this connection, my fingers started going to the right frets more naturally.
For an epilogue to a shamefully rare post of mine, I do remember a Justin video somewhere along the line where he made a comment that he had a lightbulb moment back in the day when he realised the riff in some Metalica song he was trying to learn was straight out of the major scale. I remember thinking at the time “yeah, ok, mate, whatever” …then the same thing happened to me (but for the bridge for Alice in Chains - Rooster). Who could have known! If only someone had told me!
No you’re on the mark. I didn’t spend any more than prescribed really - so maybe 5 mins a day or whatever. To be honest I’ve found them tremendously boring and mostly been playing songs over the past few months.
The advice I’ve been given so far anyway is working well, bringing the bpm back down and I’ve worked it up to a better consistency quicker than I thought.
And i guess just to expand a little on my post above, I think what I’m saying is… If you find the chord shapes of the song relatively easy to get your fingers into, then my advice is to figure out what chord shapes (and maybe scale) the riffs relate to, and when it’s time to jump to the riff, think of it more like jumping to the chord.
I just had a super quick glance at the UG tab for Sweet Dreams. Looks like its mostly power chords and the riffs (the first bridge at least) are the same shapes with a little bit of pinky action and slides. Actually looks like a fun riff indeed.
