How to start playing Metal ( guitar)

H

huntsman91

New Metal Member
May 29, 2007
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Hi! I played guitar for a couple of month and its been my ambition since i recall to have a band! The problem is not in fiding members or anything like that is about playing...i'm not that good and i dont know any cool licks or riffs. So how do i start playing Metal ? The kind of metal new bands play, mainly for fun =) Some songs or anytinhg easy to play. I just want to be able to play something when i gather all band people. Thansk :headbang:
 
Be warned, this is how nu-metal scum forms.

But I'd suggest that you really learn basic guitar theory first, know your scales, modes, chord shapes and basic playing techs.
 
I suggest just learning the notes of the fretboard and the major scale for about the first year. In that year learn as many songs as you can, so you actually enjoy the instrument (I suggest starting with some Sabbath, then upgrade to stuff like Maiden).

After this first year I would start learning more deep theory, and start learning more advanced technique. After another year or so start learning more advanced stuff (in addition to writing your own stuff). Some good bands to learn from if you are wanting to learn more advanced stuff at that point would be: Yngwie Malmsteen, Necrophagist, Nevermore, Steve Vai, Sleep Terror, etc.

At that point you should know what you want to do and can handle it on your own.

So basically what I'm saying is: Start off slow, and make sure you enjoy playing. As you progress, learn as much theory as you can while still learning songs. Practice technique, alot, and make sure you incorporate theory so you increase your knowledge in actual playing situations.

I'll end by saying: If you can afford a teacher, for the love of science, get one, it will cut frustation down as well as making advancment faster (trust me, I know, not having a teacher makes things loads harder.)

Hope that helped ya.
 
Personally.
I have taken a completely different route than most guitar players.
I have been taking lessons for about 2 years.
I agree that yes, After a while you should begin scales and modes and boxes and theory and chord progression and all that theory stuff.
But the first 6 months or so.
POWERCHORDS.
They are one of the most important part of metal guitar in my opinion.
An example of a few powerchords could be.

A|-5-7-8-------
E|-3-5-6-------

Powerchords can be played anywere on the neck.
Any strings.
Any place.
Just keep your 1st and 3rd fingers planted
with one fret space between.
1st finger should always be 1 string above your 3rd.
Believe me these are VERY helpfull to know.
A few easy songs that use power chords are.

Paranoid - Black Sabbath.

Iron Man - Black Sabbath.

Almost all Nirvana songs.

Almost any song can be played with powerchords.

If your into deep low sounding metal.
Drop D tuning is very fun.
Easy drop D is just tuning your low E down to a D.
Then to make a cool mushy deathmetaly sound just use
flat chords.

Heres an Example.

A|-0-3-2-0--
E|-0-3-2-0--


That's my idea of aa real easy way to start.
In my opinion.
Some people may disagree with me.
A few things I also recomend.

A good guitar teacher. Not one that wants
to teach you "Rudolf the red nosed assdeer"

A distortion pedal.

Learning to play by ear.

Good friends if you wanna start a band.

MAKE GODDAMN SURE YOU LIKE PLAYING GUITAR!
Thats the most important thing about playing guitar.
Likeing it.
Having fun.

Oh yea. And after 6 months or so of practising.
Start learning some theory.
It's the essential for learning to solo.
Also if you get a teacher.
Ask him/her about tapping.
You will love it.


Have fun.
Enjoy.
 
What are scales? And how/what do I to my strings to to be able to get a standard death metal sound. And what's the idea between the strings being tuned to different letters? And what's the lowest a decent floyd rose can handle (i wanna sound uber low hehe).

Lotta questions I know :D
 
nissan said:
What are scales? And how/what do I to my strings to to be able to get a standard death metal sound. And what's the idea between the strings being tuned to different letters? And what's the lowest a decent floyd rose can handle (i wanna sound uber low hehe).

Lotta questions I know :D
Click to expand...

Scales are just intervals played in a progressing manner (ex. Major scale interval formula= 1 2 3 4 5 6 7). Those number come from the twelve musical notes (A,B,C,D,E,F,G and all their flats/sharps). This means when you are playing a scale, start on the root note of whatever scale you are wanting to play and follow the intervallic formula for the scale you are playing.


To the other person: No, theory isn't necessary, but it explains many things and makes them a hell of a lot easier.
 
Okay, what I meant was like... What's the use of "scales". Why is it practical in music? Do the notes just sound well together?
 
Well what I would suggest is to find a good teacher. You do not have to have lessons ever week either. But having a teacher who can direct you and pick out problem areas in your playing will help enormously.

A good teacher will be able to advise you on how to practice and what to practice. There are plenty of valuable techniques to help you efficiently and more importantly quickly learn scales and fundamental theory rules.

They can then show you ways to practice scales, arpeggios and chord inversions so you can build a solid playing style.

And once you have taken these basic skills on board you can push yourself as far into sonic bliss as you like.

As well as having lessons which will cover all the important techniques and theory you need to learn; you can work on songs from what ever style you fancy.

Trust me there are plenty of pros out there who have had lessons and who have studied under various teachers.

It is a much quick path to enlightment on the instrument than just winging it on your own.

Not to say there are not players out there who have not done it on their own and are fantastic musicians in their own right; but these are few and far between.

