Metal Music!

[purdmeister]

Hey! Im new around here soooo... Hello!!

Anyway,I play guitar and I need a bit of help writing metal music, I listen to mostly metal, yet the riffs that i come out with are quite punky, so, if anyone can give me any tips on writing metal music on guitar, I'd be quite happy to hear!

Thanks!

[Cyrokk]

Crank up the gain on your amp (not the master volume, just the gain) and play around with fifth chords. Stay in a minor key (a lot of punk is in major key), particularly E, and play as fast as possible, or play as slow as possible but all within the blues scale.

Spend most of your time away from the instrument listening to nothing but heavy metal.

[purdmeister]

Cheers, But do you really think staying away from the instrument will help me?

Also, i dont know much theory so how can i stay in the minor key? I mean i know major and minor etc, What notes are in the Eminor scale?

[Cyrokk]

To your first question, listening makes a HUGE impact. If I spend weeks listening to nothing but Slayer, when I pick up the guitar, I start playing Slayer riffs. Same thing happens when I go through phases of listening to stoner metal, british heavy metal, and even heavy rock and funk. You subconcious takes music in like a sponge to water. Once it hits your subconcious, you will start to approach your instrument with certain ideas in mind.

And I didn't mean for you to stay away from the instrument, I implied that you should listen to metal at every opportunity that you are away from the instrument (like in the car or at work or whatever).

The E minor scale is E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, E. Actually, metal often uses a minor 2nd and augmented 4th, so you would sound more like metal by playing an F instead of an F# and A# instead of an A.

The E pentatonic or blues scale is a five note scale comprising of E, G, A, B, D.

[purdmeister]

Thanks man, this should help!

My band are writing some new songs at the moment, so i'll try use these notes etc... I'll post them on here sometime!

Once, again thanks man!

P.S. Do you know of any bands, like little or unknown to many that you think are good? Because i prefer smaller bands to bigger ones even though i do like my fair share of big ones! thanks man!

[Cyrokk]

The big players that are worth mentioning regardless- Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Judas Priest, old Metallica (through Master of Puppets), Motorhead.

Lesser knowns: Bathory, Venom, Stuck Mojo, Solace, Prong, GZR, Exodus, Suicidal Tendencies, Kyuss, Helmet