Here is a guitar technique that I stumbled across while browsing some YouTube videos called double down up. It is sort of a switch-up for alternate picking (down up, down up) that you can use when skipping strings. Instead of following the down up pattern when you skip down one string you want to use two down picks and then pick the second string up again.

Once you build up some speed it can be a really great sounding technique as is shown in this video. The first half is really show as he shows the technique, but if you skip to the 3/4 mark you can hear it in action.

I think this guy totally over does it, but if you were to master this and just toss it in for a few notes every once and a while it is one of those tricks that could really make your playing stand out from others.

In this video there are 5 examples played at both normal speed and slow speed for learning. I have also included a Guitar Pro 5 tab file below that includes all of the riffs demonstrated. Here are the riffs that Alexi teaches us in this video:

• Ex-1 is the riff that starts at 1:03 on Are You Dead Yet’s first track Living Dead Beat.
• Ex-2 shows the intro riff that starts at 0:48 from that same song.
• Ex-3 shows the intro and chorus from Downfall.
• Ex-4 shows the intro to Are You Dead Yet?
• Ex-5 shows the riff that starts at 0:42 in the song In Your Face.

When I was watching this video and looking at some Guitar Pro tabs I realized that although the tabs are very close to the way Alexi plays the songs, they were not exact. For example, I found several differences where the tab shows you to play a riff on the 7th frett, but Alexi plays it on the open strings. The notes are the same, but the open strings give a much heavier sound to the riffs. I think this is part of what makes Alexi’s sound so unique. Here is an example of where I found a difference.

In the 5th example, all of the tabs that I found for In Your Face were tabbed like this:

E||-----------------------|------------------------|
B||-----------------------|------------------------|
G||-----------------------|------------------------|
D||-----------------------|------------------------|
A||-----------------------|------------------------|
E||--6----3----5----0~----|--6----3----6--6--0--0--|

-----------------------|-----------------------------||
-----------------------|-----------------------------||
-----------------------|----------------------8--11--||
-----------------------|---------------7--10---------||
-----------------------|---------6--9----------------||
--6----3----5----2~----|--7--10----------------------||

But when you watch the lesson with Alexi he clearly plays the last bar in a position that is lower on the neck like this:

|--------------------------||
|--------------------4--7--||
|--------------2--5--------||
|--------1--4--------------||
|--0--3--------------------||
|--------------------------||

I just think it is something to keep in mind when learning or writing metal music. If you want it to sound heavier, try and play the same notes on lower frets.

Here is a Guitar Pro 5 tab file that includes all of the riffs as Alexi plays them in the above video.

Also, check out these other Alexi Laiho Lessons:
Alexi Laiho Guitar Lessons and Instructional Videos

His musical style can not be classified very easily. It is an instrumental kind of new age fingerstyle acoustic rock. He goes from very relaxing tunes to very up-beat technical songs. Here is one of my favorites from the videos available on YouTube.

If you do a quick search though you can find many more. Three songs I have listened to now and I can already see that he is going to become one of my new favorite acoustic artists.

If you like his music, head over to Don Ross’ official website and buy his CD.

First emerging as a 13-year-old guitar prodigy in the 80s, Lagrène was often compared to guitarist Django Reinhardt. At that time the boy had been playing for 9 years already. That’s right… started when he was 4. After a few albums Biréli tried to shake the Reinhardt parallels by changing his style to more of a rock-fusion sound. His current music is more jazz oriented, but still has that strong Reinhardt influence.

If you liked the above video, check out Biréli Lagrène’s official website.

Essentially what we have here is a standard American Strat that also has digital modeling hardware built in. It runs off of 4 AA batteries. The guy in the video says “if you get the high voltage ones that you put in digital cameras it will last about 10 hours.”

Anyway, check out the video.

Video found via Zillinois

Half good half bad. If he had have done the stuff from the second half all the way through I would have been much more impressed. Interesting technique though, and I am amazed with the amount of volume he was able to get with no pick.

