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Krystal Fluff
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 7:18 pm
Posts: 38
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:21 pm 
 

I have like 3 different things I'm looking for advice on, feel free to chip in with whatever you think would help with any or all of them!

1. Any tips for practicing guitar? Just in terms of what to do to increase my skills?

2. Tips for doing growl/screaming vocals, like how to not kill my throat and how to actually do them? I have looked at tutorials but any more advice I can get is great!

3. Tips for writing songs, for example: what tunings are good for dark sounding songs, how to write something that isn't complete shit like most of what I've thought of, etc?

Thanks a lot guys!

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shatteredsymbols
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2017 10:33 pm
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:51 pm 
 

If you want to increase your skills you just have to continually and diligently practice. Read up on different methods of practice, refine your technique, play with people in real life, learn how to tune without assistance, etc. Just keep working at it. "Dark sounding" is a pretty broad descriptor but generally writing in a minor key helps. Learn about music theory.

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RapeTheDead
Stoned Jesus

Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:48 pm
Posts: 846
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:46 pm 
 

my advice:

2 - take singing lessons. Learn how to project using your diaphragm. That alone will help with volume and depth to the tone leaps and bounds. The rest is... it's just singing but kinda contorting your throat and mouth a bit. Endurance and longer rasps just come with repetition, careful breath control and practice.

3 - just play around until you find something that sounds good to you. write it down. play it over and over again until you can add little variations on the riff on the fly. play it some more. have fun and fuck what anyone else thinks it sounds like. As for tunings, there's a lot of bands that play in standard tuning (Dissection, Megadeth, this is just off the top of my head, i'm not a big theory nerd) and sound plenty dark....whatever that means. Look up what tunings some of your favorite bands play in, tune to those, go from there. That's what I did.

For what it's worth I've been performing harsh vocals in a band for about 3 years now so I have a bit more experience with that than guitar (I just play bass casually and have only recently been really getting into it myself). Hope this helps in whatever capacity. Above all else, it'll sound super sappy but you just gotta do it for the love of playing and making music. All else comes with time (and practice).
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newp
Veteran

Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:07 pm
Posts: 2697
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 8:16 pm 
 

On 3- keep writing! Your first efforts won't be good, but keep doing it. Try to finish songs. Like any skill you will improve with practice... the right inspiration can lead to good results, but if you wait around for the perfect idea you'll never get better.

Also, check out the musicians forum ;)

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Awblaster
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 6:07 pm
Posts: 617
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 11:17 am 
 

1: start slow and work your way up with a metronome. Whatever you want to learn, wether that be fancy shredding shit, complex rhythm parts, or just basics like tremolo picking or downpicking, start with the metronome at a tempo several bpm below what you're comfortable with. When you play that slow, your timing will improve, and your technique will tighten up. Start increasing the metronome by a few bpm at a time - I'll go for 10 for things I'm already pretty good at, 5 for most things, and 2 for things I'm struggling with. When you can play whatever you're doing for about two minutes straight, at tempo, with no mistakes, you're probably good to move on up.
This process is fucking boring, and it's a lot of time and effort, but you put in the work, you get results.

2: number one rule of vocals - if it hurts, you're doing it wrong. Everyone has a different technique, but you should be able to do harsh vocals without any actual pain. Don't be an idiot and go for eight hours at a time straight off, you will wear out your voice pretty fast when you start - you're using muscles that aren't used that much in normal life, so it takes a while to build them up into something more powerful. Open your mouth properly. Drink lots of water, drink lots of green tea, avoid dairy.
As said above, get some singing lessons. You'll be taught more about breathing and control than you can work out online. And you'll learn to sing a bit as well, which is only ever going to be a good thing.

