Metal Techniques

[tomas_almeida]

Some of the people here must play some agressive music. What's your approach to technique and harmony in this style?

[charic]

i use a pick =D

However playing above your prefered pickup helps alot. Other than that its just down 2 style.

[Galilee]

I play fingerstyle hard enough to click the strings off the base of the neck. Sometimes I actually hit downwards onto the string over the base of the neck with the tips of my fingers (a la Ryan Martinie). I like it to be very percussive. That's about it really.

[velvetkevorkian]

I like a nice clean punchy tone, and I heartily recommend the use of 3 fingers (a la Mr Sheehan) to achieve speed. Harmonically it's pretty straightforward, following the guitar most of the time and filling in around them when they go off on a twin lead odyssey. I also get to do the odd tapping break, and I quite enjoy doubling lead guitar lines (sweeps etc). You can check it out at the link in my sig.

[MacDaddy]

use 3 fingers, nearer to the bridge when speed is needed. A bit of thumbing too, in the odd place can beef up the sound.

[Dread Bass]

if i want a certain tone i play with 2 fingers at once like plucking the string with 2 fingers at the same time. be careful with your eq i was def over eqing in the past.

[GonzoBass]

When I play more aggressive I tend to reach for a pick
and rest my hand on the bridge-



I've found that combination helps me cut through a bit more.
Especially if I'm going to be grinding eighth notes over two guitars.

[peted]

I play fingerstyle and use 3 fingers to keep up with fast-chugging guitars. Start writing your basslines off of the bass drum rhythm. Play mostly lower notes when you want to sound heavy and throw in a few 5ths for harmonies.

Anything goes with metal, so experiment

[Sibob]

For my band [b]First Signs Of Frost[/b]:
I play with 2 fingers, 3 fingers for faster lines. On recordings of those faster passages I'll use a pick for clarity, but for ease and flow, I'll play those passages live with 3 fingers. There are some small tapping and chordal breaks for me, but nothing major or out of context.

I'll include some unison lines on some of the guitar lead lines, but my favourite thing to do is to be playing my bass part over the guitar line and hook in for the unison line for maybe 3 or 4 notes of it in the lower octave....sounds phat!

I'll be mostly following guitars and bass drum patterns with the odd harmonic digression if the song requires it!

Si

Edited September 24, 2008 by Sibob

[leonshelley01]

As someone else has mentioned, try to lock in with the bass drum pattern. If the guitars stay "chugging" on a single chord for a whole bar, I often put bass "fill-ins" at that point. It's also quite nice to change root notes under a riff, for example it the guitar riff is based in E pentatonic repeated 4 times, try playing E first time round, B the second, C and D in the third and back to the E for the final run through.

Also try listen to lots of source material with good metal bass players, such as Steve Harris, Cliff Burton, Geezer Butler etc. for ideas.

The pick or fingers thing is a matter of choice. I play fingerstyle, but many good metal players use picks, so whatever feels right to you.

[tomas_almeida]

I see there's a lot of different aproaches here. Very interesting.

I use 3 fingers to acheive speed. Like Galilee I use a very percussive technique, I hit the strings with a lot of strenght so I can hear that "clack".
My playing style is very similar to that of Alex Webter when it comes to right-hand technique, and he's not my main influence.

In terms of harmony I follow the riffs but I make some fills and in some cases where I have space I like to play a different riff instead of the one the guitars are playing. I also like to use a lot of chords, but only diads for now (two note chords).

[Geoff]

As others have said following the bass drums is a good plan and in faster sections with blast beating, I tend to find myself following the snare hits. I tend to just use my two fingers, but may use 3 if there's some triplets going down. Other than that, get all four of your fingers on the fretting hand working to follow rundowns/ups and to drop in some fills.

When recording its probably worth using a pick on faster sections to give some clarity.