Hello fellow head bangers and welcome to the Darkside. My name is Miles and my alias is Shred 667 because that sounds a bit more sinister. I've listened to metal since I was in the womb but was only really committed to playing guitar about 2 years ago. I had to go through some hoops to learn what I know now. There's plenty of information on the net but it can be difficult to find if you don't exactly know what you're looking for. That is why this site is dedicated to those aspiring metal players who don't know where to start or just got their foot in the door. I feel like if I would have had someone with my current experience teaching me when I first started I could have learned what I know now somewhat faster. My Dad has been a guitarist for over 20 years and I have to give him credit for helping and encouraging me to play. But even he could not teach me what i wanted to know to play the type of metal I do now. In order for you to understand why, you have to know some of my history of learning guitar. When I started playing a little over 2 years ago I was using my Dad's guitar. I tried to learn everything I could but when it came to trying to play songs like that of my favorite band, Lamb of God, I didn't understand why the music just didn't sound as "heavy". When I started to get into tablature I learned that they tuned in Drop D. In the next article, I will explain this and other tunings better than just telling you to drop one string two octaves and the rest one. Like most beginners, I was fascinated by Drop D tuning but really had no idea what it meant. What was worse, I asked my Dad if he could tune his guitar that way but being a more conventional guitarist he didn't want me to mess up his tuning. He was tuned in standard and simply told me I could play anything those guys played I just had to play it higher. If you know how to tune in Drop D, you understand that translating a tab from Drop D to standard is a chore unto itself, especially for a beginner. You can see how aggravating this was at first, but as I got more experience I realized it didn't really matter. It didn't sound quite as good but I was still getting all the practice I needed to play in that tuning. If you're in a similar situation, don't give up. Just keep playing in standard. When you buy that new shiny guitar and tune it down your going to feel all the more badass because you already know how to play. You'll see that when you start playing the music you like, you won't want to put the guitar down. It takes hold of you like a disease. So stop having those second thoughts, stop wondering if you'll ever be good enough.
On a closing note, I finally bought a Jackson guitar just a few months ago. This thing looks almost as good as it plays and I've been learning Lamb of God songs nonstop since. This has increased my learning curve dramatically and only now have I felt worthy of teaching beginners how to play right. In the next few posts I plan to go more in depth about guitar basics and give you some good tips and techniques for playing metal. I'm also preparing a short list of good metal bands to learn from and others I like. I'd like to read some discussion on which bands you like too. Also, a couple of my friends might write some articles (if I bug them enough) that I will post to give you a different perspective than mine. I've got more ideas whirling around in that brain of mine that I can't quite articulate yet. I'm sure it will be easier to flesh these out once I get the basics out of the way and get some discussion going. See you next time and keep rockin' out.
Shred667
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