How to teach Metal / Hard Rock to a beginner?

[Marty1]

Metal is great. I grew up on metal. I loved the sound and I enjoyed getting really drunk going to the live shows (hey, we were all young once ). Aside from BB King and Don Ross I've seen nothing but metal shows in my life (barring festivals, plays, bars, and the like).


He likes what he likes and that is that. From a musical point of view, Webbs interpretation of Vai makes sense, but its not like metal is just a "wall of depression" and ought to express other emotions. It seems to me that there is a certain normative dimension to people's responses to the fact that we are talking about metal. Think of how different the conversation would be if we were talking about blues or jazz. Just my sense anyways.


Why are people judging this guy so harshly anyways? Its like some of the responders are acting like there is no possible reason for someone to drop out of school and be unemployed; not to mention acting like its our job to police a complete stranger's behaviour from a few sentences that actually had to do with a pedagogical question regarding teaching outside of one's stylistic comfort zone.


IMO best way to start teaching him metal is to show:
-Power chords
-Palm muting
-Down tuning
-Bends and pinch harmonics


If he is into classic metal, this would be a great start:
http://guitar.about.com/od/top-tabs-...ar-Tabs.01.htm

If he is into the newer stuff I'm a but out of the loop at this point in my life as I'm not a metal head anymore. But I think the "kids" are still listening to things like Mudvaine and Deftones (or at least they should be ahahhaa). The advantage of those bands is that they throw in interesting intro's and melodies that break up simple rhythm playing but still remain very accessible to a beginner. In either case, ask him what he wants to learn and guaranteed the four things I mentioned are in there. There is literally no metal without it.

[Davis Webb]

I am sorry if I sounded anti-metal. For 2 years on here my signature mentioned that I played 'acoustic metal' and I have an appreciation for the genre. However, there are different types of metal and some have extreme negativity in them, more than other musical genres barring gangster rap.

I think I am just being a bit of an old fuddy duddy and that "danged metal", but didn't realize it.

I teach using hard rock, for kids and they love it. If I can comment on the way I start my teaching series for say, a 10 year old. My younger students have gone on to win Battle of the Bands, so I know it works to motivate them.


1. Pentatonic Scale in the first position and in the 5th position. Reasoning. If they know the pentatonic in the first position, they can now solo over E major, G (will sound bluegrass), A, D (will sound country if they use A pentatonic over the key of D). This is also used to strengthen the fingers by doing clean runs at the 5th fret.

2. C, D, E, A as the primary chords. I hold of on B, F for a while until their hands and accuracy improve.

3. I teach riffs, from the first class, here are the ones I use; Whole Lotta Love, Sunshine of Your Love, Black Dog, Jumpin Jack Flash, Layla. Once they have these down, which takes a few months, they are set up for rock. Now for the metal!

4. I show them minor scales and the Phrygian mode. The riff from Juda's Song in Jesus Christ Superstar is a great way to learn timing. I solo behind them in Em and let them improvise.

5. My kids have to jam with me each class, I hold the rhythm, they take lead. We do at least 15 minutes of this, but to break it up after each new example. Improvisation is CRITICAL!

6. Guitar drumming: we always take 5 minutes at the end of the class and drum on the guitar. I set up patterns, they copy, they have to switch as I switch, or I show an example of a drum pattern, and they copy it. The fun factor is huge, they LOVE this. All kids love to play a drum.

Have fun with it....I think rock/metal is the hook to get kids into playing.

[Marty1]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

I am sorry if I sounded anti-metal. For 2 years on here my signature mentioned that I played 'acoustic metal' and I have an appreciation for the genre. However, there are different types of metal and some have extreme negativity in them, more than other musical genres barring gangster rap.

I think I am just being a bit of an old fuddy duddy and that "danged metal", but didn't realize it.

I teach using hard rock, for kids and they love it. If I can comment on the way I start my teaching series for say, a 10 year old. My younger students have gone on to win Battle of the Bands, so I know it works to motivate them.


1. Pentatonic Scale in the first position and in the 5th position. Reasoning. If they know the pentatonic in the first position, they can now solo over E major, G (will sound bluegrass), A, D (will sound country if they use A pentatonic over the key of D). This is also used to strengthen the fingers by doing clean runs at the 5th fret.

2. C, D, E, A as the primary chords. I hold of on B, F for a while until their hands and accuracy improve.

3. I teach riffs, from the first class, here are the ones I use; Whole Lotta Love, Sunshine of Your Love, Black Dog, Jumpin Jack Flash, Layla. Once they have these down, which takes a few months, they are set up for rock. Now for the metal!

4. I show them minor scales and the Phrygian mode. The riff from Juda's Song in Jesus Christ Superstar is a great way to learn timing. I solo behind them in Em and let them improvise.

5. My kids have to jam with me each class, I hold the rhythm, they take lead. We do at least 15 minutes of this, but to break it up after each new example. Improvisation is CRITICAL!

6. Guitar drumming: we always take 5 minutes at the end of the class and drum on the guitar. I set up patterns, they copy, they have to switch as I switch, or I show an example of a drum pattern, and they copy it. The fun factor is huge, they LOVE this. All kids love to play a drum.

Have fun with it....I think rock/metal is the hook to get kids into playing.

^respect. +1

[Blunote]

You could be dealing with someone on the autism spectrum. That would explain the obsessiveness over trivial matters, and with guitar in general. The need for routine, for things to be predictable and even rage & temper tantrums when things get mixed up are often par for the course.

You might try teaching him so that he can learn in his own way. That might start with basic chords & scales, then focus on learning songs by listening to them. I'm betting he'll do best if he learns to play intuitively.

If he learns to read tab, I fear he may insist on leaning in a step-wise note for note manner that will derail his ability to make music.

[johnd]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

...

Wow, I wish you'd been my teacher.

[redir]

Originally Posted by johnd

You can even find Christian punk/metal bands, even if you do not lean that way they will at least be a more positive lyrics, and probably not super-religious.

Yup, like Black Sabbath for example.