Dissonant chords

I Breathe Spears

Sculptor of Flesh
Jul 21, 2008
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What kind of chords do black metal bands play? They sound very dissonant and very minor. I'm particularly interested in this 15 year old lad's little enraged fit he plays on his guitar:



I like the way that sounds, sounds very chaotic and brutal.
 
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Yeah, All the chords he played were minor chords & just plain old power chords.
Major chords can work too as well as diminished chords.
All depends how they're used.
 
Instead of the normal power chord:

3
1

Do:

1
3

Reverse power chord kinda, sounds very evil and brutal if played in any standard tuning (Standard C, B, D, E, perhaps A?)

good luck
 
Not a single one of those chords was dissonant.

I use the term 'dissonant' to describe how they sound to me. I don't know a fucking thing about theory, as far as I know, you put your fingers on these strings and it sounds cool. Put your fingers on some other strings and it sounds like shit. If you play faster, it can sound cool. That's about as far as my scholarly musical knowledge goes. I just play, man.
 
I use the term 'dissonant' to describe how they sound to me. I don't know a fucking thing about theory, as far as I know, you put your fingers on these strings and it sounds cool. Put your fingers on some other strings and it sounds like shit. If you play faster, it can sound cool. That's about as far as my scholarly musical knowledge goes. I just play, man.

Chuck.
 
that kids playing is pretty bad in my opinion, he has no chops, just going spazzy

Your minor power chord as someone already mentioned would be say 5 fret on the A string and 3 fret on the D string, that would be D minor in standard tuning and represents a minor 3rd interval. (In the "key" Im headed in here, which is F major, this can be slid up two frets and becomes an E minor)

The major power chord would be... say... lets move down to the 3rd fret on the A string & 2nd fret on the D string, this is C major and represents a major 3rd interval.

Drop down the fretboard two more frets use the same major 3rd interval (1st fret A string open D string) and you have a A# major (B flat major, Im not very good on key signatures)

Then there is the inverted 5th which has a fat sound, that is a straight bar between any two strings (excluding between the G & B string), but the root is on the higher string. I like to use these on three strings. So lets go back to a normal D power chord, that would be 5th fret A string, 3rd fret D string, this represents a perfect 5th interval, but add the lower octave 5th by baring your first finger on both the 5th fret of the E & A string, your root is in the middle with a droped 5th and a raised 5th, very fat sounding.

now your ??? someone would have to help me here but its either augmented or diminished power chord in this particular key we are already going on would be 1st fret A string, 2nd fret D string, here I only use it and dont really know what it is, augmented if memory serves me and this is staying in key, which I dont always do.

another thing, take your standard perfect 5th power chord and drop your lower finger one fret. In the key I was just in that would happen I think on the open A string and 3rd fret of the D string. So say you are playing a A# or B flat power chord (1st fret A, 3rd fret D) and lift your first finger to open up the A. This must be some sort of 7th because thats what a 7th does is flaten the root.

This is the edge of my theory knowledge and may not pertain to your "black metal" feel. Im old school metal, blues and jazz, and there is much theory I dont know either, I just play what works for me, but with metal I primarily use just two-three string chords to keep things clean for riffs. Rythmns or picking or jazz and blues is a whole nother ball game and I cant explain any of that.

Good luck following along without tab but if you go slow you might get it. Its hard to explain. Seems one of the key things in metal is use of the one fret interval appropriate 4 fret interval and even better for darkness drop one fret and one set of strings for the "wicked" sound which is where that, either augmented or diminished thing comes in.

Sorry its the best I could do and no one else kicked in so... give it a try
 
minor chord...
--1--e
--2--b
--3--g
--3--d
--1--a
-----e

minor third any string
--1--
--3--

some cool chord
--1--
--1--
--2--
--3--
--4--
--1--

power chords also work well

btw, those are only a few of the many
 
A cool chord that I like to mess around with in terms of Black Metal is the add 9 chord. Basically, it looks like you're stacking power chords on top of each other. For example, Play a power chord on the 3rd fret of your A string and 5th fret of your D-string. You have a basic power chord. Now, hold that chord, but add another power chord on top of that. So you'll have 3rd fret A, 5th fret D, and 7th fret G. This is an add-9, and it sounds rather dissonant and melancholy. If you're playing it in a black metal style.
 
Chuck Schuldiner was a beast, as was Stevie Ray Vaughan. Neither of them bothered much with music theory. They became amazing guitarists and were legends in their respective genres.
They both died young.

Coincidence? I think not. Learn your scales, kids.
 
It's pretty easy to tell a dissonant chord from a consonant chord

Not really, he didn't really care for music theory much, he just created his own scales and stuff, just played.

He thought he made up his own scales, but he actually was just using harmonic and melodic minor most of the time and didn't know it.
 
No it doesn't.

Music theory is useful.
You don't absolutely need it, but it'll help you not suck.
as for dissonance...try this:

A-----6
E-----2

or

A----7
E----2