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I've been playing guitar for 4 years. I was first inspired by country music, because that was the main thing I listened to when I was young. But I was more inspired to play guitar after I got into rock music, because the guitar riffs in rock songs are AWESOME. Sometimes, listening to good guitarists inspires me to play. When I watch Jimi Hendrix play the fool out of his Strat during "Killing Floor" at Monterey Pop, I think "Man, I wish I could play like that." That inspires me. Also, watching School of Rock inspires me to play. I am also inspired to play after listening to James Hetfield's story of playing guitar when he was at Guitar Center.

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23 hours ago, MetalheadFromBama said:

I've been playing guitar for 4 years. I was first inspired by country music, because that was the main thing I listened to when I was young. But I was more inspired to play guitar after I got into rock music, because the guitar riffs in rock songs are AWESOME. Sometimes, listening to good guitarists inspires me to play. When I watch Jimi Hendrix play the fool out of his Strat during "Killing Floor" at Monterey Pop, I think "Man, I wish I could play like that." That inspires me. Also, watching School of Rock inspires me to play. I am also inspired to play after listening to James Hetfield's story of playing guitar when he was at Guitar Center.

Hendrix and James are also among the people that made me pick up the guitar. That's awesome that you take so much inspiration from people like that

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15 hours ago, salmonellapancake said:

Yeah unfortunately the guys I'm with have been slacking off :/ but I guess it's better than having no one.

I'm in kinda of a similar situation I have a drummer but he barely practices anymore because of baseball and he refuses to get a double bass because he doesent even like metal. He wants to have original songs but he doesent write anything. Soooo, I write everything and I only write to enjoy myself, consequently I only write metal. I've offered to go back to just sabbath and acdc covers but he says we need to experiment yet he's too stubborn to get a double bass. I don't know, I'm trying to subtlety ditch him, I really want a true dedicated thrash metal band.

 

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22 minutes ago, Fabulousdisaster88 said:

I'm in kinda of a similar situation I have a drummer but he barely practices anymore because of baseball and he refuses to get a double bass because he doesent even like metal. He wants to have original songs but he doesent write anything. Soooo, I write everything and I only write to enjoy myself, consequently I only write metal. I've offered to go back to just sabbath and acdc covers but he says we need to experiment yet he's too stubborn to get a double bass. I don't know, I'm trying to subtlety ditch him, I really want a true dedicated thrash metal band.

 

So he doesn't practice, doesn't have the right equipment, and doesn't like the music you want to play? You don't have a drummer, you just know a dude who can play drums. Don't waste time trying to make music with people that far removed from what you want to do.

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5 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

So he doesn't practice, doesn't have the right equipment, and doesn't like the music you want to play? You don't have a drummer, you just know a dude who can play drums. Don't waste time trying to make music with people that far removed from what you want to do.

That's what I've been thinking the only problem is we've been best friends since preschool and I don't wanna make things super awkward. On the other hand I feel like he's holding me back and that I need to move on and find other people to play music with like you said.

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3 minutes ago, Fabulousdisaster88 said:

That's what I've been thinking the only problem is we've been best friends since preschool and I don't wanna make things super awkward. On the other hand I feel like he's holding me back and that I need to move on and find other people to play music with like you said.

I'm still good friends with most of the people I've played music with. If you've known each other that long, you have nothing to worry about, maybe you can jam on the side once you've gotten something more fulfilling started up. It's great to play with people who will push you out of your box, but it's counterproductive to try forming a thrash band with someone who doesn't share your tastes.

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I 1st started when I was 9 or 10, I think, or there about on Bass, Stanley Clark of all people. Don't even ask why lol. Then Pastorius! Wow! Then I moved on to Flea (who is exceptional). Then I moved on to Classical guitar, spent a lot of time practicing and having no life. Leave a week of practice out and your fingerings were off. Dedication and respect to those. Paco De Lucia inspired me, then I just stumbled across guitar. Played some piano in-between, was never really that good with piano, again one of those instruments you need to live and truly want to be great at playing.

I think the 1st instrument you learn ultimately dictates what way you write, maybe I could be wrong. A lot of people have said I play and write or jam very rhythmically, almost like a bassist! haha... 

Old habits die hard I suppose.   

For me now, I am mediocre at best. I just like to use instruments to make noise. Drums though I never could get the knack of.

