Theory In Metal

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NewAgeMuttLange

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How many of you guys are in a metal band? How many of you have ever sat down with your fellow guitarist/bassist/whatever and basically said, "we're gonna write a metal song, in a Dorian mode on Eb."

Basically what is the opinion of the board members on "Metal IS eminor penatonic" because I've heard alot of that in music shops from people who actually seemed to know what their talking about otherwise.

Personally I'm a music theory major and I see absolutly no point in continuity of key (ie no modulation what so ever).

So what is everyone else's two cents?
 
Metal is NOT only e minor pentatonic. That kind of comment to me sounds it comes from someone who really doesn't listen to a lot of metal, or perhaps hasn't listened to metal in 30 years!

Metal is much more diverse than e pentatonic and there are numerous and classic examples of metal songs written in particular modes and scales which are not e minor pentatonic.

Not being a music major, but having some understanding of music theory, I tend not to think about what key, scale or mode I'm playing... I just go with what sounds cool.
 
I agree with that, I'm not arguing for that point though, I mainly want to know how the metal guys around here go about writing, if they sit down and use theory or if they just fiddle about in the scale, or if they just riff in e(or d)
 
I'm not a "metal guy". But the last time I sat down to write something thinking "this will be in a Dorian mode on Eb" was .. oooo.. well... never really.

I just play stuff until something jumps out that sounds good. Then I build on it. I am sure a solid grounding in theory would help, but I suspect that it is just not in my nature to approach anything in life with that sort of thinking.

I suspect that I am not alone :)
 
The reason that a lot of metal is in E minor/pentatonic is simply because guitar is easy to play in that key. Try playing master of puppets in F without re-tuning your guitar and you'll see why.;)
 
The truth of the matter is that a lot more songs written on guitar- not just metal are in either E, A and D major and minor, because as noted above the guitar just works that way – we just love the sustain and drone of the 3 bass notes.

On theory in writing (again not just metal) – too much can cripple you – a little can guide you to gold. I was only a music sub-major, with a minor in sheep husbandry.
 
NewAgeMuttLange said:
How many of you guys are in a metal band? How many of you have ever sat down with your fellow guitarist/bassist/whatever and basically said, "we're gonna write a metal song, in a Dorian mode on Eb."

Basically what is the opinion of the board members on "Metal IS eminor penatonic" because I've heard alot of that in music shops from people who actually seemed to know what their talking about otherwise.

Personally I'm a music theory major and I see absolutly no point in continuity of key (ie no modulation what so ever).

So what is everyone else's two cents?
Click to expand...

Depending on the band, sometimes those modal ideas do creep into songs (though I would say E Phrygian is more common than Dorian or pentatonic. That Phrygian II chord is very common.) Saying that any style with any sophistication is *always* in a single key/mode is indicative of a pretty shallow understanding.

If you're a music theory major you're eventually going to come to realize that diatonic keys and modes are just another story that composers can arbitrarily choose to take or leave. You can stick with common practice harmony or abandon it altogether. It's helpful to know about the theory stuff while writing in a genre not because it helps you to play within a genre's cliches but because it helps you avoid them.

Page Hamilton is a good example of a person that has a lot of theory knowledge (a doctorate in jazz performance) but writes metal tunes that completely disregard common practice harmony... or from another perspective, Helmet's tunes use common practice harmony but reference a wide variety of harmonic paradigms within it (whole tone scales, atonal rows, etc.)
 
NewAgeMuttLange said:
How many of you guys are in a metal band? How many of you have ever sat down with your fellow guitarist/bassist/whatever and basically said, "we're gonna write a metal song, in a Dorian mode on Eb."

Basically what is the opinion of the board members on "Metal IS eminor penatonic" because I've heard alot of that in music shops from people who actually seemed to know what their talking about otherwise.

Personally I'm a music theory major and I see absolutly no point in continuity of key (ie no modulation what so ever).

So what is everyone else's two cents?
Click to expand...

Metal, like any most genre that gets too popular, starts to get a little formulaic. Bands don't write songs because of theory; they write songs so that they can sound like Metallica... or Nirvana... or Linkin Park.
 
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