ive been playing for about a month.

and i can already play a few things.

some metallica riffs, and the notes to a bunch of other songs.

i dont have a teacher and wanted to know what else i should be working on?
any songs you recommend learning?

my main interest is learning death metal but i am very open to learning anything really.


all help is appreciated thanks guys



and if your curious bout my gear im using for some reason.

Schecter damien 6
and a 1986 fender bullet reverb amp

This post was edited by Dirty_monkeyz on Jul 16 2009 12:01pm

Just keep practicing a lot. Learn scales to work on alternate picking, and chromatic excercises are great for picking as well. The most basic is just playing the chromatic scale up and down. (1 2 3 4 on all strings, ascending, then 5 4 3 2 descending, then 3 4 5 6 ascending, 7 6 5 4 descending, etc.) Practice this with a metronome.


Learn more tabs as you go, too, because it's fun to play songs you know, and they do help your technique.


Some good websites:

cyberfret.com
iBreatheMusic.com

This post was edited by wh0racLe on Jul 16 2009 12:14pm

learn all the major chords and scales

so you can name them easily by seeing where the fingers are positioned
learn the 1 4 5 theory (ask your teacher about it)

and play what your heart pours out

i dont have a teacher.

If you write a link to a song you are planning to learn where they are using technics you are not fammiliar with, i could maybe tell you how you can learn/play that. There are many hard technices(also in death metal) that can be hard to figure out on your own=P

i have specific songs id like to learn but i know there way over my head for now.

id just like to know some stuff i should be learning to improve my skills.so i can work my way up to songs i really wanna play.

Okay. you should try out whoracles suggestion. It is boring to practice technices(not songs) for hours, but you will get better if you do that.
But you can ofcourse learn easy songs too.
examples on songs that are nice to learn in the beginning:
Starway To Heaven (all exept for the solos=P)
Johnny Cash songs (don't know if black metal guys like his music^^) i listen to both..
Intros in metallica songs are great too, like fade to black, one, nothing else matters(if you don't already know any of those)

When you start learning solos, remember that you use the pick correctly. hit the strings down then up,down,up--- and use your wrist.
If you do this you will later be able to play very fast.
songs with awsome solos that are nice to begin with:
Brothers in arms- Dire Straits
Wish You Where here by pink floyd is also nice to learn. the solos are not very hard.
Santana
other Pink floyd songs like: shine on you crazy diamond, Money
Hotel California- Eagles

Anyway, when you start playing guitar solos you will probably come across a technice called ''Bending'', which is bending the string=P
for example:

-----------3- bend so it sound like--5---

works best on the light strings. You need to practice this alot to manage to hit the right tone every time.

Hope some of this is useful for you.

This post was edited by Gigga on Jul 16 2009 03:04pm

I practiced Blink 182 songs when I first started. They're very easy, so it helps build up skill.

Learning nothing but songs can probably get boring... So, maybe you should look up some scales and practice them when you're bored or whatever.

I'm not sure if you're allowed to advertise other sites here or not (can just edit it out if so), but guitarists.net has some lessons, scales, and chords things you could practice (look at the top of the page).

---8--5----------------------------------------- <---light string
----------8--5---------------------------------
-----------------7--5---------------------------
-------------------------7--5-------------------
--------------------------------7--5------------
----------------------------------------8--5----

Almost every guitar solo is based on this scale.
could be a good idea to learn it, both with pullons/pulloffs and hitting each note

This post was edited by Gigga on Jul 16 2009 03:29pm

not to everyones liking and some people may even flame me for saying this


when u 1st start out, id say getting a teacher is a good idea, just to set the basics out for you

teach you some chord patterns etc (im not a guitarist so dont really know about that stuff)


i had a teacher for the 1st 4 years of my drumming (the majority of it)
and i feel it really helped


just putting it out there