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17 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I'm still good friends with most of the people I've played music with. If you've known each other that long, you have nothing to worry about, maybe you can jam on the side once you've gotten something more fulfilling started up. It's great to play with people who will push you out of your box, but it's counterproductive to try forming a thrash band with someone who doesn't share your tastes.

Thank you dude.

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On 8/15/2016 at 5:06 AM, salmonellapancake said:

Yeah unfortunately the guys I'm with have been slacking off :/ but I guess it's better than having no one.

Try a solo project! :) 

You'll always find someone to collaborate. How I used to do it with guys in Poland was

  • You get your allocated time do whatever, it's your time no distractions and you do it your way
  • Send the stems, or if you share the same DAW, send the project file, named, versions all that - clean it 1st before send
  • Then it's their turn to have their allocated time to do whatever they want
  • You get on Skype, chat, talk over the vision and then
  • Rinse
  • Repeat
  • And go back to bullet 1 until you have a collaborative project

Many people do that, nothing like playing with others but can get you into writing music until you find someone/people who'll dedicate their time and effort to practice! 

Just a thought.

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8 hours ago, caustix said:

Try a solo project! :) 

You'll always find someone to collaborate. How I used to do it with guys in Poland was

  • You get your allocated time do whatever, it's your time no distractions and you do it your way
  • Send the stems, or if you share the same DAW, send the project file, named, versions all that - clean it 1st before send
  • Then it's their turn to have their allocated time to do whatever they want
  • You get on Skype, chat, talk over the vision and then
  • Rinse
  • Repeat
  • And go back to bullet 1 until you have a collaborative project

Many people do that, nothing like playing with others but can get you into writing music until you find someone/people who'll dedicate their time and effort to practice! 

Just a thought.

Thank you! I've had thoughts of doing something like that, but never knew quite how to go about it. That's a great way to break it down. Thanks :)

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I seem to mave stumbled into a creative period of late. The riffs I'm writing work nicely and as I play in a standard tuning (E yeah I know boring right) there's none of the 'this only works in x' that might otherwise hinder such creativity. Mind you I'd like to set up one of my guitars in either drop C or perhaps C sharp and play around with that.

 

Might see if I can get back into writing lyrics as well but I find that productive only in dead silence.

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2 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I seem to mave stumbled into a creative period of late. The riffs I'm writing work nicely and as I play in a standard tuning (E yeah I know boring right) there's none of the 'this only works in x' that might otherwise hinder such creativity. Mind you I'd like to set up one of my guitars in either drop C or perhaps C sharp and play around with that.

 

Might see if I can get back into writing lyrics as well but I find that productive only in dead silence.

It's funny cause I have also been composing riffs and improvising in standard tuning as of late. It's a great way to get more acquainted with one's guitar. For example, I might try something new in standard tuning just to see how I like it. If I make something that I think sounds good, then I might try it a half-step down or even a whole step in order to see how it sounds with certain lower notes or at a certain octave or just to see if the hand position is easier or more accessible compared to the riff in standard.

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I'm limited to just playing in E standard because I accidentally fucked up tuning one of my guitars to D standard (and then it got knocked further out when I moved house three or four months back). The other one was completely fucked by a clueless guitar tech thinking that drop A tuning means tuning EVERY STRING TO A!!! Guess what? The strings I bought weren't thick enough to drop A tune anyway and I found out the other day when I decided to make sure he had at least fixed the floyd rose bridge (which had jammed somehow prior to me sending it in for repairs) HE jammed one of the other nuts after fucking up tuning the damn thing.

 

So yeah have a little money saved up and I'm going to chat with the bloke who runs the place I do my guitar lessons to see if he knows a good guitar tech. If he does great I'll get the problem child fixed again and tuned to C# (C# F# B E G# C#)

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To make sure I don't contribute to things being fucked a second time what would be the best gauge of string to use for C#?

 

As for what I've been working on there's a lot of DM in there with splashes of doom and melodic black metal. It's pretty interesting. Highlight though is this weird semi-tonal progression thing that shouldn't work but totally does.

