Hey guys,

I have dabbled in playing guitar over the last few years (I can play Transilvanian Hunger and that's about it). A few months ago my mum bought me a guitar as a present but I just can't seem to play it. I had lessons about 6 years ago but the teacher never taught me any theory just how to play some Black Sabbath songs. I have a small decent amp and a nice enough guitar but lack any musical skill. I am a vocalist and can play some keys and bass but have never got the hang of guitar.

I am mainly interested in learning stuff like:
Xasthur
Leviathan
Drowning the Light
Wolves in the Throne Room
Lifelover
Lyrinx
Austere
Evoken
Shape of Despair
My Dying Bride

That sort of stuff. If I am honest I have no idea where to begin. Can anyone help? It will mainly be so I can write and record my own songs. I have always wanted to do a one man funeral doom/dsbm band, I have lots of ideas in my head it's just I lack the musical skill to construct songs on guitar.

Cheers
Chris

Learn the basics first, just get used to fretting and moving power chords, alternate picking, and tremolo picking. Do all of this without distortion and keeping time with a metronome. More or less, you break down the general style of the music to the techniques that may be used, and learn those. Learning other things is good because it helps you feel comfortable with your instrument, and limitations can confine you a lot.

Thanks mate!! That's a good start thankyou

I know no chords or anything. I am rubbish with theory and have very little musical ability but will try learning some tonight.

Primarily, find a guitar teacher if you can, and if you can afford it.

Self-teaching will often put you in some bad, sometimes even performance-debilitating habits.

Thanks man! May have to wait a while until I have some more money but a friend of mine is a guitar teacher may ask him. Also may ask the guitarists in my band to help me

I started playing 7 months ago, self taught, and I'm learning pretty fast.

The first thing I'll say is you can't really choose what you learn with. You have to find songs that fit your ability, not your taste. I'm sort of a melodic death sort of guy, but I learned by playing mostly pop punk just because it's a very easy starting point.

Having said that, the first thing you need to do is learn how to play a power chord. They're extremely easy, not complicated at all. It will be tricky for you jumping from 3-4-5 to 4-5-6 at first, but it comes with practice. Also, you can try doing what I did and play in a drop tuning. This makes it so that 4-5-6 power chord are playing with a single finger on a single fret. It makes guitar magnitudes easier if you're just starting out. I learned my 'first song' by playing a simplified version of a pop punk song using only 4-5-6 power chords.

This is what you need. Get Guitar Pro or maybe Tux Guitar, if you can't manage to find a way to get Guitar Pro. After you install one of these, go to Ultimate Guitar, get some tabs that you can play in these programs and do your best. Everything else will come, there's no rush to learn any theory, just play a lot of guitar, doesn't matter what.

Thanks guys!

I downloaded the ultimate guitar app which is pretty good. I've started trying to learn Nocturnal Poisoning by Xasthur. Managed to get a few riffs done also learned some minor chords last night.

Thanks a lot for everyone's advice!

As for playing what your skill limits you to, may try learning some Sabbath stuff as a lot of the early stuff seems pretty simple just so I can get some technique down.

Why wouldn't you practice it with distortion? How else are you going to learn how to mute unwanted noise, or practice good palm/mute technique for chugging and stuff?

Well, the stuff he's talking about is probably better to practice without distortion, so you can hear if you're playing the notes cleanly enough. With distortion you wouldn't notice minor flaws and your technic could be somewhat sloppy.

If you are interested in a bit of theory this is a pretty well written beginners guide to chord theory.
http://www.museweb.com/ag/chord_form.html

This site: http://www.all-guitar-chords.com
Is also very useful for understanding scales, formulas and chord construction.

Those as well as software like guitar pro may be very helpful for learning the relationships between notes, chords, scales etc...
This could be especially handy from the bands you mention and as you are writing solo since you would most likely be layering tracks.

Hope this is of some help.

Thanks guys! Hayisforhorses that's awesome I will have a read through all of that tonight thanks matey!!

This website has pretty much every chord and most scales

www.all-guitar-chords.com/index.php?

fairly simple to navigate

Also I suggest finding youtube videos and what not of people explaining things it will save you paying a guitar teacher if you learn easily.

Also focus on clarity before speed.

make sure to use proper technique always by this i mean use your pinky make sure your wrist isn't too bent and sit up straight.

a few things to look up:
Finger Picking, Hybrid Picking, Alternate Picking, Grouplets, Sweep Arpeggios, Arpeggios, palm muting

Oh and for music theory i would start with

Time signature
meter
Key signatures
intervals
How to write scales
How to write chords


http://www.musictheory.net/
this website has a lot of good exercises and some lessons

The exercises are free i am not sure about the rest

It is really good for training your ear as well

Cheers Percepticide that's really helpful Thanks mate! Got a weekend off work so lots of time to practise guitar!