# Metal Help / Wanabe Shredder



## JohnyO (May 31, 2009)

I'm currently what I classify as a "strummer." I can play all of the open chords, and bar-F pretty well. I want to move into playing metal/hard rock songs (power chords, and whatever scales are common to this genre.) Can anyone suggest a list of songs from easier to harder that I can go through and learn to develop in this area. I like all of the classic stuff, ACDC, Metallica, Ozzy, Maiden, etc. 

I want to go from this :smile:to this :rockon2:

Thanks


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## Luke98 (Mar 4, 2007)

the main riff from black sabbath's Paranoid is pretty simple power chords. You could probably start there, then move on to back in black by ACDC, then maybe seek and destroy's beginning.

Just find tab's for songs you like, if they're out of your league, practice some other songs and try them later on.


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## theroan (Oct 7, 2008)

Get your hands on some Incubus tabs.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

much of the older judas priest is ggood beginner stuff. livin after midnight, breakin the law, headin out to the hiway, etc. 

alot of ac/dc stuff is pretty good too. angus loves 1 and 2 finger chords.
walk all over you, squealer, flick of the switch, dirty deeds...

G&R appetite for destruction has alot of simple stuff on it that rocks. 
sweetchild o mine is an easy one. 

terrible ted (one of my favs) has some cool easy stuff
stranglehold, jailbait, i am a predator, take no prisoners. 

metallica, for whom the bell tolls is pretty easy, call of cthulu, creeping death
aren't too bad.

iron maiden, there is flight of icarus, sun and steel, revelations, their cover of "i got the fire" is a cool one. 

just do what i do. play along to a cd player or your computer or what ever. 
just beware that some artists like to tune low, so if you start to figure something out but the fingering seems awkward, that might be the problem. 
worse still, cool bands like soundgarden like to tune in some funky way that's not of this earth, and those chords are impossible for a begginer to figure out unless you know how they are tuned.


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## Luke98 (Mar 4, 2007)

cheezyridr said:


> bands like soundgarden like to tune in some funky way that's not of this earth, and those chords are impossible for a begginer to figure out unless you know how they are tuned.


Yeah watch out for this, it can really throw you off, alot of metal bands are tuned weird, like half a step down, then e dropped another step.


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## Rugburn (Jan 14, 2009)

Tabs are fine if you want to learn to play a song as it was recorded/written by the band in question. If you wish to "shred" solos in this style/genre, your going to have to learn the fundamentals. There are many, many resources on the internet that are specific to this type of music. The suggestions made here are all valid and helpful, but with tabs alone you'll never get the WHOLE picture. I don't advocate long tedious hours of metrenomic drills and dry anemic theory for the sake of it alone. But, you have to know some of this $hit or you'll grow very frustrated very fast.

Shawn


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## JohnyO (May 31, 2009)

Thanks for the information guys. 

I've checked out a few of the songs on youtube, and will look for some of the fundamental stuff. 
I try to split my practice time up a bit, so I can practice scales for a while, and then try to work on learning a song. 
I also have a metronome which I need to start using.


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## Bevo (Nov 24, 2006)

Your on the right track then..

Get those scales in all varietys mastered so that you can easily sit down and do 10 min of blinding fast scales from memory.
What this does is train your mind and give you muscle memory, the speed should increase with the accuracy, don't speed up till its perfect.

Learn sweeps, lots of lessons out there.
Also learn the entire song on rythem and lead, start with rythem first so you have the melody down..bit easier to learn lead this way.

Instead of us choosing your songs at this point go after songs you know the solo's in detail but have never played..I know some GNR that is burnt into my brain..it was a blast to make it happen on the guitar!!
The better you know the song the easier it is to learn, if you don't know it listen to it with the tab 100 times till it makes perfect sense the start.

As someone once said..If you can humm it you can play it..

Bev


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

iron maiden: the trooper

metallica: master of puppets (the song... and the album)

AC/DC: back in black:

and if you want to pick things up a bit:

lamb of god: the faded line


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

Budda said:


> iron maiden: the trooper
> 
> metallica: master of puppets (the song... and the album)


dude am i being totally dense that i don't get the joke or are you serious that you consider those to be beginner songs? they are great songs, no question. 
but not for a beginner.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Nope, not beginner songs - but something to work up to over the course of say 4-6 months with a decent practise schedule


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

ok, sometimes there is subtle humor and i'm always the last one to get the joke. i try to be careful about that just in case. but yeah, that time table should be do able if he is serious.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

it wasnt so much a joke, moreso trying to suggest good sort of beginner metal songs. not beginner songs, but beginner metal songs.

there's kids who've been playing for 2 or 3 years that can play the modern insert-metal-subgenre-here stuff that i can't even touch yet.


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## sureshred (Nov 16, 2008)

Budda said:


> *iron maiden: the trooper
> 
> metallica: master of puppets (the song... and the album)*
> 
> ...


And of course all beginners can gallop, play crazy solos and downpick faster than you can blink?

Seriously, try Fear of the Dark minus solos or Crazy train minus solos again.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

he can already play chords, he has playing experience - in all honesty, it won't take him longer then maybe a month or two to get to 80's-metallica speeds .

If the OP practises with a metronome, putting in half an hour every day or two, he'll notice some good leaps .

I blame maiden for getting me hooked on playing fast lol.


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