Learning to play Opeth

[redreflection]

I'm learning to play the guitar (acoustic) and although Opeth's material is probably the wrong place to start, I'm after suggestions for which songs or sections of songs are the simplest to learn?

So far, i've learned parts of The Twilight Is My Robe, just the chords, by ear. Does anyone know a location on the net for Opeth tabs?

 

[Razed]

opeth.darkwood.com/tablature.html

Check out the rest of the site, too, it's pretty nice.

 

[Ermz]

opeth.darkwood.com has a bit of tablature... about 50% of it is wrong but it's a good place to start.

I think the Orchid album in general is good for learning... just seperate the channels and learn each guitar part. Aside from that, Patterns In The Ivy is good to learn and so is Credence.

 

[Hondo]

I imagine it's hard to tab a lot of the heavy stuff on MAYH onward, because it's so muddy at times and I can hardly hear the individual notes. Like some stuff on BWP I thought was an e-bow or something, but out of boredom I read some tabs, saw it was actually fast-picked, and then could hear it fine.

 

[Ermz]

yeah MAYH is a transcribing nightmare, I think it's channeled though, so that's a bit of an up point. I know Demon of the Fall was damn annoying to get correct.

 

[redreflection]

Thanks a lot!!! I appreciate it!

It'll take me a while to work through those tabs.

.......I'll be playing like Mikael in a week or two!

 

[Russ]

Originally posted by Moonlapse
opeth.darkwood.com has a bit of tablature... about 50% of it is wrong but it's a good place to start.

Yeah, tabs that are about 50% correct should be a good help for you learn, by trying to fix them.

 

[Lethal01]

I never end up playing exactly like any tab.. I just take what sounds right to me

 

[Rusty]

Hehe, Harvest is the easiest to learn and play. But for a better feel, I suggest some songs off Orchid. And like others have said, only use tabs to get an idea of what's being played, work out what is actually being played yourself.

 

[Staffan]

Originally posted by Hearse
Dont use tabs... learn them by ear, thats the best way to learn.

Yep

Unless you're only going to play guitar just a lttle sometimes to impress your friends... if you're gonna play in a band you will have to learn things by ear

 

[IntoObscurity]

I agree, try to learn by ear. It's a bitch now, but you will really be glad you did in a few months. I've been playing by ear for about 2 years now, and it took me 2 runs through to play all of Epilogue perfectly by ear. Some Opeth stuff, like Karma or Demon of the Fall is tough cause it used unique chords, but you'll get used to it.

 

[the face of smeg]

wot's this shit about seperating chanels...how u do that? um...yeah, how.

 

[Poison Godmachine]

Originally posted by Hearse
Dont use tabs... learn them by ear, thats the best way to learn.

I use tabs to get myself started. For example, I looked at the Advent tabs and played them then changed everything to what I though was right. I don't play it all like the tabs. (later I downloaded a bootleg video and I saw I was playing it right! Same position and everything! Yay for me!)

 

[redreflection]

You mentioned unique chords.....does Opeth use a lot of these?

Do they tune down at all?

 

[Poison Godmachine]

Some songs are drop D, like Demon of the Fall and Blackwater Park.

 

[Ermz]

Poison, since I'm a lazy bastard, an accurate Advent tab would be much appreciated!

Seperating channels.. well the best way is to play one of their songs as mp3 on winamp, and just set the channel slider either left or right 100% and you will hear what comes out of each individual speaker.

 

[TyrantOfFlames]

I find separating channels is done most easily by unplugging speaker.

As for Twilight Is My Robe, the tabs are horribly wrong for that song. Don't even bother with them. I am curious as to what parts of TIMR you are learning, because most of it is electric. The acoustic part around 3:30 minutes into the song, I find to be rather tough. Granted I play tuned to D, so their way of playing that part might be a bit easier, but figuring out what he was playing was a real bitch. It's suggest To Bid You Farewell and Harvest. These songs have alot of easy acoustic guitar parts. But if you are going to learn To Bid You Farewell, you must separate the channels, or else you will play something different everytime you listen (that's what I did).

 

[IntoObscurity]

They use almost entirely standard tuning, but occasionally do throw in the drop D. As for the chords, well if you take, for example, the acoustic riff in Demon, you'll see its very funky and jazzy, its not like a Megadeth or Metallica riff where you know its all power chords, they actually use Em7 chords, etc.

 

[Morgour]

if you've only just started to learn i wouldnt bother learning opeth just yet, but however a good one to learn is patters in the ivey.