[hermanli_ibanezshredder]

I've moved from rhythm techniques to lead techniques and I might just stick with it. Any one got any tips on metal soloing? And stuff to try playing? No mad shredding or superfast stuff please, I won't be at Malmsteen's speed for awhile. And I don't think I"m ready for shreddeing either. The most I can do is just rip a piece of paper in half.

[PurplePeopleEaters]

Learn how to alternate pick first. That's one of the most important things. Look on youtube for some lesson videos on alternate and alternative picking. Work on sweep picking later. Tapping is not hard at all.. tremolo picking is also easy for me. Speed will come with time by using a metronome. Just keep playing!

[zappa]

start with the easier stuff like sabbath ac/dc deep purple and all the 70's rock . they mainly use pentatonic scales which are easier to get your head around .

[Dewy]

pentatonic riffing, up and down to become accustomed to where the roots and intervals are across the board.

learn licks, then make them your own... don't be a clone.

MELODY... don't forget it.

[PsychoRythum]

Originally Posted by zappa

start with the easier stuff like sabbath ac/dc deep purple and all the 70's rock . they mainly use pentatonic scales which are easier to get your head around .

I think it may better to learn the major scale first. They're harder, but if you know the major scale, its easy to learn pentatonics because it's just the major scale with the 2 notes missing:

ie. C Major C,D,E,F,G,A,B
C Pentatonic Major C,D,E,G,A

For metal, you probably wouldn't need to ever use the major scale, except for maybe more ballady stuff, because the major scale would sound to pretty and delicate. But when I play pentatonic scales, I just think about the full major scale and make sure I don't play those extra notes.

I also highly reccomend the pentatonic blues scale. This is the one that sounds really cool to me. Metal players like Van Halen and Joe Pass of Aerosmith use it, for example

ie. C Pentatonic Blues: C,D,E,G,G sharp,A.

[Stratrat]

Originally Posted by PsychoRythum

...I also highly reccomend the pentatonic blues scale. This is the one that sounds really cool to me. Metal players like Van Halen and Joe Pass of Aerosmith use it, for example...

I think that would be Joe Perry of Aerosmith....Joe Pass was a jazz guitarist.

Interesting perspective, though - I've never really thought of either of them as "metal" guitarists.

[AX7221]

Here's

a diagram that I used to learn the pentatonic minor scale. I attached to another thread a while ago, so its just a link to old attachment instead of the expected thumb and stuff (btw does anyone know if i make it appear like a regular attachment w/o uploading it a second time?). Now I'll explain the diagram, when ever I show it to somebody they always think its too complicated, but the details are very useful. Now as we all know the root is very important, its very good to create a feel of completion/resolution and so forth, (its also imperative to play in the correct key, i e the root has the same note name as the key). Anyways, the root performs a very distint function, but not just the root. Perfect 5ths also have a distinct feel, in my opinion its second strongest, the root is the first. Minor Thirds have a nice feel to them too, its difficult to describe them with words, but basically each note of the scale has a different feel/job to them. So, like all other scale diagrams I made the root a different color than the rest. The root is black. But unlike all the rest of the scale diagrams I made every note of the scale a different color. Ascending the scale starting on the root is like this: Black, Blue, Orange, Red, Purple, (and back to) Black. The reason I like this is because once I can figure out what the blue one sounds like, i can go around any octave and I'll roughly know what the blue one's will sound like. Like I'd view other scale diagrams as maps w/o street names, you know which parts are streets, but that's it, so you can use the different color of each note (the different harmony of each note) to craft your melody.

(another important thing, you can modulate your tonal center from A in the minor pent to C, creating the major pent, which will adjust the feel of the different notes. Just say you have the A minor pent, A, C, D, E, G, A the 'C' will have the complection of a minor third harmony, however if you play a certain way you will make C a reference point in the listener's and your mind, and you will be playing the C major pent, and the same note C will have a different complection. This will happen inadvertantly as you first start using the scale, and it will throw you off in determining what a minor 3rd sounds like, but over time you will be able to do it no problem).

(another thing, is based on the chords that are in the backing track the notes that you are playing are affected, this used to make me very confused before I realized what a chord tone was, so this will also make it challenging to play a melody by ear (which in a nut shell is what i think improvising is)).

(another thing, the minor pent is the minor scale with 2 notes taken out, a perfect second and a minor 6th, for completeness sake i would give those 2 notes a try to see what you think, I'm almost certain you would rather do w/o them based on the herman li youtube videos, but its knowledge to you)

(btw i saw your post on doing what hendix did or something to that effect a while back, so its nice to see your back to g4b&b and what that entails)

[stringslinger]

Originally Posted by Stratrat

I think that would be Joe Perry of Aerosmith....Joe Pass was a jazz guitarist.

