If you are wondering why metal guitarists use seven string guitars, the short answer is range. The seventh string adds a full fourth below the standard low E, so you can play low riffs without retuning and without giving up the top of the fretboard. The usual arrangement is a low B next to the … Read more
Thrash metal started in the United States between 1981 and 1983, when players welded the fast, precise guitar work of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and early speed metal onto the relentless drum pattern of hardcore punk. It grew out of the San Francisco Bay Area and the East Coast, peaked commercially between … Read more
Fast downpicking is mostly a motion problem, not a strength problem. To play fast downpicking riffs you shrink the distance the pick travels, contact the string with the pick tip only, anchor the pick against your index knuckle, and raise tempo in short bursts rather than ramping a metronome until you fail. Most players stall … Read more
Black metal and death metal are two distinct extreme metal genres that differ in their sound, themes, and visual aesthetics. If you have been listening for a while and still cannot tell them apart, you probably picked up the short version of the explanation, which is only half right. The difference between death metal and … Read more
Sweep picking is how metal guitarists play fast arpeggio runs without the picking hand stalling at every string change. One continuous pick motion covers two, three or four strings, the pick attacks each string exactly once with even volume, and the fretting hand rolls its fingers onto the shape as it arrives. The reason it … Read more