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Hello everyone. I am new to this forum (and forum positing in general)

I've been listening to bands like nokturnal mortum, emperor, shylmagoghnar etc - along with  some less "black" metal bands on and off for over a decade. nokturnal mortum and emperor are life long loves of mine in particular. I had a death metal phase for a while too - gorotted, gorgasm, dying fetus, pig destroyer, black dahlia murder, etc... Whereas I think my own relationship with death metal was a reflection of a certain time in my life (I don't enjoy it so much as I used to) - black metal seems to have a timeless quality (at least to me). I've been wanting to get into art for a few years.. but have kind of hesitated.. now I am beginning to think I should just ease my way into it and let it grow naturally. I have decided to start making atmospheric black metal. I am not yet a musician.. I cannot play a single instrument.. but in the true tradition of black metal (at least what I understand it to be) - I'm going to start with whatever resources I have (I own an acoustic guitar and have access to music making software) - and go from there.

I am hoping there might be some people on this forum who could offer me some tips. I want to buy an electric guitar eventually. Maybe even a drum kit in the future too (when my finance allows - though for the meantime I can use a drum machine). I was thinking I would start by getting to know the guitar via my acoustic. I guess my question is, in terms of learning to play the acoustic, what genre best translates to that classic "atmospheric black metal" sound that we hear? and which ones best translate when moved over to electric? If that makes sense. I have played around a little with simple finger picking exercises.. but knowing which genres would translate best into atmospheric kind of black metal would make a world of difference. And any other advice others have in these regards would also be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks to anyone who comments.

Tony

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9 hours ago, CrowSeer said:

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum (and forum positing in general)

I've been listening to bands like nokturnal mortum, emperor, shylmagoghnar etc - along with  some less "black" metal bands on and off for over a decade. nokturnal mortum and emperor are life long loves of mine in particular. I had a death metal phase for a while too - gorotted, gorgasm, dying fetus, pig destroyer, black dahlia murder, etc... Whereas I think my own relationship with death metal was a reflection of a certain time in my life (I don't enjoy it so much as I used to) - black metal seems to have a timeless quality (at least to me). I've been wanting to get into art for a few years.. but have kind of hesitated.. now I am beginning to think I should just ease my way into it and let it grow naturally. I have decided to start making atmospheric black metal. I am not yet a musician.. I cannot play a single instrument.. but in the true tradition of black metal (at least what I understand it to be) - I'm going to start with whatever resources I have (I own an acoustic guitar and have access to music making software) - and go from there.

I am hoping there might be some people on this forum who could offer me some tips. I want to buy an electric guitar eventually. Maybe even a drum kit in the future too (when my finance allows - though for the meantime I can use a drum machine). I was thinking I would start by getting to know the guitar via my acoustic. I guess my question is, in terms of learning to play the acoustic, what genre best translates to that classic "atmospheric black metal" sound that we hear? and which ones best translate when moved over to electric? If that makes sense. I have played around a little with simple finger picking exercises.. but knowing which genres would translate best into atmospheric kind of black metal would make a world of difference. And any other advice others have in these regards would also be GREATLY appreciated.

It all depends on what kind of learner you are and how dedicated you'll be. Classical guitar would be the obvious choice here, but it's demanding and time-consuming and a good amount of what you learn won't be immediately relevant to black metal. For getting started on guitar in general, some lessons with an instructor will really help with the basics. Check out some YouTube playthroughs and tutorials, get some picks, find some tabs for songs you like, start playing along... You can do all of that on an acoustic and it'll translate fine, but you'll need an electric to get the sounds you're after.

I suggest all that because it'll give you a leg up on understanding how the music you like is put together. You can also disregard all of it and just muddle through. I had some lessons when I first started off, basic rock and blues stuff - church chords, barre chords, simple chord progressions, pentatonic lead licks - and I was lucky enough to learn how to hear intervals early on. Other than that, I just started putting my fingers down and making sounds I liked. 27 years later, I'm happy with some of what I've written, frustrated by gaps in my technique and knowledge, and still learning all the time. I'd like to say you should learn how to walk before you run, and approach the guitar in a more well-rounded way, but really you should just do what you're inspired to do, and do as much of it as possible.

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It all depends on what kind of learner you are and how dedicated you'll be. Classical guitar would be the obvious choice here, but it's demanding and time-consuming and a good amount of what you learn won't be immediately relevant to black metal. For getting started on guitar in general, some lessons with an instructor will really help with the basics. Check out some YouTube playthroughs and tutorials, get some picks, find some tabs for songs you like, start playing along... You can do all of that on an acoustic and it'll translate fine, but you'll need an electric to get the sounds you're after.
I suggest all that because it'll give you a leg up on understanding how the music you like is put together. You can also disregard all of it and just muddle through. I had some lessons when I first started off, basic rock and blues stuff - church chords, barre chords, simple chord progressions, pentatonic lead licks - and I was lucky enough to learn how to hear intervals early on. Other than that, I just started putting my fingers down and making sounds I liked. 27 years later, I'm happy with some of what I've written, frustrated by gaps in my technique and knowledge, and still learning all the time. I'd like to say you should learn how to walk before you run, and approach the guitar in a more well-rounded way, but really you should just do what you're inspired to do, and do as much of it as possible.
I started with classical guitar and the transitioned over to bm. @FatherAlabaster is right in saying that it would be a good place to start. Classical guitar helps you build up a strong comfort level with the instrument that will translate over to any style.
Another thing that I found helpful was learning to play some bm songs. It doesn't matter whether you have an acoustic or electric guitar, the skills will transfer over. Songs like Burzum's "Ea Lord of the Depths" is really great for learning to change strings while tremolo picking (as is Emperor's "I am the Black Wizards"), and Darkthrone's "Transylvanian Hunger" is a good drill for practicing two string riffing.

Hope this helps.

Sent from my SM-S327VL using Tapatalk

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Thanks a lot guys. I will start with the classical via youtube and check out those songs mentioned @Balor. Really appreciate the time you both put into answering. Thanks again!

If anyone else has some advice to share I would love to hear it too.

Tony

16 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

Moved from Black Metal thread.  Please ensure your posts are on topic in future.

My bad. Thanks for moving it.

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