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D'Addario makes a "baritone light" set that runs 13-62, which is a decent place to start, though I'm not in love with their strings. It depends on how tight you want your strings, which is influenced by string gauge, what kind of bridge you have, and what the scale length of your guitar is, but I bet you'd adapt pretty quickly to whatever you put on in a certain range. I use a custom 63-12 set on my Gibson, which has a Tune-O-Matic bridge and and that kind of short 24 3/4" Gibson scale length. I wouldn't go any lighter than 11 on the top and 60 on the bottom, or heavier than the 14-68 regular baritone D'Addario set, which you'd probably find too tight.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow, cool to see lots of people have similar experiences to me... I've been playing guitar for 13 years or so, been singing for 21 and played drums for like, 4-5 years?  Can't remember.  I'm ok at keyboards as well, and can play "bass" (i.e. play guitar on a bass...).  I have the same thing as a lot of people as far as writing music goes, I hear a lot of it in my head and then sit down later to try and work it out, a lot of the best stuff I've recorded has been stuff that took me weeks to learn to play!  The music in my head is way too hard for me to do, you'd need some kind of superband with 40 musicians to pull some of it off XD  But a lot of it is a lot simpler, a lot cooler, a lot easier for me to get down, and I really enjoy the process of finding out how to play what I can already hear.

As far as instruments themselves go, my weapon of choice is an Ibanez RG7, my wife's got some beautiful Ibanez bass as well (that I steal at every opportunity... hehehe).  GSR205B it says on the head, but I remember not being able to find it as an official Ibanez model so that's probably wrong.  Started off on a Dean guitar, then got myself a mock PRS, then I think it was Ibanez all the way through - something about their guitars just sounds good to me.

I'm playing through a Blackstar Heavy Metal pedal at the moment, the sound is something else... Was with Marshall for ages beforehand and got used to their distortion sound, but I felt it dropped a bit in quality when I upgraded my old amp for a new head... So I got this pedal, and it's the shit, man!  Range of tone from Sodom's earliest output to some of these US country style bands I used to hear on the TV all the time (Down etc.)  Really fun to play around with, managed to get good NWOBHM, DM, BM, Doom and Sludge tones out of it so far!  Bit of studio engineering to help with the EQ and effects but on its own it's a fucking amazing piece of kit!

And no, I'm not paid to advertise on their behalf, I just think it's really cool XD

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I had that issue with lacking the tools to convert what I hear in my head to actual music for the longest time. I'm just now managing to start that process. Experimenting with blending some of the techniques (more specifically the way in which they're used) and feeling I've come across through learning BM, DM, and Doom. I've begun blending some of that Dissection and Death influence with My Dying Bride sort of feelings and whilst the process is proving painful I enjoy it.

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  • 4 months later...

Another guitarist here ^^! I am playing guitar for 2 years now. As you mentioned legends that reminds me of a series I watched recently, it is called Cracking the Code and Troy Grady(if I am not mistaken) is creator. He told a story of his friendship with guitar and how he learnt to play. The series is followed by exellent explanations, cool animations and I learnt much things from it so I warmly recommend it to anyone who wonders how Yngwie, Michael Angelo and Eric Johnson can play that fast and clean.

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I've had my guitar for about a year, and about a month and a half ago I told my self I was fukcin gonna learn how to play the damn thing. So far I can play most of Am I Evil, sucking my love, a few riffs on jump in the fire, the intro for fuckin.. um.. uh.. smoke on the water I learned the other day for shits and grins.... eha............. oh the main friff for fucking rainbow in the dark.. uhhh shit... one riffs on seek and destry. Eh it's slow goin but I'm gettin her.

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  • 6 months later...

I have been playing the guitar for close to twelve years now, but have only started playing metal about six months ago.  The rest of the time was spent learning and playing classical music.  Looking back, I think that I was inspired to play the guitar by some System of a Down song played on the radio.  Now, I am trying to blend fingerpicking and black metal in the music I am writing (which I started doing for the first time about two months ago).

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/16/2017 at 12:35 PM, Balor said:

I have been playing the guitar for close to twelve years now, but have only started playing metal about six months ago.  The rest of the time was spent learning and playing classical music.  Looking back, I think that I was inspired to play the guitar by some System of a Down song played on the radio.  Now, I am trying to blend fingerpicking and black metal in the music I am writing (which I started doing for the first time about two months ago).

That's awesome man! System of a Down was also an early inspiration for me. I'm a little tired of it now, but Daron had some heavy riffs back in the day. Did you receive professional training/lessons in classical music?

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4 hours ago, salmonellapancake said:

That's awesome man! System of a Down was also an early inspiration for me. I'm a little tired of it now, but Daron had some heavy riffs back in the day. Did you receive professional training/lessons in classical music?

Yes, I have been taking lessons with an instructor for all twelve years.  I think the song was "Toxicity" or something.

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