:headbang:
 
Gizzal said:
I suggest just learning the notes of the fretboard and the major scale for about the first year.
Click to expand...
Hahahahaha, WTF? If you spend more than a couple of days learning major scales, you're wasting your time. I learned major, minor and phrygian scales, and the relationship between relative and parallel major and minor in one 55 minute class period. After I got back from class, I went online to find out what the other four modes were, and I understood the relative and parallel relationships between all the diatonic modes in under a DAY.

After you understand those few simple concepts, learn harmonic minor, and the relative modes of harmonic minor. Don't even bother spending any more time with major scales other than for building your finger dexterity, which will be important when harmonizing over a minor lead.

In just about any type of metal, the two scales that you'll use the most are minor and phrygian, or harmonic minor and phrygian dominant.

Also, I've been planning on creating an instructional thread in this forum for a while now, so I'll add this to my list of threads to bump when I finish it.
 
i've been playin guitar for 2 years and i dont know any covers. maybe a few riffs from songs, but i like to just play what i feel. i feel my music comes out more original because of that. try tuning your guitar to what you want to do and what sounds good to you. who the fuck cares if its not "correct". you could also just play and figure out scales by yourself. there are thousands probably i dunno.
 
BlackMetalWhiteGuy said:
Hahahahaha, WTF? If you spend more than a couple of days learning major scales, you're wasting your time. I learned major, minor and phrygian scales, and the relationship between relative and parallel major and minor in one 55 minute class period. After I got back from class, I went online to find out what the other four modes were, and I understood the relative and parallel relationships between all the diatonic modes in under a DAY.

After you understand those few simple concepts, learn harmonic minor, and the relative modes of harmonic minor. Don't even bother spending any more time with major scales other than for building your finger dexterity, which will be important when harmonizing over a minor lead.

In just about any type of metal, the two scales that you'll use the most are minor and phrygian, or harmonic minor and phrygian dominant.

Also, I've been planning on creating an instructional thread in this forum for a while now, so I'll add this to my list of threads to bump when I finish it.
Click to expand...

Well, I highly doubt you had a complete understanding of all these things in under a day, let alone a month and knew how to apply them. I said to learn the major scale and notes of the fretboard and major scale so he would become used to identifying notes by their actual names in any position of the fretboard, along with just learning songs for the first year or so to ensure he takes an actual interest in playing.
 
Gizzal said:
Well, I highly doubt you had a complete understanding of all these things in under a day, let alone a month and knew how to apply them. I said to learn the major scale and notes of the fretboard and major scale so he would become used to identifying notes by their actual names in any position of the fretboard, along with just learning songs for the first year or so to ensure he takes an actual interest in playing.
Click to expand...
It's all very straight forward, and I think you'd be highly underestimating anyone to think that they couldn't grasp just simple concepts in just one day. It would still take a while before most people would consider themselves proficient at interpretting what's in front of them, but the basic understanding of what's happening and how it all interrelates is only a few minutes to an hour of reading, provided that the information is organized correctly.

I'm currently working on some instructional tablature jpegs and MIDIs that I will post in the Musicians Discussion forum at a later date, and out of all the people who I've helped out with this stuff on AIM, most of them were able to understand it pretty quickly. In fact, there are only two people (who I'm convinced are fairly dense) who still don't seem to have remembered a single thing I've told them over the past two years.
 
BlackMetalWhiteGuy said:
It's all very straight forward, and I think you'd be highly underestimating anyone to think that they couldn't grasp just simple concepts in just one day. It would still take a while before most people would consider themselves proficient at interpretting what's in front of them, but the basic understanding of what's happening and how it all interrelates is only a few minutes to an hour of reading, provided that the information is organized correctly.

I'm currently working on some instructional tablature jpegs and MIDIs that I will post in the Musicians Discussion forum at a later date, and out of all the people who I've helped out with this stuff on AIM, most of them were able to understand it pretty quickly. In fact, there are only two people (who I'm convinced are fairly dense) who still don't seem to have remembered a single thing I've told them over the past two years.
Click to expand...

Ahh I see. Yeah, when I started learning about intervals, modes and such, it only took a good hour to get the basic concept, but it takes much more time to master application and complete memorization. Slight miscommunication, sorry about that.
 
Well however long it takes you learn the scales Major, Harmonic and melodic as long as you understand that all modes are fragments of the main scales.


ie Phrygian is the 3rd mode of the Major scale

Phrygian Dominant is the 5th mode of Harmonic minor.

To be honest its good to understand the modes but once you have learnt the 5 inversions Of the Major, Harmonic and Melodic minor scales you know all the modes. Its just understanding how they work and that comes when you understand the 7 chord degrees that relate to these scales.

Then you need to know the 5 inversions of the Major, Major 7, Minor, Minor 7, Dom 7, m7b5 arpeggios.

And learning Diminished, Augmented scales and arpeggios will add to your melodic base.

Of coarse you have the Pentatonic scales as well.

To be honest you can learn all these things and more on your own but I dont see or hear many players who do.

Get some lessons every now and again from a pro and listen to yourself improve.

Remember playing the guitar is fun and you should not have to feel pressured by anyone to learn these things a.s.a.p. Just do it at your own pace. And have fun.

:headbang:
 
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