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     For anyone who plays an instrument, what instrument do you play? What inspired you to play that instrument? Do you especially enjoy playing music of a certain group or genre? I ask because I play guitar, and I was initially inspired by slayer. I really enjoy playing their music, and when I write riffs of my own, I'm heavily influenced by them and cannibal corpse. However, I will look to any type of music for inspiration when I'm drawing a blank. Jazz and blues are especially important for me when it comes to those moments.

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I've been playing electric guitar for 23 years. I'm alright, but I don't get enough practice right now to really be at the level I want. I've been doing harsh vocals for nearly that long, I sing clean a bit, and I picked up bass and a bit of drums along the way, but my primary goal has always been to write songs, pretty much exclusively metal. The same goal has informed my home studio use. Before I learned to play, I would hear music in my head and only be able to kind of sing it. I was writing as soon as I started learning chords, and as a result I never really bothered learning anyone else's music, which has been detrimental to me here and there. Attempting to mine what's in my head and make the most of my influences without repeating myself too much is just sort of an ongoing process at this point. Aside from metal and associated harsh music, I derive lots of inspiration from medieval European polyphonic chant, and lately a ton of Georgian folk music.

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7 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I've been playing electric guitar for 23 years. I'm alright, but I don't get enough practice right now to really be at the level I want. I've been doing harsh vocals for nearly that long, I sing clean a bit, and I picked up bass and a bit of drums along the way, but my primary goal has always been to write songs, pretty much exclusively metal. The same goal has informed my home studio use. Before I learned to play, I would hear music in my head and only be able to kind of sing it. I was writing as soon as I started learning chords, and as a result I never really bothered learning anyone else's music, which has been detrimental to me here and there. Attempting to mine what's in my head and make the most of my influences without repeating myself too much is just sort of an ongoing process at this point. Aside from metal and associated harsh music, I derive lots of inspiration from medieval European polyphonic chant, and lately a ton of Georgian folk music.

Wow that's really cool! And I've had similar situations before where I just hear riffs and solos in my head, and I can dissect it and go through each pitch with my voice. Then I try to put it together and play something like it, but it doesn't always work. One of my main goals right now is just to become more acquainted with the guitar and learn more chords. I have also picked up bass along the way, but it's definitely not my forte. 

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I've been playing guitar for about eight years. Two years back I was involoved in a rather serious accident and completely forgot how to play. In the last year and a bit I've started taking lessons again. My goal is to form a band playing a blend of death, doom, and black metal as those are my biggest influences these days. A far cry from the melodic thrash I envisioned myself playing three or four years ago.

 

In the short term though it's more about relearning chords, scales, techniques, and the fretboard. These things present their own little challenges as I have a significant vision impairment so can't read tabs or sheet music. I learn entirely by memory. Upside I'll never be nervous in a live setting 'cause I can't see if anyone is even there...

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5 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I've been playing guitar for about eight years. Two years back I was involoved in a rather serious accident and completely forgot how to play. In the last year and a bit I've started taking lessons again. My goal is to form a band playing a blend of death, doom, and black metal as those are my biggest influences these days. A far cry from the melodic thrash I envisioned myself playing three or four years ago.

 

In the short term though it's more about relearning chords, scales, techniques, and the fretboard. These things present their own little challenges as I have a significant vision impairment so can't read tabs or sheet music. I learn entirely by memory. Upside I'll never be nervous in a live setting 'cause I can't see if anyone is even there...

I'm very sorry to hear that, but I do find your determination extremely admirable! I, myself, would like to form a band with heavy influence from technical death metal and melodic thrash. I wish you the best in your future musical endeavors :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've played drums for over 20 years now. I used to play in bands and did quite a bit of touring.  For the last 5 years, I've kind of been neglecting the drum kit for the apartment style piano I have in my home.  I just recently got back into playing my kit and WOW,  I cannot believe how quickly the skills deteriorate. I never claimed to be Mike Portnoy before, but I've had some issues playing AC/DC songs to a click without falling off time. I'm slowly but surely trying to rehone my skills.

