Death Metal Guitar Techniques Lesson - With Examples

[@cesarbeltran6583]

Death Metal Techniques: 0:59 Palm Muting 1:59 Silence 2:35 Melody 3:31 Harmonys 6:33 Tapping 9:00 Drinking Whiskey 9:11 Root 5 and 5 Root 5 Power Chords 10:29 Pinch Harmonics 12:37 Death Metal Trills 16:04 String Muting 18:43 Whammy Depressing 19:47 Octaves 20:51 Tremelo Picking

[@kwekumensah5642]

Thx man

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks for doing this dude!

[@cesarbeltran6583]

@@SimonSmithGuitar no problem. I did the same thing on your Black Metal and Doom Metal video

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

@@cesarbeltran6583 That's because you're a legend!!

[@cesarbeltran6583]

@@SimonSmithGuitar Thanks bro! 🤘

[@WizardinBlack3]

8:59 to 9:11 This tip really helped me so much! This is an essential tip for playing Death Metal

[@MaaZeus]

So far I have mastered the drinking whiskey part. I think I am making progress!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

🤘

[@Gherson069]

I can´t even open my bottle. Sad :-(

[@dumbmetal8386]

I'm 14. I haven't mastered that one without my dad beating me for it

[@Astral_Wave]

Helps loosen up muscles, let's your hands relax and lowers inhibition (allowing you to "get into it")

[@michaelmaltese939]

How the fuck you can headbang with a Jim beam hangover I'll never get

[@tylerparizeau7462]

The tone is unbelievable

[@nayaleezy]

I believe it

[@wilfridsephiroth9213]

Just wanted to say: I've started playing less than 2 months ago (and in my mid-30s I'm no spring chicken), and you and your videos are one of the best motivational (and learning) tool there is. Thanks a lot, you seem really like a nice chap.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

That's awesome dude. Thanks for you kind words, and good luck with your guitar journey!

[@christophercollins5232]

39 here. Finally figuring out how to play after 27 years of guitar. Keep shredding.

[@AQS521]

The Hammer Smashed Face riff is so god damn brutal

[@lenol0315]

never gets old

[@TheNyxCabin]

every cannibal corpse riff is brutal

[@alivingtree]

I tried the drinking whiskey technique, and I was able to produce an entire album in one weekend and now have a record deal; you've earned yourself a sub my good sir

[@tonyjones1560]

What brand of whiskey? I’ll run right out and corner my local market…!

[@alivingtree]

@@tonyjones1560 tincup straight rye mountain whiskey my dad and I used to have glasses of that near a fire every weekend, I personally think its a great balance of smoke and sweetness

[@tonyjones1560]

@@alivingtree Good stuff🥃👍🏾👍🏾

[@webinfront]

Big props for opening the video with Slaughter of The Soul 👌👌👌

[@chinmoysaikia3500]

But he played it wrong

[@0Hektor]

Started an hour ago with your "6 death metal riffs for beginners", I think this time i'm going to learn for real. Awesome tutorials, cheers!!!

[@ff0000nose]

Drinking whiskey is my favourite technique!

[@thegrapes_band]

I've been digging all around the Internet to find the proper tutoring for teaching palm mute and pintch harmonics, and I just got it now. It's very simple and comprehensible to understand. Thanks for your video 🤟🎸🖤

[@edwardsullivan5530]

At the gates ♥️

[@justind4096]

Although missing all the triplets he nailed the notes

[@_Stroda]

@@justind4096 Minor third rather than second in the hammer/pull off.

[@garonmartin1756]

Been working on learning more styles of extreme metal lately. This helps tremendously! Thank you.

[@MelancholyManTR]

Awesome tutorial, I had problems with tapping, especially when I tried to play spiritual healing. That right hand pushing with finger technic really helpful and a good trick to know, thank you as always. Cheers from Turkey!

[@aaronbennett3584]

I dont even play guitar, but I love watching your videos!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks mate

[@Stretchwreckedem469]

If you ever want to start, you fefinitely should go for it! If you have an Ipod or an Iphone, learning to play gets even more accessible because you'll be able to download ampsims on your phone that will help you learn a lot easier! All you really need is an IRig and a guitar cable and you're good to go!

[@Stretchwreckedem469]

joshrm it takes a little bit. After learning basic power chords you can play stuff like Obituary or Dismember after a little while. Of course if you want to play a lot of arpeggiated stuff like Suffocation or Death after they released Spiritual Healing, it’ll be a bit before you can play that kind of stuff.

