Techniques: Hammer-ons and Pull offs

I will be more specific about hammer-ons in this blog. Hammer-ons is a technique, like sports, guitars have different ways of making sound than its traditional sounds imitating from the strings. A hammer-on is quickly moving your fingers down the string of the guitar. the video will explain it for those who need a visual image of whats happening. This is a way to speed up your song. Like I said in my previous blog, it is used both in rock and metal so don't be surprised when the man says rock "n" roll. 


It is the easiest technique to learn. It is a bit confusing at the start but you will really catch on after two or three times. I found it pretty easy to learn, but when you use hammer-ons, there are pull offs. Its the same concept but instead of going down on your string, you switch strings without hitting it a second time. here is a video demonstrating a pull off.

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I personally think pull offs are harder for the fact the you must be quick in moving your finger to the next string right after hitting the first one like in the video above.

History of Metal

Metal from my point of view, was created by rock bands who wanted something that would pump the adrenaline of their fans and make them feel relieved of taking out their emotions in a louder way. It basically formed a new type of sound on the radio waves, people started listening to something that grew from one branch of music to another. You can look at like this, Rock is the older brother trying to set an example and Metal is the rebellious little brother that like to jam out and drive everyone crazy with their loud music. To prove it personally, I, as the youngest of my family does not like soft music. I would rather make my ears bleed listening to something loud and that pumps the adrenaline super fast to the point that you can't slow down. The only disadvantage about metal is that the moment it started it was immediately taken off the air since rock bands didn't want to lose their grip on profits. And from that moment on stereotypes about heavy metal like it was "the devils work!!!!" or "It makes you want to kill yourself." and my personal favorite "Its an insult to music.". (Laugh) To think that would stop us...man you gotta be kidding me. Instead of being discouraged from comments like that, we grew stronger. We caused thousands of kids to rebel and start singing about chaos and have demonic solos that completely astonishes most rock guitarist. Because of this, the rock bands were starting to lose their popularity in a certain way. Their concerts weren't sold out like before. This started a music war. During the 70's and 80's, rock and metal were fighting one another in what would be called "guitar battles". If a group of rock had faster solos, the metal bands found ways of making solos even faster called "Hammer-On" were you slide your fingers up and down the neck really fast to make some sort of sliding noise. Every band found a way to make a hammer on different. Now here's a song from a random metal band and rock band. they both use hammer ons for their songs. I want you to judge which one is better.



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I present you "Rock You Like A Hurricane" by the Scorpions and "Heaven and Hell" from Dio. Both have hammer ons and they should be easy to find if you listen to them.

Concerts

YEAH!!!!!!!! What better way than to listen to your favorite band LIVE!!!!! Well let me tell you from my experience, its pretty cool. But be aware that some metal fans will start "mosh pits" which is circling one person and beating on them. If your lucky, hope that you get back seat tickets if you don't want to be part of any of that. But since the 80s and 90s there isn't a lot of people who still participate in mosh pits since most bands these days aren't really that thrilling and they don't really sound any good live.

Lesson 1 about concerts: Look at the REVEIWS!!!! You got to look at your bands reputation for their live perfomance. Its a matter of not wasting your money and understanding that some bands should stay in studios and other should  go live.

Now my personal way of figuring out which bands are good or not. Listen to their songs and try seeing if there is a live version on youtube and see what i personally think of them. For example here is a song from Dragonforce called "Furry Of The Storm"


Now this is a good song, but i wouldnt want to see them live since I went to their concert in Montreal four years ago and it SUCKED!!!! It didn't sound at all like the studio version and it was really disapointing but sometimes its how you learn. Hope you guys like this song.

Groups Of Metal

I've decided to give you all a break on the numerous metal bands I know and decided to talk about how you classify them. From what I remember, there is HEAVY METAL, PROGRESSIVE METAL, THRASH METAL, SCREAMO and last but not least GOTHIC METAL. To give an example of these different types of metal, here is a song, each song will be from a different band and type of metal, to start things off here is "Holy Diver" by Dio


As you can see this is HEAVY METAL at its main stage, now to show PROGRESSIVE METAL, here is "Set The World On Fire" by Symphony X. This is a newer band and I think it would also help represent some of today's metal bands.


Now For some SCREAMO. WARNING: SCREAMO is really heavy stuff so if you can't bare to people screaming this is not for you!!!!!!!! Don't be a hero. Here is the song "The Quiet Place" by In Flames.


