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.

Some bands that use Dropped D tuning are:

Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, Godsmack, Led Zepplin, Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Silverchair, Soundgarden and Velvet Revolver.

Dropped C tuning:

D ----------1st string

A ----------2nd string

F ----------3rd string

C ----------4th string

G ----------5th string

C ----------6th string (thickest)

Dropped C tuning is the Dropped D with each string lowered one whole step. Dropped C tuning produces a very low and heavy sound and is used by many of the new Heavy Metal bands.

Some bands that use Dropped C tuning are:

30 Seconds to Mars, Atreyu, Buckethead, Bullet for My Valentine, Children of Bodom, Godsmack, Bad Religion, Metallica, Mudvayne, P.O.D., Papa Roach, Rammstein, Shadows Fall, System of a Down, Three Days Grace and Ozzy Osbourne.

Dropped B tuning:

C# ----------1st string

G# ----------2nd string

E ----------3rd string

B ----------4th string

F# ---------5th string

B ----------6th string (thickest)

This tuning will need heavier gauge strings to be effective. Also you might have to widen the string grooves as well as adjust the tension in the neck of your guitar.

Some bands that use Dropped B tuning are:

Audioslave, Limp Bizkit, Machine Head, Mudvayne, Slipknot and Stone Sour.

Eb tuning:

Eb ---------1st string

Bb ---------2nd string

Gb ---------3rd string

Db ---------4th string

Ab ---------5th string

Eb ---------6th string (thickest)

This tuning is Standard tuning turned down a half step. There are a few reasons that bands use this tuning instead of Standard tuning. One reason is to sound heavier by using heavy gauge strings. By tuning down a half step it is easier to bend these heavy gauged strings. Another reason why some bands use this tuning is to compliment the lead singers voice.

Bands that use Eb tuning are:

Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Dream Theater, Guns N' Roses, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Megadeth, Metallica, Motorhead, Nirvana, Poison, Slayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Stone Sour, Van Halen, Weezer and Yngwie Malmsteen.

D tuning:

D ----------1st string

A ----------2nd string

F ----------3rd string

C ----------4th string

G ----------5th string

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

D tuning is also known as whole step down tuning and as you have probably already guessed, it's Standard tuning tuned down a whole step. D tuning has been used mainly in Heavy Metal music.

Bands that have used D tuning are:

Alice in Chains, The Beatles, Bullet For My Valentine, Bob Dylan, Children of Bodom, Dream Theater, Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Racer X and Soundgarden.

C tuning:

C ----------1st string

G ----------2nd string

Eb ---------3rd string

Bb ---------4th string

F ----------5th string

C ----------6th string (thickest)

C tuning also produces a low sound that is mostly used by Hard Rock and Metal bands. The tuning is 2 whole steps below Standard tuning, which gives it a heavy sound but still maintains the same intervals as Standard tuning.

Bands that have used C tuning are:

Atreyu, Black Sabbath, Bullet For My Valentine, Deftones, Dream Theater, Jimi Hendrix, P.O.D., Queens of the Stone Age, Slipknot, Steve Vai and The Who.

G tuning:

D ----------1st string

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

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

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

G ----------5th string

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

Other than the Drop D tuning, G Tuning is one of the most popular alternate guitar tunings.

Some bands that have used G tuning are:

The Rolling Stones, The Black Crowes, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd and Pearl Jam.

These are just some of the alternate guitar tunings that are available to you to experiment with. Play around with them and see which tunings fit your style of music.

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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 TEXAS CHAINSAW MASHACRE

Need new spooky sounds for your Halloween party? Here's so much music I haven't even had a chance to check it all out yet, a FREE! download collection called:

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASHACRE

2 CDs worth of mashups, remixes, and some possibly original songs. Once again, UK's Cheekyboy has put this together, a tradition going back to 2004. I can tell you that Amoraboy's "Doorbusters" is great, another example of the miraculous alchemy that can take place when two songs/artists I don't really care about (in this case, The Doors, and the "Ghostbusters" theme) are mixed into a really clever gem. And Markyboy's "The Killing Mash" is funny, taking the piss out of Echo & The Bunnymen's dead serious high-art song "The Killing Moon" by backing it with the ridiculously old-fashioned, terribly cheerful instrumental of Bobby 'Boris' Pickett's "Monster Mash."

"Strange Rush To Regulate Evil Deeds" from Orange County's always masterful Voicedude and "Psycho Killer on the Dancefloor" by A+D, the dynamic duo behind the Bootie mashup club nights, are solid bangers. It hardly seems appropriate to dance to Bud The Weiser's track, dropping gruesome audio from the film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" over beatz, but there it is. Apart from rockin' the party, there are pure sound-collage tracks as well, a la Alan Black's mix of Tom Wait's "What He Building in There" with gawd-knows-what creepiness. Godzilla, The Addams Family and Vincent Price show up on this album, as well. And dropping Gene Wilder and the Monster singing "Putting On The Ritz" from the movie "Young Frankenstein" over DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's "Nightmare On My Street" was freakin' brilliant (if only they could get rid of the Evanescence chick's singing.)