[@Stretchwreckedem469]

joshrm I haven’t listened to much Malevolent Creation, and for Morbid Angel, you’ll probably be able to pull it off once you learn power chords. The best thing that I did was to use KZbin to watch people play the songs you want to learn and then copy from the notes that they’re fretting.

[@zachrahr618]

This is one of the best death metal guitar lessons.

[@janparadowski4894]

4:00 this technique is often used on Soulside Journey, Darkthrone make great use of that

[@martinijazz9]

Love you for the Carcass example. Not a guitarist but found this pretty interesting and well explained

[@craigpaulson3503]

13:13 is part of my favorite set of riffs by Carcass ever. The ending riffs to that song are-to this day-still some of my favorite riffs to play.

[@stmchpnch00]

"so the karate chop area on your palm" :D Thanks for your content, personally helped me a lot!

[@slawaschwed]

Thank you, Simon! This is a brilliant tutorial. I play since 1979, but metal stuff wasn't interesting to me. I gained my interest with contemporary bands. After watching your tutorial I was able to play all these techniques in no time. Very cool stuff, I love it. 🤘

[@dan-3268]

Thank you sir. I've just come home after a shitty day. Glad to see you alive and well. That cheers me up a bit

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks mate

[@riffsNriffsNriffs]

In a decade and a half of playing this frustrating shit, what I’ve found worked best every single time I set out to get fully comfortable with a new technique is: sitting down and only practicing that one technique over and over, usually I would write a quick riff using that technique, at a tempo where you can utilize that technique cleanly. Over those years, i tried many many times to go about this with the tried and true method of selecting a passage from a song that demonstrates the desired technique, learning it, then practicing through progressively faster tempos. This didn’t work for me after I became what I’d describe as a proficient player. Around 3-4 years into playing guitar, I decided to switch my pickhand technique, specifically how I held the pick between my thumb and index finger. I went from holding the pick between the pads of my thumb and forefinger with my finger fairly straight. This also angled the pick back toward bridge if the guitar. I had noticed fairly early on that most players held the pick between the side of the forefinger, which is curled rather than straight, and the pad of the thumb. Holding the pick this way also angled the pick forward toward the nut. I’ll admit that at first I wanted to switch how I held the pick for aesthetic reasons, but in the end I felt how much more control I had over the pick, how much more attack my playing had, and also that angling the pick this way just worked better with the anatomy of the elbow and wrist and the natural arch we all have when moving a lick across the strings. So, when I set out to make a fairly drastic change to my technique, from how this change felt at first I had thought this change would take a year to get comfortable with. But what I did in my frustration at this was play the picking pattern in new millennium cyanide Christ over and over and over again for roughly 8 hours that first day. To my surprise by the end of the day I felt 90% comfortable with this change. The remaining 10% I would say took a few weeks and came along naturally just playing riffs/improving for fun. I utilized this method again when I again altered my picking hand technique - I used to anchor my pinkie and ring finger on the body/lower bout of the guitar, but realized this was holding me back with alternate picking across the strings, string skipping and sweep picking. Really it held everything back I came to find later, but those were the big 3 that made me want to change. Again here I was able to get nearly proficient with my hand floating and I anchored to the guitar at all in a very short period of time. I Will admit though this did take longer than when I adjusted how I held the pick. Still though I would say 1-3 days to reach 90% comfort with the new technique. I have no idea why I wrote this all out….all I can say is learning metal guitar back when I was young was incredibly difficult in s lot of ways, namely that a lot of us had to just figure a lot of this crap out through trial and error. KZbin first appeared mg freshman year of college for context and it took a decade or so for free lessons to become a thing. Simple things like getting a high gain guitar sound weren’t exactly common knowledge. Anyways, what I mean is that I thought maybe this story could help someone work on their technique in way that works better for them

[@SikilKoba]

I wasn't sure if drinking Whiskey was actually improving my technique, now I know for sure I'm on my way to be the next death metal Maestro!

[@karlkaliweba]

trying oll of this in my acoustic guitar

[@GangsterHivMan]

you fucking mad lad

[@michaelmaltese939]

Lay down a coffee can on its side and play into or they got $20 electric guitars on Facebook Marketplace all day long

[@connorcampbell144]

You are bad at grammar and spelling

[@VitrificationOfBlood]

@@connorcampbell144 you are a sad little bitch that doesn't realize English is probably not the guys first language and now you have to point out some tiny grammar mistakes to make yourself feel better. SAD.

