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Heavy Metal Guitar Chords - A Primer

If you are absolutely new to the scene, heavy metal guitar chords can cause you a lot of confusion and difficulties. You must have heard of terms like power chords, chord crunching, palm muting etc., and might find all these baffling. Here is a simplified guide that is going to help you demystify the process.

There are few specialties about metal guitar chords. Heavy metal is all about producing a deep and heavy sound and therefore high note chords are rarely used. Sometimes the lead guitarist will have only four strings in his guitar and chances are the B and the high notes of E would be removed. Metal guitar heavily relies on Barre chords and the first two or three notes of these are called power chords. You can use all these chords to play a number of fancy stuff that you see the rock stars doing on stage.

However, you would need to start from the guitar basics. This will enable you to become an all rounder in playing the guitar and spice up your guitar career. You can play a different role such as lead guitar playing instead of the usual rhythm guitar playing in the band.

First, you should learn to change the chord notes and then proceed to more rigorous actions like playing octaves, harmonics bending vibratos, or hammer-ons. It is also important for you to learn the major and the minor chords of a guitar before you move on to using power chords and the various complexities related to that. You can also learn certain practice techniques like string exercises which can help you to keep your fingers warm and ready for the main performance.

It is also important for you to learn the tabs and have a little bit of technical knowledge about reading music. It is not wise to generalize heavy metal as a single genre. There is speed metal, death metal, black metal, neo-classical metal and various other variations which require special chord techniques. However, as a beginner it is important for you to concentrate on learning the basics and then you can move on to greater intricacies.

Initially, you might start by strumming few notes of the Barre chord, but gradually if you can practice hard enough, you can make suitable progress. Thus heavy metal guitar chords are difficult to master but certainly not impossible. If you have enough patience and if you are dedicated, you might start playing like a pro in a considerably short span of time.

If you're noBy Paul Gian