Riffacturing:
Another reason to play

Musicians pursue their craft for many reasons. There are those who love the rush of showing their talents, while others only seek personal fulfillment. Some are focused on creating an original composition, while some prefer to perfect their skill. As a musician, I have done each of these at one time or another. Now, I have found a way to have fun with other musicians while doing all of these at once. I call it “Riffactoring”.

I picked up my first guitar at the age of thirteen, and was fortunate enough to hook up with a band. We did mostly rock covers with some originals. My first contribution to song writing was limited to adding rhythm guitar to an already written composition. Eventually, I began to compose my own songs and record them with the band.

Although we were collaborating, the limits of technology forced us to dedicate our time together to recording. Writing was a solo activity done by the composer, who brought the rhythm, chord progressions, song structure, and lyrics to the group. The band’s studio time was dedicated to recording, so making significant changes at this point was seen as counter productive.

Over the years, technology advances eliminated barriers to recording music. I was able to take my creative ideas and produce high-quality multi-instrument compositions. If I did not play an instrument, I would just program it. I was writing, recording, and producing my own music. Technology eliminated the need for me to collaborate. It was then that I realized producing recorded music was not what mattered most to me.

I started Riffactoring with a trio in the late 90’s, although I did not know what to call it at the time. My drummer and bass player had no interest in playing cover tunes. Since we had no original songs to play, we just made up some riffs. One of us would improvise a phrase, and the others would match it. We would repeat the phrase in a loop, incrementally changing it along the way. When we were lucky, we escaped this ‘one riff jail’ and added other parts to what gradually became a song.

It became our thing to incrementally refactor a riff (ergo ‘Rif-factoring’) into a complete composition. Within a few months we had a dozen original songs to play live, half of which we recorded. More importantly, we continued to have a reason to get together and play. Whether the song we created was a keeper, or a complete trainwreck never to be played again, every Riffactoring session was time well spent. We were not only performing and creating, we were playing a game.

Riffactoring is a multiplayer musical game you play, by playing your instrument. And like any game, it has some rules. So, here they are, board-game style:

     • 2+ Players
     • One player performs a short ‘seed-riff’ phrase repeatedly
     • Remaining players add to the phrase, matching the musical key and rhythm
     • Any player can introduce a single change to the phrase
     • Other players attempt to match each change

The group repeats the phrase continuously. All changes are suggested by performing them, not speaking to the group. These match-and-tweak rules follow an improvisational principle of saying “yes, and”. Influence the phrase by building upon it with your own contributions. You are not soloing at this point. You are not trying to inject your completely different riff into the phrase. You are challenging yourself to see how well you can build on other’s ideas.

If you have never composed or improvised before, you might feel intimidated. The key is to start simple. A 2-chord progression with a 4/4 straight beat is a great place to begin. After all, there are many famous 2-chord songs. The point of Riffactoring is to evolve from simple to complex, from one layer to many. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

A song ‘part’ has successfully been created from a riff when the group is continuously repeating the same phrase without changes. If you are keeping score, give yourself a point. However, you are now in danger of staying in ‘one-riff-jail’. Assuming that a 3-hour, one-phrase jam session is not appealing, the obvious escape is to create a second riff. Here are some simple rules for introducing additional parts using Riffactoring.

     • Player alerts others they will introduce a second riff (speaking allowed)
     • Keep the same tempo and key, but everything else is fair game
     • Follow the basic Riffactoring rules
     • Switch between the original part and the new part

As new parts are created, start to switch between parts and work on transitions. The goal is to further refine the individual song parts so that they flow better together. If it is a struggle to create a flow between two parts, perhaps they are not meant to be within the same song. Experimentation is about what to keep and what to toss.

Now you are ready to run your own Riffactoring session. Use it as a reason to get your friends together and play. No prep work is necessary! There are no songs to learn! Be intentful and challenge yourself. These simple rules give structure and purpose to your jam sessions without the obligations of being a working band. Your reason to play can be to simply have fun.

Zirrif is designed specifically to support this form of musical collaboration. The goal of Zirrif is to create an online sandbox for convenient and fun musical playtime. Each project is its own ‘jar of ideas’, containing related riffs to be developed live online, or offline when you have the time. If you want to try Riffactoring but cannot get into the same room with your fellow musicians, this may be a good alternative for you.