Drop D Metal Guitar Lick #3

Here is another guitar lick in Drop D tuning. This one is a little faster than the last two but shouldn't be too hard with a little bit of practice. The bulk of the guitar lick is played with a 16th note rhythm. Try to make the pull-offs smooth and practice the chromatic descending part in the last bar to make it the same speed as the open string part. Try different degrees of palm muting to alter the intensity of the open string parts. Try repeating the guitar lick a few times and work on building intensity as it progresses. Again if you have a drum machine or drum pattern that matches try to play along. Ok here is the guitar tab:

Drop D Metal Guitar Lick #2

Here is another metal guitar lick in Drop D tuning. For guitarists who have not played in drop D and don't have a tuner handy a quick way to drop the 6th string E note down to a D is to detune ( lower) the 6th string until it the note sound like the the D string but an octave lower. This guitar lick starts out with a quicker opening line played with 16th notes has some muted open string riffs with some 16th note rests and ends with an eighth note sequence that switches to 3/4 time. If you  want the powertab you can DM your email on twitter @jimifan.

Here is the tab:

Drop D Metal Guitar Lick

I have had some requests to post some Death Metal guitar breakdowns in Drop D tuning. Now I freely admit I have a limited knowledge of death metal. Listening to some youtube videos showing various guitar breakdowns it sounds  like detuned guitar riffs that use a lot of rhythms with unexpected rests and sometimes odd time signatures. In some of the examples I listened to I could hear a lot of Pantera's influence. I think because Vinnie and Dime were brothers ( and great musicians) they were really locked into each other's playing and really had some strong grooves and powerful rhythmic interactions between the drums and guitars. To me a lot of the breakdowns come alive when they are pared with drum tracks so I would recommend trying to come up with your own against a drum machine or backing track with a good drum groove in it. Anyway here is my first guitar lick trying to emulate this style. It is in Drop D tuning. Be mindful of the rests and use palm muting and staccato playing as indicated. Again no video camera was available for this guitar lick but DM me on twitter @jimifan with your email and I'd be happy to hook you up with the powertab so you have some idea of what it sounds like. Ok so here is the tab:

Drop D Clean Metal Guitar Lick

Here is a clean metal guitar lick in Drop D tuning. Like a few of the other guitar licks posted recently it can be played at a variety of tempos and still sound interesting. The rhythm is all eighth notes so it should be pretty straight forward even without the video or audio but email me if you need a powertab for any of the guitar licks and I'll see if I can't help out. The only trick to playing this guitar lick smoothly is the placement of the fretting hand. I find it is easiest if you finger the D and G strings with  the second and fourth fingers. To me that makes it easier to play the notes that do not remain constant.

Here is the guitar tab:

Clean Triplet Metal Guitar Lick

Here is a clean guitar lick in standard tuning. If you want to play it in a lower tuning just drop everything one whole step to get a deeper bass sound. This guitar lick is based on a triplet pattern where the only thing that changes is the bass note. This guitar lick sounds good at a variety of speeds so try it slow and at a medium tempo as well. At faster tempos it also makes a great piece to practice your alternate picking.

Clean Metal Guitar in Drop D Down a Whole Step

I've had some requests to do some clean metal guitar parts in drop tunings. Absent a working video camera I've just posted the guitar tab. The tuning for these licks is Drop D Down a Whole Step so from low to high CGCFAD.  Here are a couple licks I used finger picking but you can also try playing with a pick and fingers too.

The first guitar lick is pretty straight forward it closes with a kinda classical sounding pattern that I like. A great extrapolation on this type of diad playing at the end is Joe Satriani's "Baroque".

The second guitar lick takes advantage of the drop tuning shape and uses a barre across the top three strings. I've used 5/4 here as a time signature. Try altering the rhythmic values and come up with your own guitar licks using similar patterns.

May Day Guitar Lick - No Pick Needed

It's been a busy weekend by my standards. The new Dell has finally arrived and I'm deep into loading it with guitar software so I can get recording again. Took a break from the computer upgrade to catch the 8th Annual PEI Guitar Festival 2011 at the Guild last night. A really diverse and talented group of musicians performed. The standout for me was a country singer and guitar player named Raymond Taylor. I had never heard his playing before but his voice blew me away. He was truly a gifted singer I was literally spellbound listening to him.

Brent Johnston performed an improvisational piece to finish his set that drew heavily on the minor pentatonic scale especially on the first high E string. So as a tribute lick today's tinylick will be based around the E Minor Pentatonic scale and played solely on the high E string.

The guitar lick is based primarily on a rhythm based on 16th notes. It incorporates some basic tapping on guitar but nothing that will prove too difficult with some practice. The remaining notes are played with hammer-on and pull-offs no pick is needed. Repeat the whole phrase when done. To me the sound has a Celtic tinge to it so shoot for a light dancing uplifting feel.

I don't normally record tinylicks but thought I'd do a quick video of this one to test out the new computer. Turns out though my webcam is incompatible with Windows 7. So no video until I find a workaround or buy another camera.