This is basically a rough draft of a combination of the first couple lessons. Give me advice on what to put in, what's unclear, etc. Anyone willing to put the tabs here into guitarpro or powertab for me is an awesome human being.
The Basics: Right and left hands, holding the pick, fretting, power chords, palm-muting
This lesson is for the absolute beginner. Let’s start by defining our terms.
Now, I’m lazy, so I’m not going to explain the parts of the guitar. If you can’t figure them out, look ‘em up. I will, however, explain the following terms:
Right hand: Well, this seems obvious, doesn’t it? If you’re right handed, your right hand is the hand on your right. Fair enough. If you’re left handed, however, your right hand is actually your left hand. This is because “right hand” refers to the function of that hand, namely picking, which you do with your dominant hand. Most people are right handed, so we say right hand. This term is interchangeable with “picking hand.”
Left hand: If you read the above, you can probably figure this out. For righties your left hand is your left hand, for lefties it’s your right hand. If you’re confused, your left hand is your non-dominant hand.
Up the neck: This one is counter-intuitive. When you stand up with the guitar strapped on, the neck should slant upwards a bit. When I say “up the neck” you probably think “I’d better move my hand towards the headstock.” Actually, up refers to pitch; moving to a higher fret increases the pitch, so moving up the neck actually means moving down. Similarly, the higher strings (higher pitch) are actually closest to the floor.
Okay, enough of that. Let’s get started. You want to play metal guitar. While it’s possible to play electric guitar finger-style (i.e. with only your fingers), no one would ever try to play metal without a pick. You’d just get hurt. So, you’ll need a pick. Personally I recommend heavy-gauge picks; they feel solid, grip well, pick hard, and generally do exactly what you want. I use Dunlop heavy guage picks. I recommend, however, that you try a couple kinds of picks, just to see what you like the best. Don’t worry, they’re cheap.
Regardless of what pick you settle on, you’ll need to hold it. Your chosen pick should be roughly triangular, with one point being pointier than the others. That’s the end that makes contact with the strings. The grip should be fairly intuitive, and the moment you find something that works, skip on. Otherwise, bear with me.
There’s no right or wrong way to hold a pick, but I’ll describe the most common grip. In all cases the pick is held between thumb and index finger.
Make a fist with your right hand. You see how your index finger is curled? Keep it like that, although you can loosen it up a bit. Place your thumb so that the edge of your thumbnail is above the second knuckle of the index finger. Wedge the pick in between these two fingers such that the above-described business end is pointing outwards. This should be comfortable. If it’s not, figure out why and change your grip. Comfort is very important because your hand will be like this for a while.
Important note: how much pick should be sticking out?
This is a good question. The answer varies. For playing fast stuff (alternate picking and the like) you want a tighter grip with less pick protruding. For slowing stuff, especially any sort of wide strums, you want more pick protruding. Learn to shift your grip while playing. Your grip WILL improve as you play.
If you’re still having trouble, I can’t help much. I can’t provide photos here, so just google “how to hold a guitar pick.” You shouldn’t have any problem finding a photo showing you what to do.
Moving on: picking. There’s all sorts of picking techniques; alternate picking, economy picking, trem-picking, etc. We’ll get into that much later in the game. For now I’ll go over two very basic techniques: strumming and single note picking. First up: strumming.
For this you’ll need your guitar. Hold the pick like I showed you (using the looser grip with more pick protruding) and run the tip of the pick over all six strings (not too hard). By the way, you should be strumming in between the pick-ups on an electric and over the sound hole if you’re using an acoustic for some reason.
Okay, that was probably pretty unexciting. Feel free to buy a book of open chords and such and learn ‘em all so you can impress girls and write little acoustic bits like Opeth do. However, those chords have fairly limited use in metal. Where it’s at is power chords, which we’ll get to later.
Anyhow, you’ve strummed the guitar. What you did was a six string strum. Keep going; try strumming up and down. When you get bored, move on.
Now we’ll do single-note picking, which is what you’ll be doing most of the time if you’re playing metal. You can have a loose or tight grip, it doesn’t matter, but I would encourage a tighter grip because that’s the kind of guy I am.
