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Metal Guitar - Part 1
How
to Play Death Metal Guitar
Part
1 - Death Metal Basics
Ok, first up, no one can actually TELL you how to play death metal
guitar because it's a very experimental genre of music, like jazz (and
the two genres have in fact fused brilliantly). But as this is the
first of two specific death metal guitar lessons, I'm going to first
take you through the core techniques and a little theory behind
the mayhem and misery.
The gain/distortion/overdrive
on your amp should be
turned right up for this. I'm also going to tune down to drop
C - head over to the
drop tuning page
to tune your
guitar to drop C. Most death metal uses some form of down tuning
(although not necessarily drop).
However, the concepts we're about to
look at work for both drop tuning and standard.
We'll look more
at speed playing and complementing blast beats in part 2, but this
lesson will build on the basic
metal techniques in the context of death metal.
Death
metal guitar basics - powerchord intervals
In this genre, the aim is
typically to create
the most brutal music possible. Now, most of this brutality rests on
the drummer's attack and your guitar tone, but there are
intervals used in heavy metal that
naturally sound ominous and aggressive...
Click any of the diagrams on
this page and you'll hear an example in your computer's media
player.

The scales most associated
with death metal are "exotic" (e.g. phrygian dominant, Arabic) and
minor scales (e.g.
harmonic minor, Romanian). The diagram above shows (in drop tuning) the
typical power
chord intervals relating to that open root of C (as
we're in drop C).
These intervals (including the
infamous "tri-tone" between the open C
powerchord and the 6th fret F# powerchord) are what have been used in
metal for decades to create an atmosphere of impending doom. Played one
after the other as powerchords, they create the tension we need for
heavy metal.
Get to know these intervals starting from any point on the
fretboard.
Making a
simple death metal style riff from the scale above
What you'll find is, if you use the scale above, mix it up a little and
add some rhythm, you instantly get a riff that sounds very
typical
of death metal, like the example below (click the tabs to hear audio
clips)...

That was a very slow riff using only the power chords
from that initial
scale.
See what I mean? Not exactly wedding music by a long shot.
Most death metal builds on those
movements, often inserting chromatic movements in between. They are
like harmonic marker points.
Note:
you don't always have to start on the lowest open string, these
interval movements are relative to where you start
your riff. Experiment!
We're by no means limiting
ourselves to those intervals, but they act as
good injections or links between riffs.
Palm muting
and sliding in death metal
Here's a death metal inspired palm muting and sliding exercise for you
to try. If you need the basics on palm muting, see this essential
techniques video.
For the tab below, the
/ and \
symbols are "slide up" and "slide down" respectively. This is where you
fret the chord/powerchord as usual, but slide up to the destination
fret. For example - 6 / 9
means slide up from fret 6 to 9.

Use a metronome
to help with the accuracy. Palm muting (pm...) needs to be very
accurate in death metal to work with the drummer.
Also try the below exercise which, like above, mixes muted and non-muted power chords.
Descending
dynamics
The following exercise will
get you used to
descending from powerchords on the G string (A string in standard
tuning) down to the drop power
chord shapes more quickly. I use all downpicking in this exercise.
When changing from the regular shaped power chords on the G string to
the drop power chord shapes directly below, your middle finger
can come in handy, as it's not being used and can hammer
on to the chord on the string below.
Again, start slow with a
metronome and build up your speed.
Palm
muted tremolo/blast picking in death metal
This is covered in more depth in the fast guitar picking for metal
section.
It's a technique born out of
thrash using alternate, down-up-down-up picking
that can be welded into a riff, as a base (as that low "chugging" or
"machine gunning" sound
heard in a lot of metal) or within a sequence higher up the fretboard.
The example below is a typical
combo and keeps the drummer alert because of the sharp time signature
changes!

Drummers will often use
double-bass during the chugga part and what you
get is a brutal sequence of noise. If played accurately it's truly
invigorating (and not like that new herbal shampoo).
...start that off slow and
build up, preferably with a, yep, metronome.
Single-string
riffage
Death metal tends to focus on
the deeper tones of the
guitar, and will occasionally inject lead phrases low down the
fretboard (which is still technically a rhythm guitar style).
Chromatics are also commonly applied to this technique, as it creates
an aimless, chaotic energy. Kind of jazzy, but often cruder, although
certain death metal bands have fused very complex jazz elements into
their music.
Again, click the tab to
hear...

In the example above, that
single-string lead phrasing turns into a chunkier power chord phrase
along the same lines. You can use the same fingers
you used for the lead line, but the only difference in this exercise is
you're fretting 2 strings instead of one which
gives you some good crushing tones.
Remember, you can palm mute
these phrases for added attack! Mix it up.
Making
more of a journey out of your death metal riffage
One of the annoying things
about death metal is how
"samey" it can all get if you hang around those first few frets all the
time.
A really good way to make your
metal music sound
fresher is to take it on a journey, away from that root drop power
chord
and then bring it back down as a really satisfying cadence (the end of
a musical phrase). It's often
called returning home or returning to the "tonic".
Let's look at a practical
example...

Makes it sound a bit more
interesting (in my opinion anyway), even if it is slightly venturing
away from the traditional death metal style.
This means climbing and
descending around
the fretboard with your chords and injecting relative movements from
that scale we looked at right at the beginning of this lesson.
If you want to take your
listeners on a journey and keep them interested this is a great way to
do it.

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Straight to Part 2 >
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