Metal Guitar Lessons - Learning the Guitar With Heavy Metal Music

Although heavy metal is distinctive as a genre of music, it's also known for having numerous sub-genres (and in some cases, sub-sub-genres!). In particular, many of these sub-genres play out their differences in the guitar parts.

As you progress in your guitar lessons, it can be fun to explore the varying elements in these styles. Below we'll go over a few of the most well-known kinds of metal.

Classic Metal - Originally, this was the only kind of metal! Bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest really helped to define metal as its own kind of music. Although influenced by blues and psychedelic rock, early heavy metal was defined by distorted guitar sounds, gruff, heavy vocals, and complex dual guitar work. It's a great genre to explore as a student of the guitar, as it provides numerous classic and popular songs to explore.

Thrash - The key element of thrash metal is SPEED! Thrash music is known for being incredibly fast paced, and therefore might not be the best choice for beginner musicians. Look for bands like Metallica, Megadeth and Testament for great thrash songs.

Power Metal - Although it grew out of early heavy metal, power metal now has its own distinctive sound. Many elements are separate from the guitar, including high pitched vocals, double bass drumming, and fantasy lyrics. However, there's still plenty to offer for the guitar. Chord changes are somewhat less frequent compared to other styles of metal, although complexity is far from lacking in this genre due to fast guitar solos. Power metal is a great place to look for long, exciting guitar solos that are at times missing from other kinds of music.

Extreme Metal - Somewhat of a catch-all of term for non-traditional styles like death metal, black metal, and doom metal. Every element of metal sees exaggeration in these kinds of music. It might be the slow, dirge-like sound in doom metal, or the highly distorted melodies in death metal. Although not for everyone, excellent musicianship can be found in this kind of music.

There are many more styles of metal music to be found! As you progress in your guitar lessons, a great way to add some variation to practicing chords and scales is studying and learning popular metal songs.

Constantine Walker is a life-long metal fan and musician. He wants to make learning to play music as fun as possible!

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Rock and Roll Guitar - Was It A Mixture of Blues, And Country Music?

It's difficult to really define what Rock and Roll music is, or where it really started, but Rock and Roll is definitely when guitar playing as we now know it started.

Elvis Presley must be given some of the credit for it, with his hips swinging and the raunchiness of the songs, although he did not really play guitar well at the time. He did however start the craze of screaming girls at his shows, it was all about sex really, and in fact that is how it got the name Rock & Roll.

The roots of Rock & Roll go back to the late 40's, and were influenced by blues and gospel music later the big band swing, and rhythm and blues; it was also influenced by country guitar music.

Some of the artist's of the time such as Elvis Presley with "That's Alright Mama" and Bill Hayley's "Rock Around The Clock", at the time the piano was the main instrument in the band, until Chuck Berry turned up with songs like "Johnny Be Good" with that famous Guitar Riff, which we still hear today.

I had the pleasure of seeing Chuck Berry playing live in Leicester, England; he was 64 years old then, but still Rocking, a great show.

England's answer to Elvis Presley was Cliff Richards and the Shadows, (which were basically an electric guitar band) with "Living Doll", unfortunately Cliff didn't make it big in America, but he is still going strong in England at the ripe age of 80 and has just released his latest album.

In the early 60?s we saw the start of what was to be called "The Swinging 60's" or sometimes "The Golden Age of Rock and Roll", the biggest Band was The Beatles who when they played could not even hear themselves because of the screaming girls, and poor P.A. systems.

The Beatles were the first British artist's to make it big in the U.S.A.; they were unique then as they wrote most of the song's that they performed, and in fact they changed music, and the rules of the music we hear today.

They also wrote "I Wanna Be Your Man" which became the first hit record for the Rolling Stones, who also made it in the United States, and they still perform sellout concerts to this day, even at their age, so there's hope for us all yet.

In the late 60's-early 70's we had the Glam Rock and the psychedelic era, and saw bands such as Jefferson Airplane, T Rex, Mud, and Wizard as well as Jimmy Hendrix and David Bowie, the style of guitar playing became more aggressive with a rise into Hard Rock and Heavy metal, we saw AC/DC, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.

