Modern Metal Rhythm Guitar

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Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal

Excerpt: Hello once again! We'll finally be breaking down the riffs in the "modern metal" tune I've written for you guys! It's about time! I know! :) First off, you'll need to tune your guitar to dropped C: C - G - C - F - A - D In this tune we have 4 main riffs and a quick outro riff (along with a solo that will be broken down in the next tutorial). In the firs...

Media Length: 2:42

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Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal

Excerpt: The first riff is what I call my "groove riff". Now this is not your typical groove riff because we don't have much rhythmic variation. In this case, we have a tremelo picked riff that has an underlying half-time double kick part. The half-time feel in the drums gives it that groove feel.  Theoretically these riffs are all interchangable and the main f...

Media Length: 4:33

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Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal

Excerpt: The second riff in this tune is what I'd call a "thrash" riff. In my mind, the main thing that describes a thrash riff is the back and forth interplay between the kick and snare (again, it's subjective, you might use a different descriptive word). My main concern while playing this riff was to make sure I had accented notes on the 5th string. The way I acom...

Media Length: 4:22

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Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal

Excerpt: The third riff is just a variation of the second riff. Nothing too crazy. All I'm doing here is taking the main phrase and repeating it as to build into the next section. This, accompanied by a blast beat, helps to build into the next section of the tune.  The only difference in technique here is in the right hand. Again I had to stray from using strai...

Media Length: 2:38

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Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal

Excerpt: Riff 4 is what I call a chordal riff. It's obvious why I give it that name. This is a very simple right hand pattern of straight alternate picking. The left hand chordal shapes can be a little difficult so be sure to stretch and not strain too much.

Media Length: 3:35

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Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal

Excerpt: The outro riff is a recap of the main thrash riff. One of my favorite things to do when I'm composing is to bring back ideas that were previously heard in the song. Keep it thematic people! :) Sometimes even if it's just a small chunk of a riff it can have a great nostalgic effect. It sometimes take a keen listener to notice these kind of things but this is...

Media Length: 1:00

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Instructor: Mike Salow Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Metal

Excerpt: I've made a backing track that excludes all of the rhythm guitar parts. Have fun!

Media Length: 1:26