If ideas are a dime a dozen, sometimes they might as well be a million dollars as rare as they seem!
That's why creators are always in search of ideas for posts, videos, art, music, whatever.
As a musician, it makes sense to me that I can riff off of other creators.
What is a riff, and what is riffing off?
A good chunk of my life from very young has been musical performance.
I played trumpet in jazz ensemble in high school, and continued off and on in various jazz groups afterward. Improvisation is a crucial part of jazz: playing what's on the heart rather than what's on the page.
Songs, and sometimes players, are identified by their riffs — the musical snippets that make a song memorable and unique.
Skilled jazz musicians will riff off the song, or other players, in their improvisation. They'll latch on to a riff that's been played and incorporate it. It may be in a different key, a different octave, chopped into parts offset in rhythm, inverted, or put in a different musical mode, but there's a hook to the original musical idea.
Riffing off requires listening
Most jazz musicians worth their salt can blow and go. Their solo comes up and they play with the licks and figures they have under their belt.
No shame in that.
It takes something extra, though, to have a musical conversation with the musician behind you. One musician riffing off of another is a musical head nod, a hat tip, an acknowledgment, a show of respect.
Riffing off is a response. And to respond effectively, in music or anywhere, requires listening and understanding.
Riffing off of a rant
Christina Piccoli, longtime writer and Chevelle devotee (the band, not the car), gets this.
She describes her experience with her first angry commenter and how she responded to him. The commenter went on for 737 words in one of her other articles (I used a tool to count them).
She embraced this venom, and explained why:
I’m not upset about it. In fact, I’m happy because I got a new article out of it!
~ Christina Piccoli
She riffed off of the comments and created something new worth reading.
She took an abrasive, blaring trumpet solo and responded with a soothing, masterfully-crafted keyboard solo, keeping the tasty musical nuggets and discarding the blarts and blorps.
This is also known as winning.
Riffing off does not mean ripping off!
Wanted to make this distinction clear because the two terms sound similar. They're very different.
Riffing off is taking an idea and going somewhere new with it.
Ripping off is stealing, copying, or plagiarizing. Not at all the same thing.
If you're copying someone, you're not riffing off of them, you're ripping them off.
Riffing off for fun and profit
TL;DR it amounts to reading and listening to what's said, but:
1. Read like normally but especially comments
If you're fortunate enough to get comments on articles, videos, whatever, then unless the comment material is spam or otherwise completely unrelated to the piece, the comments will be about the same topic as the piece.
Inspiration can come from anywhere but a comment is ripe for riffing off of because of the close relation to the subject.
2. Follow ideas that present themselves
As soon as something in the comment triggers an idea, there it is, grab it.
It can happen more than once for the same comment, so grab that one too.
They all won't be winners but nothing is.
3. Make it your own
Take that fresh idea and develop it like you mean it.
Follow the trigger to something wonderful.
4. Riff off of yourself!
When I'm playing music, some things will just click, and I'll want to do them again, right there.
The act of writing will produce things that you'll want to use again. Creating something is also idea generation.
(Header Photo by John Matychuk on Unsplash)