Metal Progressions

Hey, I'm back with another lesson. This one's on soloing over metal progressions. Typically, metal chord progressions involve unusual chord movement, like E5 to F5 (1 to b2) or E5 to Bb5 (1 to b5) or E5 to D#5 (1 to 7). These movements are illustrated in Fig 1:

Fig 1:
   E5      F5   E5    Bb5      D#5 E5   
E|------------------------------------------------------------|
B|------------------------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------------------------------|
D|--------------------3--------8------------------------------|
A|-2-2-2-2-3-----2----1--------6---2--------------------------|
E|-0-0-0-0-1-----0-----------------0--------------------------|

This type of chordal movement should sound familiar if you play a lot of metal. The question is, how to play lead over it? The answer is using uncommon scales (outside of metal that is). The E diminished scale is frequently used by players like Trey Azagthoth and Kerry King (of Morbid Angel and Slayer respectively) and has a great sound as it emphasises the notes F and Bb (b2 and b5)

Fig 2:   
E|-------------------------------------9-10-12---------------------|
B|-----------------------------9-11-12-----------------------------|
G|---------------------9-10-12-------------------------------------|
D|-----------8-9-11-12---------------------------------------------|
A|-7-8-10-11-------------------------------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|

Another great scale is the Phrygian-dominant which, if you're interested is the 5th mode of the harmonic minor scale. The Phrygian-dominant is often used by Joe Satriani, and Eric Hoffman of Deicide

Fig 3:
E|-------------------------------------------12-13-16-17-19-20-22-24-|
B|----------------------------------12-13-15-------------------------|
G|----------------------------13-14----------------------------------|
D|-------------------12-14-15----------------------------------------|
A|----------12-14-15-------------------------------------------------|
E|-12-13-16----------------------------------------------------------|

Try playing licks from these scales over your favourite metal songs and chances are you can come up with something that fits.

Comments

[eXploZive]

Great lesson!! Just what I was looking for

[Throneofhecate]

Pretty killer tutorial, im glad you know your DM. Im in a DM band myself and love Morbid angel as well as deicide.

\m/

[_3Dblasphemy_]

rancidfan - what is the point -your blatently a talentless 4-chord pop punk player so why are you even looking at metal lessons? just crawl under a cardboard box and die.

great lesson - i been lookin for that diminished scale - ill have to try it over some morbid angel songs \m/

[shanal]

thank u 3d could not of said it better myself

METAL RULES

[Aditya]

ahhh...i finally can improvise over the wacko metal progressions! by the by, pentatonics works well too

[iron_maiden664]

Thank you sooo much! the lesson was killer! The phrygian scale is the one used in Iron Maiden's Powerslave so now I can try it over that AND I know the chords that make that "egyptian" (powerslave) kind of sound!

[Gr1m R34p3r]

meh..

[kirk_rules!]

its kinda funny how the comments to a lesson can get soooo off topic

lesson was alright. maybe could've added a little something more than death metal. (although i like slayer a little.)

[super666fender]

i was wonderin what scale trey uses, thx for the lesson

[dan123]

so will these work over any progressions in any key i probably sound like a dumbass now but jst wondering gd article

[nish]

c'mon.. what is the point on wasting your time bashing all these lessons? your wasting your own time and it isn't helpful to anyone. nice lesson.

dan123:
so will these work over any progressions in any key i probably sound like a dumbass now but jst wondering gd article

They should?

spam deleted

[townieguitarist]

As soon as i reas the first paragraph i didnt undastand it soz.

[guitar7masta]

good lesson but should've had some more scales, other than that, its was pretty good

[spear123]

Gr1m R34p3r wrote:

meh..

meh..

[RockYourFace]

Why do so many people as for more scales? He gave a diminished scale which does frequently show up in a lot of metal playing. Also you can sound metal with a pentationic minor scale. Its all about patterns and being creative. Learning 1000 scales won't do anything if you can't use them in context of a song or soloing.

[ozturk417]

RockYourFace:
Why do so many people as for more scales? He gave a diminished scale which does frequently show up in a lot of metal playing. Also you can sound metal with a pentationic minor scale. Its all about patterns and being creative. Learning 1000 scales won't do anything if you can't use them in context of a song or soloing.

Thats actually really true, you can make alota stuff sound metal if you try hard enough, scales are just a classification.

[tunskies]

yeh but you will get sick of playing the same licks ova and ova again if u only use one scale. learning a new one can give u more inspiration

[IwannaBeSadated]

It was ok, but what im really looking for is something on metal solos.

[Azrehan]

Another thing worth looking at for beginners is the scale generator at http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php

This will enable you to look at the scales above on the whole fretboard and unlock the board and add one string runs and tapping parts.

Also a neat trick is to find another scale which fits your riff or progression and hop onto that scale when you get to a note that is shared with the scale you are already on. This is a jazz technique.

[runesymboldeath]

sweet was just looking for a simple metal progression so i can practice with a new drum kit i got on comp thx!

[Madhur Damn]

Nice...beats using the blues scale way to ****in much >.< rofl

[maliceheart18]

spear123 wrote:

Gr1m R34p3r wrote:

meh..

meh..

meh..

[Daveofbodom]

maliceheart18 wrote:

spear123 wrote:

Gr1m R34p3r wrote:

meh..

meh..

meh..

meh...

[stratkat]

So this lesson is basically recomending me a scale:p
I didn't find it very helpful.

[LazyLatinoRocke]

Great lesson. Mostly I been told to use the minor pentatonic so many times and I really was looking for something like this.

[isabiggles]

How does the diminished scale work starting from the low E string?

Does it work from the E string? Or am I an idiot?

[Leroy Jenkins]

Daveofbodom wrote:

maliceheart18 wrote:

spear123 wrote:

Gr1m R34p3r wrote:

meh..

meh..

meh..

meh...

[HannibalX]

How does the diminished scale work starting from the low E string?

upwards