Day 26 - Everybody Cut Bruce

Been trying to find ways to make harmonies musically interesting without adhering so strictly to the standard diatonic stuff. Expect more of it (or don't).

Day 25 - Harmonized Stuff

There are basically 4 segments to this riff, and I tried to harmonize each one in a different, but still metal, way. Huzzah.

Day 24 - Snakey Death

I've been playing a lot of Castlevania lately. This is a side effect of that.

Day 23 - Carefully Chosen Notes

Usually I like at least a little bit of the whole "by the seat of one's pants" element in the stuff I write, but this time every note was carefully chosen. Spent all day on just the last 2 chords. Very satisfied.

Day 22 - Bonkers Rhythm, Broken Harmony

I really dig this one. Tried to create something dense using a few simple ingredients. One of the best ones so far, methinks.

Day 21 - In A Harmonic Metal Mood

Been slacking on the riffs lately. Oh well. This is just some fun with A harmonic minor. Tried to make the melody section as actually melodic as possible. Can see this one becoming a full thing.

Day 20 - Picking Arm Death

I wanted something that sounded all fast and intense, but had some spaces left in the riff. Must learn to pick this more cleanly.

Day 19 - Mean & Spacey

Been a while since I let myself write just a simple power riff. I did it, but it needed some outer space sprinkled on top of it. There you have it.

Day 18 - Tripletized Metal

One of my better metal riffs as of late (if you ask me, which you didn't).

Day 17 - Slonimsky Rip-Off #2

This is a bastardization of patterns 1272 and 1275 (I raised this one a minor 3rd). Tried to get a cool jazzy but not overly-brainy melody going over it. Didn't turn out all that bad.

Day 16 - Tough Riffin's B Section

The title says it. This will end up in a song with Day 10's riff.

Day 15 - Dark Side Of The Fourths

What can I say? I love fourths with a minor third over em. In real life, the drums over this will be bonkers.

Day 14 - Blues, Nastified

Was thinking I should do something blues-ish, what with all the metal going on and such. Picked up the guitar and this one just came to me. Sometimes ya get lucky.

Day 13 - A Simple Headbanger

Haven't posted for a couple of days. The computer needed douched. That's done, so we're back. I'll post 3 riffs today to make up for the lost time.

This one isn't anything fancy. I harmonized the single note bits with a b6, and over the power chord I used a b3 octave. Getting my early 90's death metal on and such.

Day 12 - Fried Man

Feeling a little groggy after a massive ham dinner + Listening to a lot of Marty Friedman lately = This track. After I did the clean guitar, it hit me that the 2nd melody from Day 3 would work over it quite well.

Day 11 - Synthesized Beef

Nothing fancy, a fun riff. Used a bass synth setting on the POD XT Live. Sounds like if Type O Negative went around wearing cool-guy detective hats or something.

Day 10 - Tough Riffin'

Wrote this riff a while ago, but it wasn't until today that I could actually play the thing. One of my favorite riffs I've written. Also one of the biggest pains in my ass.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10553527

Day 9 - Slonimsky Rip-Off #1

This is me tinkering with pattern #394 from Nicolas Slonimsky's "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns". I love this book, and will probably use it for more than a few entries over the course of the next year.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10550023

Day 8 - Sci-Fi Metalurgy

Another metal riff - imagine that! Messed around with some nutty harmonies in 7/8. One of my better metal ideas.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10546273

Day 7 - Some Deathy Stuff

It's late, I'm tired, and sometimes it's all a guy can do to churn out even just a simple riff. I turned on the double bass and somehow managed to come up with a decent metal thing. Nothing more, nothing less.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10544855

Day 6 - Desatch Mode

I started off programming the backing track with a Depeche Mode vibe in mind. By the end, I felt a dance chorus coming on. The riffs and solos are just kind of a "do this sort of thing here" type of reminder for myself. Regardless of what the guitars end up doing, I'm really into the backing track.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10540626

Day 5 - Dad's The Devil

I started working on something for today, and it's turned into like some kind of a whole thing, maaaaan. While I finish that up so's it'll be ready for tomorrow's post, here's the very first song I ever recorded onto computer technologies. Pretty sure I did it in 2001.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10536002

Day 4 - Wholly Toned Blues

Wanted to see how catchy and bluesy I could stay within the confines of the whole tone scale. At first I tried all kinds of different busy lines, but in the end it was just some simple double stops that made the grade. Perhaps the key was combining the harmonic wackiness of the whole tone scale with some good ol' simplicity. The middle way and such.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10531314

Day 3 - Rhythmic Fun, Hold The 3rds

Decided to set a couple rules for this one. First, I wanted 3 different rhythms. Second, I wanted to stay in the key of Emin (is there any other key when playing guitar?), but not use the 3rd (G). Came out kinda groovy. Could see this becoming a full song.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10527124

Day 2 - Some NES-ish Type Thing

Lest we get any visions of grandeur about this little endeavor, here's a short and simple riff I came up with in about 30 seconds. It's basically just me dicking around with a Pat Martino lesson, using the chords C, E+, and Am, with the corresponding melody notes being G, G#, and A. I like it... could be worked into something. We shall see.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10524995

Day 1 - The Great Neptune Thrash Dance

Let's get this party started. I made this one a week ago or so, but we'll pretend like I recorded it today. This is more fleshed out than most of the riffs on this thing will be, but I had the idea for the blog (that word still sucks) and wanted to post something as Day 1 to get the ball rolling before I lost the ambition. Why? Because I am awesome at forgetting things instantly.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10463272

So I'm gonna record something every day for a year, and post it on this page. Isn't that neat? The answer is a resounding "maybe".