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Playing to a metronome is great discipline. I always record my guitars and bass to a click. I enjoy rehearsing with a live band, but I find that my tempo accuracy actually suffers as I adapt to drummers' idiosyncrasies. I haven't owned a kit in nearly 20 years, and I was never particularly skilled, but I love playing drums whenever I get the opportunity. Once I have the space and money, I'm definitely getting a kit and committing some real time to it.

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19 hours ago, metalmastersmadness said:

I've played drums for over 20 years now. I used to play in bands and did quite a bit of touring.  For the last 5 years, I've kind of been neglecting the drum kit for the apartment style piano I have in my home.  I just recently got back into playing my kit and WOW,  I cannot believe how quickly the skills deteriorate. I never claimed to be Mike Portnoy before, but I've had some issues playing AC/DC songs to a click without falling off time. I'm slowly but surely trying to rehone my skills.

That's great! I've always had a great amount of respect for drummers. Good luck with everything :)

19 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Playing to a metronome is great discipline. I always record my guitars and bass to a click. I enjoy rehearsing with a live band, but I find that my tempo accuracy actually suffers as I adapt to drummers' idiosyncrasies. I haven't owned a kit in nearly 20 years, and I was never particularly skilled, but I love playing drums whenever I get the opportunity. Once I have the space and money, I'm definitely getting a kit and committing some real time to it.

I totally agree. Metronomes are very helpful. I haven't played drums, myself, but I hope that you're able to get that kit soon!

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11 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I haven't played to a metronome but will regularly play along to the song I'm practicing. I'd like to cut out the lead or rhthym tracks (depending on what part I'm playing).

I also do the same when I'm trying to learn a song. I mainly use the metronome when I'm trying to improve my precision on the song I'm practicing.

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I have been playing guitar for 10 years (Im 20 now). I got started because I've been listening to hard rock and blues since i was born and always wanted to learn how to play and write my own music. I practice everyday and try writing something new every day as well. its an obsession for me at this point. a very healthy obsession

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I play a Jackson js32t in black with white body binding. I took out the neck and bridge pickup and put a white emg 81 in the bridge leaving a pickup cavity in the neck. I think it's gonna be my thing though, I like it a lot, I bought this guitar in a guitar center one Christmas brand new and loved it of course because of the legend himself, randy rhoads. I play thrash and death metal, I do mainly havok covers, but the stuff I write is heavily influenced by slayer, exodus, kreator, and more recently, revocation and death.

By the way I'm 14 and have been playing for 6 years, and this Saturday I'm going to audition for a local thrash band! I play rhythm guitar.

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On 7/27/2016 at 5:56 PM, PillarOfSkulls said:

I have been playing guitar for 10 years (Im 20 now). I got started because I've been listening to hard rock and blues since i was born and always wanted to learn how to play and write my own music. I practice everyday and try writing something new every day as well. its an obsession for me at this point. a very healthy obsession

I pretty much grew up in the same situation. I can definItaly say playing guitar daily has become a healthy obsession for me too. That's great that you try to write every day. 

On 7/27/2016 at 7:34 PM, RelentlessOblivion said:

I've written a couple of riffs but none of them have developed into entire songs yet. There's a lot of Death influence in what I've written (and more recently a bit of Dissection) but I think it's different enough to not be called blatant ripping off of ideas.

Dude, sounds like some awesome stuff! Death and Dissection are really cool. I started off writing stuff that was heavily influenced by slayer and cannibal corpse, but, more recently, I've been influenced by more technical stuff like Revocation, Deeds of Flesh, and even Mozart.

On 7/29/2016 at 9:43 PM, Fabulousdisaster88 said:

I play a Jackson js32t in black with white body binding. I took out the neck and bridge pickup and put a white emg 81 in the bridge leaving a pickup cavity in the neck. I think it's gonna be my thing though, I like it a lot, I bought this guitar in a guitar center one Christmas brand new and loved it of course because of the legend himself, randy rhoads. I play thrash and death metal, I do mainly havok covers, but the stuff I write is heavily influenced by slayer, exodus, kreator, and more recently, revocation and death.

By the way I'm 14 and have been playing for 6 years, and this Saturday I'm going to audition for a local thrash band! I play rhythm guitar.

