What are good guitar exercises to start playing Metal solos?
Derek asked:
I’ve been playing guitar for 2 1/2 years and I can play a lot metal riffs but when I get to the solos I can do any thing so what are good exercises to improve my fingers in that area. I also struggle with songs that have intricate rhythms, particulary megadeth songs. I know minor pentatonic, major and minor harmonic and minor melodic scales. I play mostly thrash metal songs.
I’ve been playing guitar for 2 1/2 years and I can play a lot metal riffs but when I get to the solos I can do any thing so what are good exercises to improve my fingers in that area. I also struggle with songs that have intricate rhythms, particulary megadeth songs. I know minor pentatonic, major and minor harmonic and minor melodic scales. I play mostly thrash metal songs.
Metal guitar soloing is very demanding and requires a lot of strength speed and dexterity. The best way to build up these skills is to practice your scales everyday with a metronome. Start off playing 4 notes to every one click at about 70bpm. Move this up a notch a day for all of the scales and positions. 1 notch may not seem like a big difference but after one week you will notice that your accuracy is greatly improving, after 1 month look out! You will be flying over the fingerboard!
another aspect is to develop extreme hammer on and pull off speed by doing repetitions of them up and down the pentatonic scale using pairs of strings check out this example
a———–5h7p5————5h7p5-[5th string]
e-5h8p5————5h8p5———–[6th string]
this example shows the lowest two strings using the A minor pentatonic. Bar across both strings with the index and use the pinky to do the hammer on/pull off on the low E string and the ring finger on the 5th string. This creates a series of triplets on each string and should be done as quickly and as cleanly as possible picking only the first note on each string. you should get a 123-456 rhythmic feel from it. Do these two strings as fast as you can for 1 minute, cleanly (no slop). Move up to the next two strings in the position and repeat the idea. Do this for the sixth and fifth then the fifth and fourth then the fourth and third and so on doing each pair for 1 minute. This is an extreme workout and you will definitely get tired if you are doing it right. That is the whole point. Metal solos are like the ultimate in athletic expression on the guitar and you need to work out your hands to get the required strength and speed.
REMEMBER speed is a by-product of accuracy. These exercises will make you much more accurate. for more tips feel free to E-mail me gtarczar
Start by playing as lightly as possible. With your fretting hand you only need to press down on the strings with enough force so that a note is made, most beginners press far too hard! Also, try to limit the movement of your picking hand. Think about it, you only need to move the pick a fraction to strike the string, so why move your hand any more? Also, play with harder picks (1mm is fine).
Take these tips on board and your playing should improve right away. Good luck
Alex
well its good to frequently practice try some of these:
E |-15p12—12——————————————-
B |———-15–15p12—12———————————–
G |————————14—14p12—12————————-
D |—————————————-14—14p12–12—————
A |——————————————————14—14p12—12—–
E |———————————————————————-15—15p12
or
E |-0h2h3-0h3h5-0h5h7-0h3h5-0h2h3————————
B |——————————————————
G |——————————————————
D |——————————————————
A |——————————————————
E |——————————————————
This is part of the solo in Ride The Lightning
E |-19p15—15-]-17p14—14-]-15p12—12-]-14p11—14—-
B |———17—-]———–15—-]———-13—-]———12——-
G |————]————]————]—————
D |————]————]————]—————
A |—-4x——]—-4x——]—–4x—–]—-4x———
E |————]————]————]—————
its also good to “race” a metronome
hope this helps guitarest