It is my belief that Rock and Roll music will be with us in some form or another for a long time yet, and people will still be influenced by it, and will continue to buy records and learn to play guitar, whichever style of music they choose to play, it is all related anyway.

I hope that you can see now how Rock and Roll Guitar was a mixture of Blues, Country Guitar music, as well as Swing and Rhythm and blues.

I hope that you have found this article of interest, it has been written out of my love of this type of music, and in particular my love of good guitar playing.

Please feel free to comment on it, and to share it with others.

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Metal Guitar Lesson Resources

Ok, so you want to throw away your cardboard guitar and thrash out some real Heavy Metal music. Right, you're going to need an electric guitar, a big powerful amplifier, and above all, Metal Guitar Lessons!

Lessons? Yes, lessons. Because it might look like Dave Murray just hammers his guitar, but there's 30 years of experience gone into making the Iron Maiden sound. If you want to play like Metallica or Judas Priest, you have a lot to learn.

Metal Guitar has bred it's own techniques and styles, you don't need to learn how to quietly strum chords, but you do need to know how to do hammer-ons and pull-offs, and do it with the hard fast beat that Metal music demands. Metal Guitar Lessons place the emphasis from the outset on the special techniques that are fundamental to Heavy Metal music. Some Metal riffs can seem impossible to play, unless you know all the little tricks that Metal guitarists have invented over the years.

Metal guitar uses a lot of special fingering techniques, using both the right and left hands. Not only do you need to learn to play them, if you want to learn all the famous tracks then you'll need to learn how to read and write them as well. Traditional music scores are pretty useless for explaining how a heavy metal guitar note is to be played, guitarists have developed their own system of notation for Rock Guitar called TAB. This type of notation shows the way to play the note as well as which note. Unlike traditional music scores it doesn't include timing, being a modern system it assumes the player can listen to a recorded track to understand the speed.

TAB notation is easier to read than other music notations. Invented just for the guitar, it shows the 6 strings and the fret numbers, learning from the outset using TAB notation is quicker than traditional techniques.

Metal guitarists hammer out power chords like machine guns, they're not superhuman, there's a trick. The classic Metal sound relies heavily on sets of chords that can be easily played in quick succession, sometimes relying on unusual fingering for fast changes from one chord to another. To get the chords out faster they dampen the strings with the palms of their hand. It's no good learning traditional guitar playing techniques, to pump Heavy Metal you need Metal Guitar Lessons.

Metal Guitar is hard on the hands, playing the guitar always requires agile fingers, Metal Guitar needs sheer brute force as well. It's very useful to have exercises designed to work out your fingers and build strength and resistance in the right places.

In any sort of music the instrument is important, but with Metal guitar the effects pedals and the amplifiers play a big part in making the heavy metal sound. Metal Guitar lessons will teach you all about the different types of equipment guitarists use, it's essential if you want to create the same unique styles of the big Metal bands. Using the right guitar is important, but you need to know when to use which pickup, how to use your tremolo bar properly, and how to use the gain control to regulate the sustain and overdrive.

Metal bands might be noted for the big guitar solos, but it's the drummer who calls the shots on the speed. There's no conductor in a metal band, you have to learn to listen to the other instruments and play in time with them. It's not some magical harmony, Heavy Metal bands have developed their skills to allow them to thrash out their music at high speed all in time with each other. Metal Guitar lesson put a lot of emphasis on band playing, you'll also need specially recorded jamming sessions that allow you to practice playing along with other instruments, adapting your speed to theirs.

Playing Heavy Metal guitar is a 100 times more satisfying than playing an air guitar, but a 1000 times more difficult! It's no good just learning how to play an ordinary guitar and then try to play it harder and faster, Heavy Metal has it's own special techniques and if heavy metal is what you want to play, then you're best off starting with Metal Guitar lessons from the outset.

For information on where you can find the best online metal guitar lesson resources you need to take a look at http://www.online-guitar.org.

