I'm sick of sucking so bad at guitar someone help me!

[ekka]

I really think i need to get lessons :zombie:uke:goggly:

right now me and a friend are trying to nail the solo for symphony of destruction (yes noob), dred and the fugitve mind and tornado of souls. We plan on being able to jam to that at full speed.

But this is how crap we are.

We play along to the intro of "Technical difficulties" at 75% of 130 BPM. How shit is that.

How do I improve. Am i learning the right songs? What songs should we try to get good at (mastering it is impossible) - so that we can play decent music together?

We like alot of melodic deathmetal but aren't good enough to play 95% of the stuff we like.

Should we try like chorded runs like "The Drapery Falls" by opeth, or something like vortex by megadeth (I hate the solo tho!), or start off with learning a symphony x solo at 10 bpm?


what do we do to get half as good as most normal guitarists, and half as good as the members of this forum!

 

[Pђoenix]

Here's a tip, don't play racer X from experience racer x/PG material is the most advanced stuff to get down cleanly even more so then Necrophagist. I'd recommend you start with some easier songs (or even just licks which improve a certain technique) and they don't necessarily have to be metal and work your way up. Bearing in mind learn to play something by yourself fully/cleanly before attempting to jam with another.

Also, improvement comes with time, amongst other things. It takes a while to learn a song properly. In the past i've spent weeks even a month trying to nail one song.

Hope that helps.

 

[BrandonS]

Here's another tip: stop listening to Megadeth, and practice practice practice.

You don't get to Carnegie Hall from having lessons....

 

[panzerfaust666]

yeah man. Music is pure emotion.Play an easier song and put all the feeling/emotion that you have into it. Its must funner than doing finger olympics. That will come in time, and if you cant do it now, you wont be able to do it in a month either ( as it sounds)

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Learn In Flames riffs. You've got to work your way up to the harder stuff.

Practice chromatic runs and pay very close attention to your technique.

 

[waif]

Here's another tip: stop listening to Megadeth

???
FAIL

But honestly, Dread And The Fugitive Mind?

 

[BrandonS]

Chromatic is actually a cool thing... but I find if you play it too much, you start to try to use it in a solo just like you'd use a scale that you practiced equally. It makes for a lot of "wtf?" stares from people listening to you. "What the heck man, there was no room for a chromatic scale there at all... wtf?"

.....

 

[ekka]

Thanks for all the replies.

Is there a list of songs I can follow to improve my playing? Is there any songs that all you guys have learnt that greatly improved your playing abilities?

 

[Valerie]

Playing things slow is the best thing you can do. Play it at a slow enough speed that you can play it clearly and easily, then after you can nail it perfectly at that speed, try to go faster. Also, only take small sections at a time, don't try to do the whole thing at once.

 

[EerieVon]

Also, quit thinking of yourself as "sucking", negativity never breeds success.

 

[cholo11]

Thanks for all the replies.

Is there a list of songs I can follow to improve my playing? Is there any songs that all you guys have learnt that greatly improved your playing abilities?

Don´t just learn songs, improve your technique too. What i did is start with something hard, you take more time learning tht thing but when you master it you can do whatever else you like, or at least for me because I haven´t heard of someone doing the same but I´m sure there is someone who did this too.
Btw like what melodeath bands were you referring too in first post?

 

[cholo11]

Btw lessons are obsolete nobdy needs them, it only makes things slower. its suposed to be easier but I don´t know.

 

[ekka]

i remember when i first heard hangar 18 - a couple of years back, i hated the entire song but wanted to learn the arpeggio that finished the second solo break before the second verse

from the top of my head its like

E :18-p13-10----------10-h13-17-p13-15-12-h13-12-------|
B :----------11----11----------------------------15-p13|
G :-------------10-------------------------------------|
D :----------------------------------------------------|
A :----------------------------------------------------|
E :----------------------------------------------------|

I'm starting with megadeth as I can play their riffs at standard speed but not their solo's. Also i used to play metallica for a while as well. I'd like to be able to play necrophagist solo's so i tried several malmsteen songs but have yet to reach the speed. I start every practice session with chromatic runs up and down the neck, from E to e string and then play the intro licks to blitzkreig.... i'm still slow as hell.

but thanks for all the tips so far

 

[BrandonS]

If you want to learn stuff to improve, then I'd recommend starting out with acoustic. Learn chords, chord progressions, etc... Then move on to doom. My Dying Bride riffs are fun to play, and Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia and October Tide is pretty fun and shouldn't be too hard for you. Don't worry about the tuning, just play the riffs in whatever tuning you're in.