Here is an While My Guitar Gently Weeps Guitar Pro tab file for those of you who have Guitar Pro 5 and would like to learn it on guitar.

Enjoy.

Not only is he an excellent guitarist but this song is an example of some amazing song writing abilities.

Here is a Guitar Pro file for Cliffs of Dover for those of you who would like to try to learn it. Get your copy of Guitar Pro 5 here so that you can use this file.

For Your Malice Intro Lesson

This first video is just Mark Morton showing us how to play the intro riff to For Your Malice off of 2003’s As the Palaces Burn.

I can vouch for this tab below. It is correct. You will, have to practice the open Ds a bit to get the right rhythm though. The way that I got it was its d u d u dud u dud u dudu where down = d and up = u. If you listen to it a few times and commit the rhythm to memory and then try it it will be easier. Start out slow and build it up. Also, take note that this is played in drop-d tuning.

Dm/A
e---------------------------------------|
B--10-10-10-10--------------------------|
G--10-10-10-10--------------------------|
D--12-12-12-12--------------------------|
A--12-12-12-12--------------------------|
D--------------0-0-0-0-000-0-000-0-0000-|
---d--u--d--u--d u d u dud u dud u dudu 

E7/A
e-------------------------------------------|
B-10-10-10-10----------9--9--9--9-----------|
G-10-10-10-10----------9--9--9--9-----------|
D-12-12-12-12---------12-12-12-12-----------|
A-12-12-12-12---------12-12-12-12-----------|
D-------------0-0-0-0-------------0-0-0-0---| 

Bb
e--------------------------------------|
B-11-11-11-11--------------------------|
G-10-10-10-10--------------------------|
D-12-12-12-12--------------------------|
A-13-13-13-13--------------------------|
D-------------0-0-0-0-000-0-000-0-0000-|
--d--u--d--u--d-u-d-u-dud-u-dud-u-dudu 

e--------------------------------------------||
B-11-11-11-11---------11-11-11-11-----------o||
G-10-10-10-10---------10-10-10-10------------||
D-12-12-12-12---------12-12-12-12------------||
A-13-13-13-13---------13-13-13-13-----------o||
D-------------0-0-0-0-------------0-0-0-0----||

Lamb of God – Hourglass

This second video is Mark Morton and Will Adler showing us how to play all of Hourglass. I don’t have a tab or anything for this, so if anyone has a good one they would like to post that would be great. I havn’t tried to learn this one yet. If I ever try I’ll post mine too.

Lamb of God in the Studio

This final video that I leave you with isn’t really a lesson, but is more of just a “this is lamb of god’s sound” video. It is a 5 minute clip of them being interviewed while in the studio, and I like it. So check it out.

Zakk Wylde – Pentatonic Hardcore

The following video is probably Zakk Wylde’s most famous. I believe it was originally distributed by the magazine Young Guitar. The instructional video is an hour long and has Zakk going through many different basic and advanced skills including Pentatonic scales, chickin-pickin licks, vibrato, pinch harmonics, alternate picking and much more. If you follow this video and practise it every day for about 3 years, maybe you will be able to shred like him.

Zakk Wylde – Machine Gun Man Video (Headbangers Ball)

Now this next video I think is my favourite ever. It is Zakk playing Machine Gun Man (Pride and Glory) on an acoustic at Headbangers Ball. Not only does he show of his insane acoustic shredding skills, but he blows me away with his amazing singing ability. Some people can sing, but you can always tell a good singer when they can maintain their tone when singing at full volume. This video gives me goose bumps pretty much every time I watch it.

Zakk Wylde – Pentatonic Speedballer

This last video is title “Zakk Wylde – Pentatonic Speedballer”. Essentially it is just him shredding and you watching. If you happen to have the book that goes along with this though you would get the tabbed music so you can follow along. I find it entertaining to watch, but from a learning perspective it doest really have much to offer on its own, unless you are already that good. I like it because he plays a lot of bluesy riffs in there and tosses that in with his shredding.

