Death metal riff generator
A death metal riff generator creates low, heavy guitar riffs that mix palm-muted chugs with fast tremolo picking. This page uses C phrygian in Drop C at 190 BPM.
Example riff
This riff was made with the settings below and the seed death-metal2. The same settings and seed always give the same riff.
- Key
- C
- Scale
- Phrygian
- Tuning
- Drop C
- Tempo
- 190 BPM
- Difficulty
- 4
- Technique
- Mixed
- Bars
- 4
PM----- PM------ PM-- PM PM----- PM------ PM-- PM
D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
F|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
c|---------0-------------0---------|---------0-----------------------|
G|-------5-----------5-------------|-------5-----------5---5-0-1---1-|
C|0-10-------0---0-1-------0-1---0-|0-10-------0---0-1---------------|
PM----- PM------ PM-- PM PM-- PM PM PM
D|---------------------------------|--------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------|--------------------------------|
F|---------------------------------|--------------------------------|
c|---------0-------------0---------|----------------------------0---|
G|-------5-----------5-------------|----------------1---------------|
C|0-10-------0---0-1-------0-1---0-|0---0-0-1---0-------0-1-5-------|
Open this riff in the generator Make a new riff in this style
What makes a riff sound like death metal?
Death metal riffs live low on the neck. Tunings such as Drop C or Drop B make the open low string the main chug, and short bursts of fast notes or tremolo picking fill the gaps. Notes outside the scale are common in the genre.
The generator keeps every note in the scale by default. For notes outside it, such as the flat fifth, open Riff Lab and raise the chromatic slider.
How the settings are chosen
The technique Mixed combines chugs, tremolo and short melodic moves. Drop C puts the lowest string on C, so the open string is the root of the riff. Difficulty 4 allows jumps of several frets and runs of sixteenth notes.
Frequently asked questions
What is Drop C?
Drop C is Drop D tuned down a whole step: C G C F A D from the lowest string to the highest. The three lowest strings then form a power chord shape on a single fret.
Can I get tremolo picking riffs?
Yes. Choose the technique Tremolo for long, fast-picked notes, or Mixed to combine tremolo with chugs. Tremolo notes are marked TP in the copied tab text.