Now, when you strummed you were probably moving your entire forearm; your elbow was doing the work. Well, your elbow just got laid off. It’s time for your wrist to step up. Single-picking is a very controlled motion. You’re only moving the tip of the pick about a centimeter. First off, anchor your hand. I like to put the heel of my palm on top of the bridge pick-up. Position yourself such that the tip of the pick is just above the low E string. Now, using your wrist, quickly move the tip of the pick through the low E string. That was single-picking. Specifically, it was a downstroke. I know I told you that up was down earlier, but for purposes of picking, gravity is restored. A downstroke goes towards the floor, and upstrokes are towards the ceiling. Try an upstroke if you want. You’ll notice it sounds weaker. While practice and improved technique will begin to fix this, most agree that downstrokes generally just sound better. For that reason, when you can I recommend using all downstrokes. More on that when you read about alternate picking and tremelo picking.
Now, I’ve talked your ears off about the right hand. But you’ll notice you don’t have much to show for it. It’s time to rectify that. Onward, to the left hand.
The left hand does what is called fretting. Fretting is the action of pressing the string down until it makes contact with the fret wire; fret refers to the space to the left of each fret wire, which is where your fingers go. Fretting is also the action of worrying. Don’t fret fretting the frets (shoot me now).
The action of fretting is pretty simple. There really isn’t a lot to it, but it’s extremely important to get it right because otherwise everything you play will sound horrible. So: first off, make sure you press down far enough. There should be no buzz and the note should ring clearly (on cheaper guitars there may be some natural buzz in some places; this is bad, but it’s not your fault). However, don’t press too hard; it hurts and it causes the note to bend. Too far means the string makes contact with the fretboard. You want to use the minumum amount of force needed to make the note ring clearly because 1) it’s easier, 2) it hurts less, and 3) it allows you to play faster; this will be important if and when you want to start shredding.
Another thing to go over is the angle of your fingers. A lot of people are starting at guitar now because of the Guitar Hero games, and it shows because they want to pick like that and they want to fret like that. Other people don’t play Guitar Hero but still have Guitar Hero fretting syndrome, so you should probably read this anyways. GHFS seems to take two main forms. People either have their fingers flat against the guitar or they plant them such that there is a 90 degree angle there. Both of these are atrocious technique and I’ll describe why.
The former is bad for two reasons. Firstly, you fret or partially fret not only the string you’re actually going for but all the strings above it. This means that when you pluck, even if your picking technique is great you’ll get tons of obnoxious noise in addition to the note you wanted. Secondly, it’s horrible for your hand to be like that. Thirdly, it’s much harder to change notes like this and when you do you’ll make tons of noise.
The latter is bad for a whole lot of reasons, so I’ll just jump in. The first one is that it hurts more; the tips of your fingers are going to be more sensitive than the pads. Ancilliary to that, there’s great potential for you to slip off of the string and have it ride up under your fingernail, which is even more painful. This of course brings up the increased potential for slipping off the string. What’s more, you’ll get tired quickly like this. It’s also hard to change notes like this because you have to carefully move your fingers. Also, it’s bad for your hand. Don’t do this one either.
So what do you do? Well, the answer is pretty much directly in between. The interior angle formed by your fingers and the fretboard should be around 45 degrees. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just watch some videos of people playing guitar and you’ll figure it out. Where does the string meet the finger? Actually, I’ll get to that in a moment as I awkwardly segue into my next topic, string muting.
Basically, unless you have long thin elven fingers like this guy I know who doesn’t even play guitar, you’ll have trouble fretting the guitar in such a way that you don’t touch any other strings. DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. EMBRACE IT. Because you want to touch those strings. But only a little bit. See, unless you have flawless picking technique and are a perfect human being, you’ll occasionally hit an extra string or two. But check this out: lay your index finger flat across all six strings and just let it sit there with no pressure, and then give those suckers a good strum. What did you hear? You probably heard a sorta chunky sound, but you did not hear the strings ringing. So if you fret one string and mute another string the way you just did and play them both at the same time, what do you think you hear? The prize goes to whoever said “the fretted string.” So let’s get back to fretting for the moment. Place your finger on the string such that the tip of your finger is touching the next string down and the pad of your finger is touching the next string up. You don’t need to touch them much, just enough to keep ‘em quiet.