[@Ethylamine]

I play rhythm guitar usually more than lead guitar, so Death Metal guitar is usually easier for me, since I'm adjusted to the top strings. I got a lot of the harmonics and the palm muting stuff through watching this video and I can now safely say I can start a Death Metal band if I want to, a one man project. Thank you for making this video.

[@d1g1talmayhem79]

Everything you play is right up my alley. Thank you for making great videos that are easy to follow and put into practice. Diversity at its best. Thank you so much ❤ Greetings from Texas

[@cete66]

Glad to know I recognise all rifs

[@G3E007]

dismember has awsome riffs

[@shanel4348]

Always jam-packed with great content! Love your videos. Great song choices, too.

[@moralrevulsion_live]

I think the hardest even for Pro Band soloists is the silencer hand. Well explained on this one

[@chrisg1621]

Your rig sounds nice man. Diggin the riffs you chose for this too.

[@tgstk2]

chopped in half is such a banger!!

[@spymagicianzero5070]

Wonderful video, Mr. Smith. Excellent production. Thanks for the clear and concise camera work on your playing. Subscribed and will be viewing your previous and following videos with a smile. For what it's worth, Bolt Thrower is a tragically unappreciated band and it happily surprised me when you chose "Unleashed" as an example of harmony. They have been a favorite of mine since 1989 when I first heard them. Cheers!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks buddy! 🤘

[@bigt6889]

Fantastic as always sir... your one talented man Keep up the great work

[@freeelectron8261]

Love that Yamaha guitar - never seen one used for metal! Sounds great too.

[@nicholasmartin6713]

I have an rs 420 & it does everything they are so versatile the dry switch is great to so you can get sone single coil tones if needed.

[@wanderinghermit7574]

As always, a great video from Simon! Thank you very much for such high-quality content!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

My pleasure buddy

[@Wesley.Deuren]

That Yamaha is fire.

[@alberto3113]

Yo solo escucho tu música sin saber tu idioma y sigo haciendolo porque tu musica me llena un saludo explicas muy bien todo no hace falta beber jajaja

[@nefastvm770]

So here I was all this time making dead notes as palm mute thinking it sounds brutal AF

[@thorazine86]

Thanks for this tutorial Simon! i'm learning a lot with your videos. Nice tone you've got there!! Greetings from Patagonia Argentina.

[@dennispollard6763]

I wish I could take lessons from you. very good teacher this helped me on my PRS SE CUSTOM Thanks Dude 🤘

[@pGDeaDoX]

I was looking for something to learn this is awesome! I have learned so much since I watched your videos 2 years ago, I started with that deathcrush lesson and I think I am becoming a decent guitarist now. you're amazing.

[@Redpilledjw]

Really dig the videos, man. They are extremely helpful

[@KevinHallSurfing]

Ah ... finally. Someone that actually calls a Root 5 chord a "Root 5 chord" not "a power chord on the 5th string" and a 4th below barred, an "inversion"! 👍

[@syondas6203]

Thanks for the great free tutorials and technique videos man :)

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

No worries man!!

[@jane1500]

Such a good video! Thanks, can’t wait to master that at the gates riff!

[@LuizFernando-ik5ms]

10:29 this is the best, i think. Good video, Smith!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks dude

[@franpeirone5607]

Nice job man, much respect for you and greetings from 🇦🇷🤘🤘

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Hail!! \m/

[@KeymoEmbryo]

my Drinking Whiskey skills are progressing at a phenomenal rate since watching this! THANKS! \m/ XD

[@chanceblevins6682]

Tip for beginners. I find using the crease of your hand to palm mute helps.

[@pierre-lucroy2994]

Hahaha man you throw back in the old day the fisrt two riff was a must at this time

[@TheJayMadd1]

Awesome video Simon! Thanks for sharing - always loved your lessons and tutorials :)

[@jjs8426]

Yeeeeea been waiting for this😎

[@thinkingape7655]

Great job! 🤘

[@danielparvanov5483]

The whisky technique is my favourite one 🥃🤘👍

[@Abazzagoroth]

Had my like at the tapping lick... had my favorite technique at the Black Bush!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

🤘

[@Rob-ys6ot]

Excellent vid!!! I was hooked after the first riff (something by At The Gates if I’m not mistaken). Brilliant.

