davevos

hi guys, just wondering if anyone has any helpful tips for ways to practice metal rhythm guitar techniques. (e.g. down picking, alternate picking, gallops etc)

at the moment i usually set a metronome and just practice riffs from bands with technical rhythm parts. (e.g. sylosis, lamb of god etc), or focus on a particular technique, (e.g. tremolo 32nd notes at various tempos)

is that about the only way to do it or are there more effective ways to practice?

also wondering if anyone can suggest to me some other bands with interesting, technical rhythm guitar stuff that i can learn to help improve? preferably intermediate-advanced level, ive been playing for a while.

cheers!

AvengedReno

I found this to be very helpful and I think there is 4 parts. http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/colu...ry/metal_rhythm

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BradIon1995

Megadeth have some really cool riffs, especially the Rust In Peace era stuff. Actually any Thrash stuff is good for getting your rhythm chops nice and tight. Try some Pantera as well.

Also, learn other styles! It's amazing what can be taken out of other music. Learn some Hendrix, some Motley Crue, some SRV, some Santana, whatever! As long as you have fun, it will improve your playing without you even knowing it. Don't just focus strictly on Metal.

Learning some basic scales and modes will help your composition, so why not work on both your rhythm chops and your theory knowledge by making up a riff in E Phrygian, for example?

If you have a mate with a bass rig or a drum kit, jam on them every so often.

Play acoustic guitar.

Just some things I can think of that improved my playing Have fun!

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Freepower

I'd suggest you look at Fear Factory, Divine Heresy, Iced Earth, Meshuggah... tbh any decent metal band is going to have good right hand work but those are the ones that come to mind for working on right hand chops.

Personally I found the most effective and fun way for me to work on this was to simply grab about 10 of my favourite tunes by the above artists and then use amazing slow downer to bring them down to a comfortable speed, then focus on keeping extremely tight timing and clear tone.

The speed will come as long as you stay relaxed and keep practising so the main issue is just keeping yourself motivated.

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fanapathy

I can really recommend Trivium for cool and interesting rhythm metal guitar. They have some quite challenging stuff and like to mix in lots of fast gallops in their riffs
Try "Into The Mouth of Hell We March" main riff etc, if you like it and it's not too easy there's plenty more songs too ranging from intermediate to advanced mostly

bburritt1

For rhythm nowadays i play Feared, Pantera, Megadeth, SLAYER!!!!( Seriously the best for rhythm) and Iron Maiden. That should help that right hand out a bit.

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hansome21

Best rhythm guitar riffs come from Dimebag Darrell and Toki Wortooth (Brandon Smalls) IMO.

bburritt1

Toki? Really? Cmon! He doesnt even right anything he's just there.

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vayne92

For downpicking my personal favourite is Parkway Drive.

The main riff of this song in particular is pretty brutal to downpick;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqfe_3QO60

Trivium is also definitely a good one. Some of their shit is ridiculously technical.

I always enjoyed Tread the Floods for alternate picking. Although a fair bit of it is legato it's definitely nice to practice with alternate picking;



Kirisute Gomen would be a damn brutal song for galloping and alternate picking i'd imagine. Never tried it but it has some rather extensive galloping and alternate picking. It would probably get quite exhausting. If you even dare to tackle the solo aswell then extra points to you.



I can think of shitloads of stuff for alternate picking / downpicking but galloping i can't think of too many real intricate riffs. I'd say Lamb of God but you said yourself you listen to them already. If you haven't listened to Trivium though definitely check them out. They have some stuff ranging from intermediate to very advanced.

I think i'll leave this post with a rather rhythmically technical song from my favourite album of all time;



It's got everything from galloping to alternate picking to even a tiny bit of downpicking.
If you can get past the fact that it's bmth maybe you'll enjoy it. Maybe.. Hopefully :P

If this stuff isn't technical enough though then i can't think of much else to suggest that i listen myself to. I'm not into the super technical stuff (except Dream Theater. **** you Petrucci you robot).

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Geldin

This song is great exercise for alternate picking and gallops. It's the first song I learned on my seven string, but it can be done in baritone tuning if you don't have a seven string.

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bburritt1

Trivium is a wonderfull example of good ol thrash gallops. Testament is another solid rhythm heavy band. Meshuggah i wouldnt touch for awhile. Thats when you want to start messing with different time signatures and endurance......Bleed anyone?

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reincarnator

If you can play through the rhythm on the rust in peace album, you can play the majority of metal rhythm guitar.

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J_W

Slayer is like in their own world riff wise. If you want to practice fast alternate picking sure, but their riffs aren't that interesting.

I like the Iced Earth suggestions, they have some seriously awesome riffs.

crzywhiteboy

get this
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news...in_6_weeks.html

vayne92

Not having a seven string is the single reason i haven't learnt basically that entire album yet.. Sad sad times

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bburritt1

[QUOTE=J_W]Slayer is like in their own world riff wise. If you want to practice fast alternate picking sure, but their riffs aren't that interesting.

I like the Iced Earth suggestions, they have some seriously awesome riffs.[/QUOTE

True very true. Iced Earth is ridiculous. They fall into there own catagory as well. Ive been getting into this band "Feared" lately and there Ola's picking style and riffs are pretty damn cool! I like Firewind to but thats more Technical than anything.

Oh and if your into breakdowns every few minutes play anything from Unearth.

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Sickz

I would recommend progressive metalbands and technical death metal, they often have great and challenging rhythm guitars.

Check out the following (ill put up a link or two here aswell): Dream Theater, Symphony X, Adagio, Seventh Wonder, Fates Warning, Anubis gate, Circus Maximus, Meshuggah, Tesseract, Periphery, Veil of maya, Born of Osiris, The Faceless, Cloudkicker, The HAARP Machine, Necrophagist, Textures, Scar symmetry and Volumes!

Periphery:


Dream Theater:


Seventh Wonder:

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Bazz22

This guy knows what he's talking about.
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