Category Archives: The Player’s Room

So you want to start taking your band more seriously? First we need to examine why you’re starting the band in the first place and what you’re hoping to get out of it. Money? Women? Fame? Hopefully you have a deeper reason than the superficial rockstar perception.

Once upon a time, there was this guy who bought a thing. He raved about this thing to anyone who would listen. It was the best thing ever. Superior in every measurable quality to everything else possessing qualities which could be measured. Of all things, this one thing reigned supreme; ultimate champion among the elite echelon of awesome things.

Sarah Longfield can probably beat you up on guitar – and will use two more strings doing it. Since starting on the piano early and switching to guitar at the age of 12, Sarah’s interests have widened to include drums and keyboards. After learning the basics on 6-string guitars for a couple of years she transitioned to 7 and finally 8-string guitars as her musical interests turned toward heavy, down-tuned metal.

One of my favorite alternate tunings is Open C, or CGCGCE. As you can see, it’s mostly made up of a bunch of Cs and Gs in different octaves. What I really like about it is that it can be a brutal low tuning for aggressive chugging, but it also gives you a nice sense of atmosphere and additional harmonic complexity on the middle strings and it’s laid out on the fretboard in a way that invites some pretty interesting sweep picking patterns too.

Chords can be a lifetime study, and a lifetime isn’t long enough to learn them all. To make matters worse, there are seemingly endless ways to play the exact same chords on your guitar. Most guitarists use about 3% of what is out there, but with some basic theory knowledge we can understand how to use them in our music.

What is a key? We have all heard that term before, as in ‘What key is this song in?’ When we first start out playing guitar this all seems so complicated, but in the end it isn’t. The last Breaking Down the Barriers blog focused on the musical alphabet, and how it relates to guitar playing. This article with actually focus on how to use this alphabet in a musical way.

“Being Nothing” is one of the fastest right hand rhythm guitar songs that I have ever composed. It contains very fast down picking and also alternate picking as well. I have recorded 4 rhythm guitars as I usually do on the original recording, and also keep in mind that you need to warm up good…

Music theory always seems like this mystery handed down on scrolls, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Understanding the relationship between keys, chords, and scales is not difficult, but it does take some practice. Don’t worry, it is fun – it isn’t like algebra class.

The music industry is a difficult industry to break into. For every successful band, there are thousands of failed ones. Many young musicians sit in their rooms dreaming of making it big, like the idols covering their walls. They see the money, the girls, and the larger than life lifestyle and want it all. The problem lies in that they have no clue how to obtain it or even where to start.

In this week’s edition of Voices of Metal we turn to a guitarist who has spent years making brutal music with Shaded Enmity. We recently heard that Joe Nurre had joined up with Jeff Loomis to go on tour, we caught up with him to talk about his tone, the Seattle metal scene and his…