After that, maybe play some punk. After that, power metal. Punk will start you building some speed with your rhythm and power metal will have you playing that in a more organized and probably faster way. Don't listen to dragonforce. Their stuff sounds fast but their rhythms are single-powerchords while wicked solos are laid on top.

I could keep going but I'd say the last thing you should work on is death metal... It's probably the fastest and most technical. When you get an understanding of all these genres rhythms lines in your head, then you could move on to solos. Practice improvising, get an ear for music - this isn't something that can be taught.

I was able to play major and minor scales before I even knew what the notes on the guitar were because I had basically memorized the patterns and I knew what sound would be made when I hit a certain note. I still don't know every note that is in a scale immediately in my head, but I can play a lot of them. I really don't have the memory for that kind of thing. IN OTHER WORDS, learn them by sound, not by name.... If you start to get somewhere with this and you want to learn the names, go take a theory class. It's super easy to forget the stuff though, so if you do take the class, keep on it after the class is over. >.>

-edit- now that I remember, I learned a lot from In Flames... a few songs... Acoustic Medley, Moonshield, Biosphere... pretty much the whole Lunar Strain / Subterranean thing is great. Also I'm not 100% sure, but there was a song by Novembre, I think called Foto Blu Infinito (it started out with rain I think, I don't have the song anymore)...

 

[xeperu]

I agree with the top post, learn chord progressions, but also learn my chords are shaped the way they are in relation to sound and playing on acoustic will make your fingers stronger too. Also, how long have you been playing for? If you are starting off don't overload yourself with hard stuff, also learn how to jam and improvise with other musicians like your guitarist friend, it will help nail in some patterns into your playing and allow you to practice things that you are challenging yourself in ( like soloing, tremelo picking etc. )

Also I would suggest playing some non-metal to expand your technique and influence, plus it would emphasize the need to make a song clear and focused rather than strumming as fast as you can, as hard as you can. Not saying you do, but alot of metalheads start off playing guitar often get carried away by earning to play as hard/technical as they can without ever slowing down and become stuck.

 

[waif]

If you want to learn stuff to improve, then I'd recommend starting out with acoustic. Learn chords, chord progressions, etc... Then move on to doom. My Dying Bride riffs are fun to play, and Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia and October Tide is pretty fun and shouldn't be too hard for you. Don't worry about the tuning, just play the riffs in whatever tuning you're in.

After that, maybe play some punk. After that, power metal. Punk will start you building some speed with your rhythm and power metal will have you playing that in a more organized and probably faster way. Don't listen to dragonforce. Their stuff sounds fast but their rhythms are single-powerchords while wicked solos are laid on top.

I could keep going but I'd say the last thing you should work on is death metal... It's probably the fastest and most technical. When you get an understanding of all these genres rhythms lines in your head, then you could move on to solos. Practice improvising, get an ear for music - this isn't something that can be taught.

There really is no need to start out on acoustic, it's kind of a myth. It'll make your fingers stronger, but that's about it. Also, there's no need to start with punk. Early thrash metal (Anthrax, Metallica, etc) will do. Helps with speed, palm muting, syncopation, and whatnot. As for death metal, you really can't make a blanket statement. Nile might be a bit beyond his reach, but Celtic Frost probably isn't.
And, yeah, it kinda can be taught. In fact, they have whole colleges and universities and whatnot devoted to teaching it. But it doesn't need to be taught.

Btw lessons are obsolete nobdy needs them, it only makes things slower. its suposed to be easier but I don´t know.

I'd agree with this. I took lessons for about 2 months, then stopped about a month ago. I've improved more since I stopped than I did while I was taking lessons.

 

[BrandonS]

Celtic Frost is death metal?

 

[Brakk]

Well for the Tornado of Soul solo thing, if you really want to work on that watch this video



He even plays the solo itself using the technique at 2:35

 

[cholo11]

About dragonforce, don't try it, it may be damn fast but its still can't be compared to slow things full of rhythm not just crazy soloing that you can't understand shit what he playing. Try something that really sounds like music, fast doesn't mean good.

 

[waif]

Celtic Frost is death metal?

Yes. Well, proto-death metal. Counts, though.

About dragonforce, don't try it, it may be damn fast but its still can't be compared to slow things full of rhythm not just crazy soloing that you can't understand shit what he playing. Try something that really sounds like music, fast doesn't mean good.

True, Dragonforce is great, but the fun parts are impossible to play and the rest is really fast power chords.