I just watched this video and it kind of hit me. If you’re too lazy to watch the full video well it basically says that the reason you’re struggling on becoming a better guitar player is because you’re wasting your time noodling in front of a metronome instead of playing actual songs.

I’m totally guilty of this, admittedly, I’ll confess it. Playing exercises, learning guitar techniques and tricks are all important but you don’t want to obsess with that stuff too much. What about playing actual music is what this video is saying?

Yes, most famous guitar players out there learned by sitting in front of their record players trying to learn songs by ear… that’s how all the greats learned to play pretty much… Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, etc. You can learn to play songs either by ear or by online tablature, it’s your choice really but… if you want to really get good at “improvisation” and “ear training”, figuring songs out by ear is the trick. That is pretty much how guitar geniuses like Hendrix, Page, Clapton, etc. all became master improvisers ’cause they learned by playing by ear.

They never sat there wasting time trying to figure out perfect pitch and all that shit.

It’s good to learn other people’s songs. When I was younger and when I was first starting out, I think my first song that I learned on guitar was Aerosmith’s “Dream On”. I thought it was a pretty good idea to learn something challenging first and go from there.

If I want to become good at metal and hard rock guitar, I gotta start learning metal songs. Learn songs by Metallica, Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Judas Priest might be a good place to start ’cause their songs aren’t too hard really. I’ve already learned some metal songs in the past, though. I should really get into that a lot more.

The guy in the video is right that if you really want to improve your rhythm chops, gotta be learning songs and not sitting in front of a metronome for hours and hours. People wanna hear a guitar player play music, not sitting there noodling.

Good advice in this video and I’ll take all of it.

Kev

So what does it take to start making your own hard rock & metal songs when it comes to songwriting? Well, from what I’ve learned over the years that all it takes really is knowing the scales, modes, rhythm and maybe some music theory knowledge. Most of the metal make riffs comes from the 7 modes really… that’s most common in metal songwriting. When they solo, they always use the modes and the major/minor pentatonic scales.

Making metal riffs doesn’t look all that hard… gotta know your intervals too but the most common intervals used in metal are mostly 4ths and 5ths and sometimes they use other ones.

Most importantly, if you really want to become a metal guitar player gotta be good with rhythm and timing ’cause you’ll get nowhere if you don’t do that. If you want to play those headbanging fist raising guitar riffs, gotta learn how to gallop rhythm is what they call it. Gotta get good with time values and rhythm to learn to stay in the pocket if you want to play fucking TIGHT and hard.

If you really want to play metal, one way of becoming a good metal musician, one way to do that is listening to as much metal music as possible and I have been doing that ever since I was a kid. Over the years, I’ve listen to so much of that stuff… mostly 80’s metal, 90’s grunge (yes, grunge is metal) and I listened to a lot other types of metal over the years. I listened to Metallica, Soundgarden, Megadeth, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Korn, Alice In Chains, Ghost, Opeth, etc. The list is endless really.

I want to make heavy music of my own and I’m learning and practicing. Trying to improve my rhythm chops and get better at playing riffs. I’ve also been trying to learn other metal covers too ’cause that would also help is by learning other bands songs on the electric.

Metal isn’t that complicated to learn, the hard part is the rhythm and timing ’cause metal plays so fast. If you want to play fast like Slayer and Metallica it requires fast speed picking skills of the right hand. That’s what I’ve been trying to improve lately. I can’t play fast electric guitar yet but I’m working on it and I want to get there.

When I start writing metal songs of my own, I’m not gonna growl and scream, I’m just gonna sing regularly like James Hetfield.

I’ve listened to so much metal over the years that I figure it’s time I want to play that type of music myself which was why I had finally got a solid body electric guitar. Playing metal doesn’t work on a hollow body or a Fender Strat. Gotta get a metal guitar like an Ibanez or a Jackson… I didn’t get either of those…. I’ve got a Mitchell electric guitar which is perfect for an affordable guitar where you can play metal and shred on it.

As a matter of fact, all those acoustic songs that I wrote in the old days… those old ones I have on ReverbNation were all “metal” songs. I just wrote them on acoustic first. It’s just that I never played acoustic guitar like a folk guitar or a country guitar like a lot of players do, I’ve always loved to rock hard on the acoustic. Really, you watch me play acoustic guitar, I’m pounding on the thing which is why I like the string gauge medium sized so they don’t break easily. I play acoustic guitar like that ’cause of all the rock and metal I’ve listened to. I’ve always saw myself as a rock player and not a folk music artist. When you come see me perform, people would expect a quiet sit down type of performance but not with me. I like to play loud and rocking. You can go to youtube and see my old live performances for proof on that.

I’m just tired of the acoustic guitar and just want to do something different by switching to electric guitar. I’ll never give up the acoustic, though. Just been playing electric a lot more.

Kev

Ever since I got Toon Track EZ drummer, I’ve been learning to play virtual drums on it manually… while using drumming lesson books to learn how. If you want to play drums virtually, it takes time and practice just like a real drum set. Drums seems like an easy instrument to learn, though. Not that hard like some would think.

I’m so glad that I’ve started studying and practicing rhythm and timing in music ’cause it’s so important. If you want other musicians and listeners to take your music seriously, gotta learn how to play in time and play in the pocket.

Because of me studying drum programming and virtual drumming, I’ve become a better rhythm guitarist ’cause of it too. I’ve learned to play various rhythm patterns like quarter notes, eighth notes, various sixteenth notes… using dotted rhythms, playing notes with ties and more syncopation (Off beat rhythms).

If you know your timing and good at rhythm, you’ll be able to play any genre of music. You’ll be able to write songs a lot better too.

When I start songwriting again, I plan to make my rhythm playing a lot more complex by playing more syncopation… off beat rhythm… meaning notes that don’t fall on the 1, 2,3,4 counts on the metronome. I would also like to start experimenting rhythms in odd time signatures too ’cause prog rock bands like Rush, Dream Theater and Yes did that a lot. If you want your music to sound even more interesting.

I believe that I’ve improved on my rhythm and metronome and gotten way better at playing along with a click track.

When I start recording again, you’ll probably notice that my recording skills has gotten a little better.

Playing with rhythm is a blast and I’m loving it. When making music, you don’t have to be a perfectionist but have a good sense of rhythm and people will take you seriously.

I just want to make tight and intense music and to do that gotta have a good sense of rhythm and timing. Be good at counting which I’m getting way better at.

Soon I’ll be writing and recording songs with drums backing up my tracks. Just gotta good get at this EZ Drummer software and working on it everyday. EZ Drummer is good stuff, glad I got it finally.

Kev