3: tunings don't matter. E standard is heavy enough for the first couple of Black Sabbath records, almost all of Iron Maiden's career, and Manowar, so it's heavy enough for anyone. Pick whatever you want. I tend to play in E because I'm lazy and can't be fucked messing about with setups for downtuning, and I like being able to get the strings I use in every music shop.
The best way to get better at writing songs is to write songs. Putting a few riffs together then scrapping it is not writing a song. If you want to get better at running a mile, you don't run half then give up, do you? You run the whole mile, check your time, then do it again and try and do it better. Write songs. I recommend writing some punk songs to start you off. They don't need to be any good, just finish them. What I've done a few times is analyse songs that I like, and borrow the riff structure - so maybe the song follows your usual verse/chorus structure, but maybe the bridge goes to half time, then back into the main riff for a solo, then a new riff or two, then back into the verse, or something. Maybe there's a total riff fest outro. Maybe there's no outro at all. Does the song start with just a guitar, or is it everyone in at once? Listen to the components of songs you like and take inspiration. If you really like a thing a band does, and it makes you think "I wanna write something like that!", then do it.
The more you do it, the better you get.
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Krystal Fluff
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 7:18 pm
Posts: 38
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 9:41 pm 
 

Thanks everyone for the tips! I know Awblaster gave some tips about writing riffs (thank you for that!) but it seems like I can't come up with a good riff, and if I try to make a riff based off of bands ans songs I like, it seems way to close to the already existing song, any tips to help? Again thank you all!

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AbraxasAttaxus
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2014 5:54 am
Posts: 2
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 2:54 pm 
 

Creativity is something that is hard to force for a lot of people. A lot of the time, I need to be in a certain environment or in a particular state of mind to come up with anything that I would consider worthwhile musically; other times ideas will simply strike you when you least expect it. Playing with others can also help.

There's no shame in feeling like you're struggling at this stage of your musical development. You will always have something to learn and to improve upon, regardless of if you have been playing for 20 days or 20 years.

Focus on the fundamentals right now and really develop your technique. If something seems too difficult, take a step back and try to set a goal that is similar but more realistically achievable. Nobody becomes Yngwie Malmsteen overnight. The goal is to reach a point where your own technique no longer presents itself as an obstacle to communicating a musical idea. Learn how to "sing" through your instrument. Get comfortable with it.

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Hare Kristmas
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:25 pm
Posts: 9
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 3:11 pm 
 

3 - steal your favorite elements from the music you love, then hide the fact that you've stolen anything by tweaking it in a way that's suited to your particular strengths. This goes for everything: song structure, guitar tone--even album art.

What do you like about the music you like? Which parts of your favorite songs really get you? What is it about them? If you can articulate this to yourself, you've done what I'd say is the hardest (or at least the most neglected) part of figuring out how to write songs that you can be proud of.

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Krystal Fluff
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 7:18 pm
Posts: 38
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:12 pm 
 

Thank you all for your advice, since this thread I have made a song (or most of one) that I'm fairly happy with, and one that I wasn't as satisfied with but that's to be expected. Still having trouble trying to capture a specific style/genre I want though. Again, thanks for all the advice!

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Ebheron
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:28 pm
Posts: 35
Location: Brazil
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 5:08 pm 
 

Looking for material still?

1. One of the best practice routines I use is "Frank Gambale's Chop Builder" It's a hilariously 80s guitar workout program made to look like a fitness video. It may look silly but the practice routines are no joke, only the warmups are enough to get your fingers and forearm burning.

2. For growling without pain I couldn't recommend enough "The Zen of Screaming" by Melissa Cross, volumes I and II, great video lessons focused on metal vocals.

3. For this one I don't have any specific material in mind but you should look for music arrangement tips and lessons. Remember that what makes a song dark and heavy isn't exactly in the tuning but in the arrangement itself. Take some Behemoth songs from "The Satanist", Ben Sahar for example sounds incredibly heavy but when you take a closer look into it, It's tuned in Db (3 half-steps below E) which ain't a lot considering 7 strings and baritones are all the rage these days. So arrangement and song structure are key when looking for writing music.
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