The Crusade - Bringing Music Theory To A Rock Guitar Audience

Greetings, fellow rockers! It's time for me to begin my crusade.

What crusade do I speak of? One of hacking people of a different opinion to bits? Perhaps slashing the speakers of amps I don't like? No - it's my goal of teaching theory to rock musicians!

Ha ha!

Perhaps I can bump "Larry the Cable Guy" off prime time with my comedic ideas! Instead of Larry's signature saying on redneck trucks everywhere, tough vehicles all across America will sport the letters "ii-V7-I" and folks will be laughing. "Hey Joe, did you hear about Josh trying to teach intervals to people? HA HA!"

But until the gas guzzlers are pasting chord progressions on their cars,

here's a series of articles designed to help you, the average viking shredder, pierced punk, or reverse mullet emo kid - learn music theory in a cool way.

First, to learn rules, we need rules:

The articles shall not be:

1.Boring.

2.Confounding.

3.Stuffy.

4.Impossible.

There. And if they are, remind me, and I will beat myself over the head with a metronome.

Why should you bother to learn, and why am I writing to show you?

Well, first off, theory is not as hard as you think. It's just how it's usually presented. I've learned that skilled teachers can make anything boring. Thankfully, I'm not skilled in that regard (I hope.) Remember, I'm a rocker, too, and I intend to remain that way. Theory has helped my playing out in a big way, and it's my belief that it can do the same for yours.

I usually hear the following logic when it comes to learning music theory.

"Dude, I'm a rock (metal, punk, emo) guitarist! I don't need theory."

While this partly true, it's missing half the fun! Nobody needs to learn theory, but read on, and hopefully you'll be convinced to tackle this challenging, fun, and enormously useful discipline.

Why bother with this confounding, complex, and suspiciously classical study?

Because it will make you rock. Seriously.

But you'd better let me explain before you believe me.

The word music theory is enough to send a tattooed, pierced, long haired metal guitarist running away to cower behind the light bar at the Blood and Guts Hard Rock club.

A guitar buddy once quipped "How do you make a guitar player shut up?

Put a piece of sheet music in front of him!"

But seriously, folks, music theory has helped my rock playing tremendously, as well as making other styles more accessible, and I'm here to help you learn about this fascinating study of music. (And don't worry, you won't need to read music to understand the lessons.)

Specifically, what is theory good for? I would say that Theory is the study of the chemistry of music. When we create a musical explosion, knowing theory, we can duplicate that madness instantly, because we understand the how and why. Moreover, it unlocks the fretboard, and frees us from extensive and time consuming guesswork.

A few examples of the many applications would be:

Constructing chord progressions, and understanding why they work.

Soloing over unusual chord progressions, and sounding good the first time.

An aid in composing music.

Adding tension and resolution in your music (metalheads, read: making your music sound spooky.)

Understanding different styles of music.

Understanding chords.

Understanding scales.

Understanding how different artists and composers approach music (getting inside their heads.)

In short, it is the study of why.

Cheer up. Make the decision to educate yourself, and if you're looking for an edge in your field, this is a superb start. Contrary to popular opinion, theory won't serve as a straitjacket to your songwriting, nor will it make you sound "classical." (But it can if you want it.)

Remember this: If we want to be rebels, we need to know the rules in order to break them.

So be warned - I'm on the warpath, and in this crusade, I will catch the dissenters, and throw 'em into "da pocket." "Da pocket" is a feared pit full of...metronomes!

All clicking away...at 300 beats per minute!

And don't forget to visit my blog!
http://www.joshurban.blogspot.com

Josh Urban is a musician, educator, and writer based in the Washington, DC area. Never staying still for more than a few seconds, he aims to share his passion for music with his readers. Josh's goals are to entertain, educate, and enlighten, and have fun while doing so. For more of his writing style, please visit his blog at http://www.joshurban.blogspot.com

The Eras of Metal Guitar

Music has seen a very detailed progression since the birth of metal and hard-rock in the late 1960s. It would be impossible to fit it all into an article, but I'm going to go over the basic progression of how metal guitar found its way into the current state that we know it. It started out with Hendrix and Steppenwolf, also Black Sabbath and began to work its way up to the sounds of bands like Zeppelin and AC/DC, then pushed out gradually into how we know it now. In this article I'm going to talk analytically about the differences in sounds that occurred throughout these times.

