Using Distortion for Metal Guitar

Series Summary

Heavy metal is a style of rock music typified by loud, distorted guitars and bombastic drumming. The genre’s roots stem from the “heavy” blues rock of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, as well as the darker sounds of Black Sabbath which later inspired the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden incorporated many classical constructions to their music, creating an aggressive and intricate sound. When it comes to heavy metal, the guitar and drums dominate the sound and the louder the music, the better. Theatrics are a big part of heavy metal music as well and it is not uncommon to see pyrotechnics and props used onstage at a concert. There have been many different heavy metal movements over the years and has been related to hard rock, glam rock, punk rock, and hardcore punk rock music.

In this series of videos, get tips on the basics of heavy metal guitar playing. Learn how to tune your guitar to various octaves in this series. Also get expert tips on cool guitar effects like distortion, scales and shredding. Learn more about pinch and tap harmonics and harmonic minor. Get tips on playing a seven string metal guitar including tips on speed picking and shredding. Watch as our expert demonstrates the differences between skimping arpeggios and skipping diminished arpeggios. Learn how to use the whammy bar to get a special effect and bend the sound of certain notes. After watching this series of videos, impress your friends with your new heavy metal guitar skills.

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Gary Schutt. I am going to talk to you about using distortion. Distortion is a very popular effect that gives you that rock sound. It is an over driven amp type of sound as opposed to a clean sound which this is a clean sound. This is a clean sound. Very jazzy, very bluesy, very plain. You can play funk, jazz , blues and country. Distortion is the rock sound. Let’s turn that on and it gives you this better full rich, bluesy, chunky. If you listen to any rock radio station, every song they play will have that sound. Now if you are a relatively kind of sloppy like me using distortion, it will hide or mask some of those imperfections. "