Best of luck in your audition today! I'm sure you'll nail it. That's great that you're getting into it so much at that age. I'm influenced by a lot of the same bands as you. Exodus has started to become more of an influence on me

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  • 2 weeks later...
On July 30, 2016 at 3:06 PM, salmonellapancake said:

I pretty much grew up in the same situation. I can definItaly say playing guitar daily has become a healthy obsession for me too. That's great that you try to write every day. 

Dude, sounds like some awesome stuff! Death and Dissection are really cool. I started off writing stuff that was heavily influenced by slayer and cannibal corpse, but, more recently, I've been influenced by more technical stuff like Revocation, Deeds of Flesh, and even Mozart.

Best of luck in your audition today! I'm sure you'll nail it. That's great that you're getting into it so much at that age. I'm influenced by a lot of the same bands as you. Exodus has started to become more of an influence on me

Thanks! The band didn't show at the venue so I never got to try out, which blows. But now I'm trying to form my own band called, (please no one steal this) apocalyptic clash.

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3 hours ago, Fabulousdisaster88 said:

Thanks! The band didn't show at the venue so I never got to try out, which blows. But now I'm trying to form my own band called, (please no one steal this) apocalyptic clash.

That's awesome! I'm in the process of forming a possible band. We're just a few friends that like the same stuff, but hopefully something comes of it.

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28 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I've started writing some original material recently. Tying the ideas together is proving a little difficult in places but that's fine. Also thanks to remembering I've posted lyrics on the forum before I've picked that up again.

Thats awesome! I've been grinding to get some new stuff going too. 

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6 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

It's tough because I'm not entirely sure how best to blend death, doom, and black metal (the sub-genres which most inspire me). Like I have ideas that are forming but they're not fitting together just yet and I'm loathe to force things.

I'm in the exact same situation. My biggest sub genres are thrash metal and death metal. I can write something easily, but the hard part is being able to write a song and accept it how it is. It's like I keep coming up with better ideas, and my tastes are evolving, so whenever I write something, I find myself changing it over and over. I guess I'll get to the point where I finally know my true identity as a guitar player, but, until then, it's gonna be tough. 

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My main instrument is the guitar and I used to play the bass. Most of the time I play classic rock, and what I guess you could call proto-metal. Like most people I guess, I will turn to almost anything when I am unsure, particularly the blues. To be honest, most of my playing is just blues with a little more overdrive. As much as I love metal, these days I rarely play any, the fancy fretwork and incredible playing speed no longer excites me the way it used to. At some point I wouldn't mind forming some kind of heavy blues rock band (think along the lines of Thin Lizzy and the like) or something, though that'll be a little while off yet (it doesn't help that I am very finicky when it comes to vocals).

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2 hours ago, jfk36 said:

My main instrument is the guitar and I used to play the bass. Most of the time I play classic rock, and what I guess you could call proto-metal. Like most people I guess, I will turn to almost anything when I am unsure, particularly the blues. To be honest, most of my playing is just blues with a little more overdrive. As much as I love metal, these days I rarely play any, the fancy fretwork and incredible playing speed no longer excites me the way it used to. At some point I wouldn't mind forming some kind of heavy blues rock band (think along the lines of Thin Lizzy and the like) or something, though that'll be a little while off yet (it doesn't help that I am very finicky when it comes to vocals).

That's very interesting. I find myself turning to blues a lot too. B.B. King, Albert King, and T-Bone Walker can really help me get through a writing slump, or just give me inspiration in general.

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I've flirted with the blues in my playing but never really pursued it seriously. Blues is something I enjoy listening to more then playing. God damn some of those guys can seriously play though. Robert Johnson in particular was way ahead of his time. Some of his music is almost progressive in nature. Chord selection and timing changes rather uncommon for the time frequent his music. Not bad for a bloke who by all reports was a worse then mediocre guitarist at first. Could there be truth to the old legend I wonder...

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1 hour ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I've flirted with the blues in my playing but never really pursued it seriously. Blues is something I enjoy listening to more then playing. God damn some of those guys can seriously play though. Robert Johnson in particular was way ahead of his time. Some of his music is almost progressive in nature. Chord selection and timing changes rather uncommon for the time frequent his music. Not bad for a bloke who by all reports was a worse then mediocre guitarist at first. Could there be truth to the old legend I wonder...

Yeah, Robert Johnson is awesome. He's just one of those inimitable guitar players that will never be bested.

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