Interesting perspective, though - I've never really thought of either of them as "metal" guitarists.

It seems at some point, metal stops being metal and is "hard rock", then that seems to morph into "rock".

Interresting how stuff that when I was young was called metal, but now they would call it hard rock. To me, grunge is metal, anything with lots of distortion is metal. Course even Bon Jovi would fall under this definition.

There are such labels as speed metal and death metal. Who can keep up with it all?

Is Van Halen metal? well, I guess you could say yes, and you could say no. I think the interresting thing is almost any self respecting metal head has learned from Eddie Van Halen.

With metal getting heavier with dropped tunings, over the top amps, and 8 string guitars providing bass chugging power for days... I soon feel that Van Halen will be considered light rock!

I hear people all the time saying that Metallica is hard rock, not metal. Somehow, they have lost their edge with many people, and many don't even consider them metal anymore.

It is interresting about how different people view rock/hard rock/metal and even country today is sounding more rock/hard rock then ever before.

[Stratrat]

Originally Posted by stringslinger

It seems at some point, metal stops being metal and is "hard rock", then that seems to morph into "rock".

Interresting how stuff that when I was young was called metal, but now they would call it hard rock. To me, grunge is metal, anything with lots of distortion is metal. Course even Bon Jovi would fall under this definition.

There are such labels as speed metal and death metal. Who can keep up with it all?...

Don't forget black metal, industrial metal, grindcore, and all the other fuzzy, ill-defined sub-genres. IMO, music is much "over-classified" these days....I don't want to debate or waste time thinking about things like whether Rush is a 'rock' band, a 'power trio' or a 'prog rock' band - I really don't care. I like their music, and that's all that matters.

Originally Posted by stringslinger

...I hear people all the time saying that Metallica is hard rock, not metal. Somehow, they have lost their edge with many people, and many don't even consider them metal anymore...

To be honest, what I usually think when I hear Metallica anymore is "cliche". The first thing that usually comes to my mind when I hear a 'Tallica song is Beavis and Butt-Head headbanging with the "rock fingers" in the air yelling "Yess! Yessssss!" I know they were kinda one of the pioneers of the genre and I guess I'd still classify them as a "metal" band - but they've become so mainstream that they've lost their edge (IMO). I feel the same way about Bob Seger and REO Speedwagon (among others) in the "rock" or "classic rock" genre - so safely middle-of-the-road mainstream type music that they bore me for the most part.

Originally Posted by stringslinger

...It is interesting about how different people view rock/hard rock/metal....

I think classifying most bands in any particular genre is an exercise in futility at best. Led Zeppelin would be a "rock" or "classic rock" band - or would they? They did a lot of songs that would fit much better in the blues genre, so are they a blues band? How about a "blues rock" band? Well, "Achilles' Last Stand wasn't very bluesy - in fact, it rocked pretty hard. So did "The Ocean" - so maybe they're really a "hard rock" band! You could do this same exercise with many bands - there are few that fit snugly and comfortably into any particular slot.

It would be real hard for me to clearly define what I'd consider the difference between "rock" and "hard rock". Metal is a little easier - it goes "chuggachuggachugga, wheedlydeedly, YEEEAAAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!, wheedlywheedlydeedlydeedlydeeeeeee, chuggachugga".

Originally Posted by stringslinger

....and even country today is sounding more rock/hard rock then ever before.

Yep. Even country used to be easy - it went "twang, twaaang, my wife left me, my truck broke down and I went to the honky-tonk, twaang, <pedal steel sound>". There's a lot more variety in "modern country", or "alt.country", or whatever other fuzzy, ill-defined sub-genres people have made up for it today.....you hear almost as many Les Pauls as you do Teles, and there's as much distortion as a lot of "rock" or "hard rock" bands. Sometimes the only difference between country and rock is the cowboy hats and southern accents (real or otherwise)....you've even got some that don't wear hats, don't have accents, and have as many piercings and tats as the rocker dudes! It's all good to me - call it what you want to and classify it as you wish.....if it gets my toe tapping and is fun to listen to, that's good enough.

[stringslinger]

You're so right stratrat.

It is crazy to have all these labels. I don't keep up with them anymore, course not that I ever did anyway.

It seems to me what happens is you have a unique band come out, that sounds a bit different than the norm. Then you have copy cat bands, some really good and some just riding the waves, that copy that unique bands sound/style and a new label is born. That sad thing is that supposedly, once the new style is born, the old isn't any good anymore? rubbish! I love old music.

[AX7221]

I asked a metal head one time what the difference was between death metal and black metal and he didnt know. Also, for some reason as '80s heavy metal became heavier in the '90s the "heavy" was dropped, and it was insulting to say to someone he listens to heavy metal and not metal.