Jeff Loomis riff writing “hack”

Published by automattack,

Jeff Loomis’s strategy for writing new songs/riffs:


Jeff writes 10 new riffs a day.

They don’t have to be good riffs. He just writes 10 new ones. Every day.

That’s 70 new riffs a week.

Now I’ll admit, I didn’t look this up to verify it. Maybe it’s not even true.

But either way…it’s a GREAT songwriting strategy.
Why? Two reasons:
  1. Even if most of those riffs aren’t very interesting, you’re writing so many that it’s likely at least 1 or 2 will be amazing. And that’s all you need to write a hit song.
  2. You have tons of material to create songs with. It’ll be hard NOT to write a new song.

Pro-level artists don’t just write 10 songs for their new album and call it a day.
They usually write LOTS of songs and choose the best ones to make the album.

So if you’re trying to write more songs, try stealing this strategy. Write 10 riffs (or 3 or 5 or whatever) every day. It’s ok if some of them suck. Just pick the best ones for your next songs.