The 60s contained the birth of distorted guitar with Hendrix, that quickly began to catch on with other musicians like Clapton and so you begin to see more experimentation that continued to progress to what we have today. Without those originals we would not have had bands like Megadeth, Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold.

The 70s were an important time for the generation of metal guitar, because this is when bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest first began to rear their heads and play a sound that was heavier and darker sounding than their previous counterparts. Their songs and playing were faster, a bit more complex, and just more sinister.

Over the following decades we began to see bands emerge from the underground local scenes such as Metallica from the thrash metal scene, also in the early 1980s there were the first Black Metal groups like Mayhem. The 80s were when technical skills became the main emphasis, because this was following the rise of a band called Van Halen who popularized two-handed tapping. Guitarists were focusing more on techniques like tapping and arpeggios, sweeps and even classical implementation.

This set the stage going into the 1990s for a new sound and a new generation of metal guitar, technical skills were still relevant but grunge had also emerged and in those circles it was less emphasized. For the thrash metal scene guitar players like Marty Friedman and Dave Mustaine became well-known in Megadeth and instrumental players such as Steve Vai and Joe Satriani also started to set the bar very high. Keep in mind though that Friedman and Steve Vai were very active players before the 90s but had a considerable surge of popularity during this decade.

Moving into the 2000s a style called "nu-metal" became popular that mixed rap and rock together. Bands that flourished in this time were Korn, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. They enjoyed much popularity for a few years but going into our current day they are looked at differently and are not nearly as popular. This goes for the whole nu-metal genre.

In present some hard-rock/metal bands that are considered representative of our time are Avenged Sevenfold, Dragonforce, Arch Enemy and many more. These bands exhibit strong technical ability with a talent for songwriting, the result you get is a darkly diverse sound with incredible technical display.

If you love metal then you should learn how to play some of the greast guitar riffs of all time. If you prefer the learn the theory, and have a little experience then maybe try this modes guitar lesson.

Heavy Metal Guitar Riff Facts

If you are a fan of heavy metal music, you know how largely it depends on guitar riffs and solos for its existence. Guitar remains the central instrument of heavy metal music and cool guitar riffs are probably the most admired part of a performance. Here are some interesting facts about heavy metal guitar riffs which might help you to appreciate them even more.

For many years now heavy metal music has been critically vilified as an over simplistic and aggressive genre of music. The on stage violence and the showiness of the metal bands have added to the censure. However, there is no denying the fact that the guttural and the primal sounds of the metal guitar remain a popular form of protest against the consumerism and conformity of pop music. The metal guitar riffs are not meant to please, they are meant to express the anguish that results from our modern life style.

Many critics, without knowing the true facts about metal bands, dismiss all metal guitarists as gimmicky. They think that it is all about riffing involving three chords. However, it is a far cry from the truth. Metal guitarists have been leading innovators of many complicated guitar techniques. A good metal guitarist should also be technically sound and should be able to play at a great speed.

Much of the appeal of the heavy metal music depends upon the amplified distortion of the guitar licks. The very genre of the heavy metal music came to be distinguished by its powerful solos and speedy and powerful guitar riffs. In the 1960s, when the metal genre was coming slowly in to the forefront, it heavily depended upon the blues and the psychedelic versions of rock music. But what gradually distinguished it from the others, was the coming of age of the powerful guitar licks.

Therefore, the importance of the heavy metal guitar riffs cannot be undermined in the general growth and development of the metal music. If you really want to play them on your own, you should first work on your basic guitar techniques. Learning to play guitar licks and riffs like a pro will also require the knowledge of musical theory and guitar scales. There is quite a bit of hard work involved in attaining the status of a good metal guitar player. However, once you can manage to master them, there is nothing like the pleasure of playing a guitar like Kirk Hammett or Randy Rhoads.

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