So far, you should notice the difference between each song, they all reach a certain peak. Now to finish off this blog with the Gothic Metal song "Sleep In Sanity" by Anathema.


I almost forgot one group. THRASH METAL, a mixture of heavy and progressive put together in a awesome duo of destruction and chaos. Here is the song "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica.

Iron Maiden

Hell...demons...falling angels and humanity are traits to describe some of their songs. No they do not sing about hotel maids! They are pretty much the beginning of heavy metal. IRON MAIDEN is one of the most heaviest in their songs because of their vocalist Dennis Wilcock. But Dennis wasn't their main signer until they fired Paul Day since he wasn't as energetic or charismatic. The band was formed by the bassist Steve Harris and soon after the lead guitarist Dave Murray. what is so great about them is that they can insert WWI battles in their songs like "Passchendale" one of the most bloodiest battles that ever existed. It also talks about the no mans land, the trenches were the allied and enemy troops would hide in and fire at one another and how everyone lost  most of their friends over there. Its my favorite song  and it keeps you from falling asleep. in other songs they talk about human hatred and how they make the same mistake in the song "Blood Brothers". Now the heartbeat to all their songs is the battery, who else to keep the adrenaline pumping  than Doug Sampson himself. The beat of the drums will make your heart pump faster than any other band apart from Metallica. Now here's a picture and song from iron maiden to you.

Ozzy Osbourne

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, the wonderful music of Ozz. There is no comparison when it comes to Ozzy Osbourne and any other metal bands. He was formerly part of Black Sabbath where he learned that British accents are good for publicity. Not saying that he learned to have that accent, he always had it. He left Black Sabbath and began his own band where he expressed himself in a rebellious form of Heavy Metal. His songs varied between today's society and how its controlled by the media in the song "Crazy Train", also he talks about certain peoples lives like in the song "Mr. Crowley". No one can deliver the icy chill that he could when his album "Blizzard of Ozz" came out in 1980 which was a big hit at the time. It was such a hit that it got platinum four times. Now most signers like Ozzy who went solo for three decades would stop and retire. Not for Ozzy, he wanted to end his career in 2001 hosting the Ozzfest   where 1 million and plus fans came to see. 32 days of nonstop metal songs one after the other and each day was completely sold out!!!!!!!! Talk about leaving with a bang. well I will give you a taste of his master pieces. I present you "Shot In The Dark" by Ozzy Osbourne. 

Dream Theater

Dream Theater is an okay type of metal band. To me, it’s not something I’d really listen to since I don't really understand the story behind their songs. Those who think they like a song without understanding the story behind it don't understand the real message that they are trying to send!!!! Most of their fans will tell you that they will basically talk about psychological madness and social torment. I can't really say anything more about their songs but I can introduce you to some of the band members (Lead guitarist, bass and the drummer). Lead guitarist is John Petrucci, the bass is named John Myung and the drummer is named Mike Portnoy. Something interesting that I learned reading their biography on Wikipedia is that the signer and the keyboard player have changed at least three times each. They are a progressive metal band that stays away from the mainstream of music for their own reasons. Something else that i found out and I quote is that "Mike Portnoy, age 37, is the youngest drummer in the "Rocker Drummer" hall of fame." He also won 23 other awards ever since he went famous. Now this blog wont have a music video due to technical difficulties. Sorry for the inconvenience

Metallica

METALLICA is one of the best american bands apart from ANTHRAX, MEGADETH and SLAYER who are the "big four" in thrash metal. When it comes to mind games and social chaos, METALLICA is the band who basically represents it. Now MEGADETH and METALLICA don't see eye to eye because they are huge rivals ever since METALLICA kicked Dave Mustaine and replaced him with Kirk Hammett due to Dave's alcohol addiction. METALLICA was created by Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield when they first met. the band officially started in October of 1981. They had Ulrich's friend Ron Quintana to find a name for the band, his ideas were METALLICA and METAL MANIA. Obviously Ulrich chose METALLICA because the name was much more original than METAL MANIA and would probably intrigue more people to listen to their music. I find this pretty interesting and i actually went to look when METALLICA actually started since i don't know the date by heart. To explain the rivalry between METALLICA and MEGADETH. When Dave Mustaine got kicked, he decided to hold a grudge against METALLICA and formed his own band which is MEGADETH, they both competed in music to see who can put the most chaos in their music. My opinion, I think MEGADETH won but METALLICA wasn't far behind. Now here is a picture of the band and a song that i am trying to learn how to play.