Top 7 Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Guitar Tunings

There are many different guitar tunings that are used in Rock and Metal music besides standard tuning. Guitar players in these genres like to use these tunings because they give a heavier and darker sound to their music.

Some of the more popular tunings used are Dropped D, Dropped C, Dropped B, E Flat, D, C and open G. Here are the descriptions of how the strings should be tuned and some of the bands that use them.

Dropped D tuning:

E ----------1st string

B ----------2nd string

G ----------3rd string

D ----------4th string

A ----------5th string

D ----------6th string (thickest)

This tuning enables power chords to be played with a single finger on the lowest three strings and produces a dark sound with it. If you're music doesn't fit together with this dark sound, you can place a capo on the 2nd fret and can still easily play power chords.

Heavy Metal Guitar Solo Playing

A heavy metal guitar solo is a musical piece or passage, which is a part of the whole musical performance. Guitar solos as such, have been the mainstay of guitar performances for quite some years now. So, if you have been fascinated by the magnificent guitar solos of heavy metal music or any other genre, knowing few important facts about them might help you to understand them better.

Guitar solos can be performed with an acoustic or an electric guitar, but for heavy metal music, you would need to use an electric guitar. They can be performed without any accompaniments, like in case of classical or folk music, an acoustic guitar solo is usually performed without the support of any other musical instrument. They can be performed along a band, which is precisely the case in rock and metal music. They can be even performed along with a full drawn orchestra.

Although lead guitar riffs have been used across many genres, the rock and the metal music schools have used them more than anyone else. The 1960s and the 1970s can be termed as the golden period of guitar licks and solos. This time period also coincides with the rise of many classic heavy metal bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest and so on. In the early 1980's one of the most famous bands in metal guitar playing is Iron Maiden as they popularized metal music with their blend of galloping and harmonizing guitar music.

Heavy Metal Guitar Songs

So, you have always dreamed of playing heavy metal guitar songs? But if you are a beginner, you might find it difficult to find out where to start. Playing a heavy metal song can be a little difficult to manage if you do not know the right techniques. It is also important to know certain easy songs which might help you to move on to more complicated stuff.

There are few interesting facts about heavy metal songs, which might help you to understand them better. The lyrics of the heavy metal songs are probably not as important as the entire effect that the music is supposed to create. Much of heavy metal songs, especially those belonging to death metal, involve growling and shouting. However, some songs can have simple yet deep and penetrating lyrics.

Many of the songs in heavy metal music deal with abject issues such as life in the streets, usage of drugs, and gory and violent subjects related to death, suicide etc. The dark tones of the lyrics help the composers and the listeners to vent out their frustration and thus it can have a cathartic effect.

The Rockin' History of Alternative Rock Music

A descendant of punk rock, Nirvana was one of the most famous bands to make alternative rock music mainstream. Ironically, this genre became popular after the grunge period - which deprecated mainstream, commercial types of music. In addition to Nirvana, some extremely well known and highly successful bands formed around alt rock, including REM - one of the earliest "alternative" bands, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Violent Femmes, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and many others.

In the early days, it was mainly the college radio stations that promoted this sound. In fact, 'college rock' was the phrase used to describe alternative rock in the 1980s, before the genre coined as alternative rock music became popular in the mid 1980s. As the popularity of the music grew, other previously separate genres became grouped under alt rock as well. These genres are comprised of post-punk (since alternative rock is offspring of the punk genre), New Wave, indie (also known as independent) rock, pop, and punk rock.

A landmark of alt rock's popularity, Jane's Addiction, a band formed in the mid 1980s, frontlined Lollapalozza - the first festival that catered specifically to alt rock music. This was the mark of the rise to fame for alt rock in the early 1990s. The abundance of the alternative genre in America continued throughout the late 1990s and 2000s. Among these bands are Franz Ferdinand, The White Stripes, and The Strokes.

The Best Blues Songs Ever

It is entirely a matter of taste as to which are the best Blues songs. However it is possible to speculate as to the most influential songs.

It can be argued that Blues music bought about a greater awareness of the plight of African Americans, as new audiences became interested in its origins and originators.

I clearly remember as an adoring fan of Muddy Waters; Howlin Wolf and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, feeling outrage at the early 60's news reports that a whole people were subjected to such terrible discrimination. The anti establishment feelings so typical of my generation, and empathy with subjugated Black Americans, would manifest itself in the aggressive British interpretation of their Blues music.

The adoption of Blues music by young British musicians, and their successful introduction of that music to white America, inspired a whole generation of white American musicians to rediscover the music and popularize it. This brought recognition to the Black musicians that had created it.

The Development of Blues Music

Jazz, rock music and country and western are just some of the styles that owe a lot of their progression from the original blues. The contribution of Blues music to the development of many other genres of music is very significant. Blues was originally grown out of the hardships endured by many generations of African Americans, and first arose from the rural Mississippi region, around about the time of the dawn of the 20th century. The style developed from work shouts (known as arhoolies), and became the vocal narrative style that we associate with blues music today.

Jazz, rock music and country and western are just some of the styles that owe a lot of their progression from the original blues. The contribution of Blues music to the development of many other genres of music is very significant. Blues was originally grown out of the hardships endured by many generations of African Americans, and first arose from the rural Mississippi region, around about the time of the dawn of the 20th century. The style developed from work shouts (known as arhoolies), and became the vocal narrative style that we associate with blues music today.

Industry was progressing, and by the 1920's Blues music was also developing - affecting the everyday lives of people involved. There was by this time a very particular style, based around a three-line stanza. The stanza contained just one line of verse, repeated, and then finished with a final line of rhyming verse.

Punk Music

Punk music or hardcore punk or simply hardcore are all aliases of the same genre of music that is said to have literally rocked the musical scenario everywhere in the word. Considered to be a lot heavier than the punk rock, this music genre was in the early 1980s in the United States of America and United Kingdom. Traditional hardcore has never met with as much commercial success as the fusion and sub genres of this style of music.

Influence on other genres:

The punk music had a lot of influence over other genres of music such as alternative rock, electronic rock, Emo and post hardcore, metal and thrash core. Each of these had separate bands of music that played music belonging to these fusion genres and worked on further improvisation in their technique.

Here are a few fusion sub genres and their bands and solo artists who contributed a lot.

Free Digital Music Distribution

In case you are an up-and-coming singer or a musician who is selling your music online, it is important to have a plan that will allow you to make a lot of money from this. As you can imagine, the music industry can be a tough one and it will be easier to sell music if have an established a name. But, if you are an aspiring singer you could still earn money with your talent from selling music online. In fact, many professional singers these days get their start online, which help to pave the way for a professional career.

Since your intention is to sell your own music online, the following are several things to help you get started.

Create good quality music and then prepare them for free digital music distribution on MP3, CD and more. You could also create a video to use as promotional material. You should pay close attention to sound quality, because you don't want to give people below average audio quality. Copyright your songs. Naturally, you have to own music before you are able to sell them. This is why it's important to get copyright for your songs. Visit the copyright office or check the websites for requirements that will allow you to get this process done easily.