And there you go! You can fret and pluck a guitar. So, are you ready to get started? Well, technically yes, but I’m not letting you off the leash just yet. There’s one more thing to do before I start handing out riffs: teaching you to read them.
Chances are at some point you’ve seen sheet music. Maybe you even read sheet music. But probably it’s just meaningless squiggles to you. Here’s the thing: sheet music was initially intended for instruments like trumpets, cellos, violins, etc; instruments that are not fretted. Thus, the only way to tell a violinist what to play is to say “play a B note.” (pianos, however, have keys. But they have too many of them) But you’re a guitarist, and you have frets. So if I want you to play a B, I can just tell you to play your B string without fretting anything, and if I want an F I can just tell you to play the second fret on your E string. Some bright guitar player realized that and also realized that sheet music is hard to read, so he came up with guitar tablature, which is a very simple way to write down music for guitar. Here’s how it works.
There are six bars, representing each string of the guitar, starting with the high E. Like so:
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And on these bars you write the number of the fret you want played. Try this:
E----------------------------5-8--------------------------------------------------------------------------
B-----------------------5-8-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G------------------5-7-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D-------------5-7----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A-------5--7---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E--5-8---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See how it works?
So, now you know how to play notes and you know how to play the notes I tell you to play. Now it’s time for the next big step: power chords.
Power chords are perhaps the most important part of electric guitar playing. Sure, being able to shred through scale after scale at 240 bpm is great, but tons of classic songs are based entirely on power chords. In fact, if you wanted to play punk rock, I would have just showed you three power chords and told you to play them really fast (joke). So: on to business.
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A--5------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E--3------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There it is: the power chord. Play it. Love it. Cherish it. Because here’s the sweet deal: if you can play one, you can play them all. Doubt it? Try this:
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D----------9-7-5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A--5-7-9-7-5-3-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E--3-5-7-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s right: they’re moveable. Just move that shape around and you can play them anywhere. You can’t use that shape to play chords rooted on the G string, however, as the interval between the G and B strings is different. To play a power chord on the G string, do it like this:
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B--4-5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G-3-4----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So there you have it: power chords. Crank up the gain and play them fast. You’re a rock star. But not really.
What’s that you say? It can’t seriously be this easy? Well, you’re wrong. Here’s one of the most iconic metal riffs of all time, and it’s all power chords. See if you recognize it when you hear it.
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D-4-7-7-9-9-11-121112117-7-9-9------------------------------------------------------------------
A-2-5-5-7-7--9-10-9-10-9-5-5-7-7------------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So that’s power chords. But what’s that? You say this doesn’t sound metal enough? Then I think it’s time we introduce the true heart and soul of heavy metal: palm muting.
Play this:
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing special, right?
Now, position your hand so that the edge of your hand (on the pinky side) rests across the ends of the strings right before they go into the bridge. When you pluck a string, it should ring very briefly. If the higher strings aren’t fully muted that’s fine. Now, turn up the gain and try that last figure again. If it sounded like “chug-chug-chug,” you’re doing it right. And if you’re doing it right, you’ve got it. That’s all there is to it. Practice playing some notes muted and some not. Practice playing different strings muted. Mess around. Your technique will only improve, but if you’re getting a good chuggy sound then you’ve got the basics down.
Now, let’s try a real riff, one that combines power chords and chugging.
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D------9---7--5-4---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A------7---5--3-2---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-0-0----0--0--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That’ll be all for today. Practice, practice, practice, and always remember: never scoop your mids.
Those videos would be like the shredding videos I mentioned, where its just like "Here it is fast, WEEDLY WEEDLY WEEDLY, and now slow. WEEDLY WEEDLY WEEDLY", lol. 