These three videos should give you an idea of Zakk Wylde’s playing style. I suggest you just do some searches on the video sites like Google Video and YouTube to see what else you can find. He has quite the cult following and I’m sure there are a lot more out there.

Happy shredding.

I went with a buddy of mine and we arrived after the first band. We got there just in time to watch them setup for God Forbid. They were pretty good for the most part. They had a really rad singer, but their sound setup wasn’t the greatest. You couldn’t hear the guitars over the bass and most of the backup vocals were pretty off key.

The second band up was Chimaira, their sound setup was really quick and very good. All the instruments were really clear. I think they even upped the volume on the lead guitar during the solos so that it was more audible. The lead guitarist was pretty good. He didn’t do a lot of picking shredding, but he definitely had his tapping down. In each solo he had a tapping riff that included tapping and picking and no less than 3- note fretting patterns which I thought was pretty impressive.

Arch Enemy took at least 45 minutes to setup. It looked like they were having a problem with either Michael Amott’s head or something with the bassist’s setup. Finally they got it going and the band came out. For some reason I expected the lead singer Angela Gossow to be really macho and butch, but she was actually pretty feminine (as much as a female metal singer can be). She was pretty playful and looked genuinely happy to be playing Calgary. It was pretty sweet to see them in such a small venue. We were standing at the back of the room but still had a full view of the whole show.

I don’t know many Arch Enemy songs by name, so I couldn’t tell you every song they played, but the few I know that were in the set are Nemesis, We Will Rise, Anthems (instrumental) and Burning Angel. I thought they did a wicked job on Nemesis. It isn’t one of my favorite songs, but it sounded much better played live.

All in all Chimaira was sweet, but I don’t know if I’d make a special trip to see them. Arch Enemy was rad and I would go see them in any capacity, whether it’s a show they are headlining like this one or even if they were just opening.

I have attached a few videos of Arch Enemy to this post below. This first one is actually one from the show that I was at. Someone recorded it and posted it on YouTube.

And then here are some random ones I have found from other shows and stuff.

Alexi Laiho Interview and Instructional Video

This first is pretty sweet it’s both an interview and a practical lesson. Alexi talks about a lot of important stuff like practicing with a metronome, starting slow and building speed, how he writes a solo, and his musical influences.

At about the half way point he does do some hands on stuff on his guitar. He starts off playing it quickly and then slows it right down so you can learn it. He shows off some sweep picking licks with some tapping thrown in and then some chord phrases. At the end of the video he goes through 5 or 6 licks from some of his songs as well.

Alexi Laiho Lesson Riffs

This second is another half and half. There are two sections of Alexi Laiho and his “buddy Robert” playing some licks and two instruction bits where Alexi slows the riffs down.

At about the 4:30 mark Alexi starts to show the licks at a slower pace, however the video is a little blurry so you will have to get the general position of his hand from the video and figure out the rest by ear. At the 8:30 mark there is another demonstration section where the two seem to jam for a bit. At the 13:00 mark more of the riffs are demonstrated slowly. The video is still very blurry though so don’t expect much. I’m guessing that with the original video there is an accompanying tab or sheet music book.

Young Guitar Magazine Alexi Laiho Video

In this next clip its pretty impossible for the average person to determine what Alexi is doing. It is still pretty sweet to watch though.

Children of Bodom playing Downfall at the 2003 Tuska Open Air Metal Festival

To finish it off here is a 4 minute video of Children of Bodom playing Downfall at the 2003 Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Helsinki. “Ooh Hell yeah!”

So there you go. I hope some people can find what they are looking for now!

This should be today’s (and every other day’s lesson): start slow and build up your speed. If you can not play each note cleanly, slow down until you can and slowly build up your speed.

This guy though, is very good. The musician is Chris Feener and the first video is titled Neoclassical Shred.

The second video from the same player is called Petrucci Shred. He plays licks from Flight of the Bumblebee and Into the Acid Rain Unison.

Basically his skills give me something to aspire to. I have just started practicing from John Petrucci’s instructional video, so hopefully I can build up my speed and ability and one day shred like this.