[@zkkrhfhska]

smashed it, another great video. these are so helpful, keep it up!!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

🤘

[@agzaimbartholomei3697]

Being selftaught guitarist I have always struggled with trills and harmonic. Now I f***kin rock!

[@agzaimbartholomei3697]

And I'm 44 years young 🤘

[@na1Leatsfood]

That sound though. Love it!

[@TheJollyMisanthrope]

A good reminder for people that thought metal was dead in the 90's. No pun intended.

[@higainpl]

The whammy dip trick is Invocation of the Continual One. Great lesson btw.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks

[@ryang3225]

I really like that Yamaha man

[@baphomick]

You rule Simon, thanks as always.

[@benjamingring621]

I always play in the key of whisky 😀 That Yamaha sounds good😎🎸

[@acegitaar]

Thanks mate! Ur lessons on Death MeTal is Awesome Great vid Best Ive Seen on YT cheers mate Im Gonna practice this thnx so much 👍🏾🤘🏽🤘🏽🎸

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

\m/

[@David932z]

Cool I’ve been listening to morbid angel for years Trey is a ducking god

[@mikefaurskov3188]

If you start a video with AT THE GATES you obvious gets a instant like. 🤘

[@hakerdron]

Do Entombed-Left Hand Path!!!!

[@egormog496]

Thank you, Simon, good job) very useful tutorial!

[@rupe82]

I know it's a common technique but 12:50 sounds exactly like Gojira.

[@truedarklander]

Oroborus starts with a ruff using those notes that's why you thought of Gojira immediately

[@davidarmstrong6153]

Great video man really helpful thank you. 👍🤘 also Black Bush mate! The water of life, Bushmills is the oldest distillery in the world... been going since 1608.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

I never knew that!!!

[@nayaleezy]

thoughtful tips 🦾

[@corporaterobotslave400]

Sweet!: Bolt Thrower harmonies @ 4 mins! Saw them play Seattle in 2012. last tour.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Nice

[@randyeppyt]

Great video - love the little whammy bar dip trick.

[@johnsguitarmusicanddemos]

Good lesson!

[@beatlejuice5951]

Thank you Simon 🤘🤘

[@DefiantDEFI]

@12:15 thank you for turning at an angle the camera can see down the bridge instead of straight at it. Sellf teaching player here who couldn't catch it till this angel. I'm not worthy *bowing repeatedly *

[@Ivan.u10]

Hey Simon, the one with the whisky was really helpful! Great video as always, greetings! 🇦🇷👋

[@pad92011]

Awesome vid! and again... gonna try the whiskey part, maybe that's the secret sauce.

[@haydenbrown353]

What tuning are you using mate, video is really helpful !! Thanks !!

[@oldcemetery666]

Your videos are as usual amazing and very helpful. If possible, please make a guitar lesson on "Sattva Bali" by DHWESHA, an Indian Death Metal Band. You would definitely love that song, thanks :)

[@georgecolby7488]

Those inverted power chords sound great muted, too. A very doom metal-ish sound.

[@cilookba6919]

Damned heavy dude

[@dadadaservais4316]

Opens the video: at the gates playing. Ya know its going to be a good video

[@NGINN08]

Step 1: learn to play guitar

[@TonyHall..]

😂

[@ericdraven2219]

hahah whiskey lolz .... ur vid gave me ideas for other songs thanks bud

[@lilithlevisis7826]

amazing

[@eliashuertamorales8725]

Muchas gracias master!!!!te lo agradesco....

[@fetus1658]

damn, pinch harmonics sound nasty af

[@mithusaha7218]

Such a sweet guy. Love Simon. From India

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

🙂

[@macxferb4670]

Tnx for the technique mate, im now a drinking master while playing a guitar without a guitar.

[@xyz-dc7no]

Great video

[@samtroyer6376]

You rock man

[@Rottensparrow]

Subscribed! But can you do a lesson teaching some riffs in d/e standard tuning? I rarely tune my guitar to something lower

[@adamshory1967]

Really good Death Metal 101

[@h.y.3421]

Simon Smith the man himself

[@GeneWillowMusic]

It's also interesting to use other harmonies apart from just 5th. For example playing the same tune on the second guitar just a one semitone higher or 6 semitones higher. This gives a really creepy, dissonant sound. 3 semitones higher gives a beautiful minor harmony.

[@1337_fl0w]

ahh yes, my favorite guitar technique: drinking Whiskey