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.

Beatles Arias

In 1966, opera singer Cathy Berberian recorded an album of Beatles covers, backed by classical arrangements.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to hell.

Cathy Berberian "Beatles Arias"

Regular readers of this blog will find this album frequently hilarious (love how she trills her Rs); otherwise, it can clear rooms. Berberian has extensive legit classical and avant-garde credentials - she was composer Luciano Berio's wife; John Cage wrote pieces for her. So it's not easy to dismiss this as another misguided record company Beatles rip-off. Maybe if I spoke European, I'd understand the interview included on this album which may reveal her motives.

1		Ticket To Ride
2		I Want To Hold Your Hand
3		Michelle
4		Eleanor Rigby
5		Yellow Submarine
6		Here, There And Everywhere
7		Help!
8		You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
9		Yesterday
10		Can't Buy Me Love
11		Girl
12		A Hard Day's Night 13 Interview
		Récitals
14		Introduction
15		Ticket To Ride
16		Yesterday Piano – Bruno Canino

Do Other Music Bloggers Get This Kind Of Mail?

"Hello:

Guinness World Record holder (for woman with the longest fingernails), The Dutchess, is breaking into the music industry. The multi-talented phenomenon has recently announced the debut of her rock single, “Phoenix" The song was released on YouTube earlier this summer and created a buzz..."

So sayeth her publicist. Which is why I couldn't go into publicity. The Python-esque results would have been something like:

The Dutchess: I want to be a singer.

Publicist: Okay. And what are your qualifications?

The Dutchess: I have the world's longest fingernails.

Publicist: I see...You know, if a record company is looking for singers, I doubt that the first thing they'll ask is, 'Does she have long fingernails?'

Her useless song features Miss ScaryNails' r'n'b vocal stylings over rock guitar. The video (which I bailed out on half-way thru) had me wondering: how does she do anything with those nails? It would be more interesting if they showed her going about her day, getting dressed, etc. Maybe I shoulda watched the whole video...

The Everyday Film: Festival of Emotions

One of the most enigmatic figures in music today, The Everyday Film, sent us their new "album" (11 songs in under 10 minutes) entitled "Festival of Emotions," and, on some tracks, this usually horrifying figure actually sounds like he/they might be in a somewhat better mood than usual. Maybe even in love, or some bizarre variation thereof. Elsewhere, it's the usual claustrophobic terror-tronics. A festival of emotions, indeed.

We have permission to post two tracks from it:

"The Bottom Of The World," only 39 seconds long:


"You, The Entrance; You, The Exit," an epic, at 1:39:

My Writing-Fu Skills Are No Match For This Album...

...because I'm at a loss as to how to describe it. It's great to encounter music that fits no known genre until you're the fumbling fool trying to review this 1993 release by German composer Helmut Neugebauer and his band Die Vogel Europas. But (*cracks knuckles*) here goes:

Mainly guitar and drums making a kind of fractured funk, like two Gang of Four records playing at the same time at 78 rpm...but with jazz sax that suggests a European Capt. Beefheart...er, more like a Raymond Scott/Carl Stalling cartoonish craziness...only with sampling and industrial-like sounds, but it's not industrial music, really....well, maybe in the Foetus sense, but it's kinda proggy, what with all the unusual time signatures and complex songwriting, only done more in the spirit of an exuberant Eastern European dance than some show-offy prog band...
I think I've embarrassed myself enough. But, hey, the Allmusic guy describes it as 'unclassifiable,' so there, it's not just me. He also says that "It's a classic and deserves to be heard by everybody."

Helmut Neugebauer & DIE VÖGEL EUROPAS - Short Stories


p.s.: Elliot Sharp plays on this album, I bet some of you have heard of him.

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.

>> Alternative rock is a fusion genre where we get to listen to hardcore punk and rock music. Famous bands are Meat Puppets, Minutemen, The Replacements.

>> Electronic music is a musical amalgamation of electronic music, techno and hardcore punk.

>> Nintendocore is a mish mash of hardcore punk sprinkled with music for video games and chip tunes.

>> Emo and post-hardcore are fusion genres wherein the style of music evolved from mere screaming and heavy metal use. Noteworthy bands are Big Black, Naked Raygun, Rites of Spring and Nation of Ulysses.

>> Metal has many takers and these artists and band members took the punk music to a whole new level by adding heavier hardcore elements to it. Noted bands are Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Metallica, Slayer, Corrosion of Conformity and Suicidal Tendencies.

>> Thrashcore consists of crossover thrash and is characterized by the presence of blast beats.

Music and clothing style:

Punk music was a genre of music which not only rocked the music world but also heavily influenced the cultures. In terms of music, hardcore punk laid more emphasis on the rhythms than the tunes. In fact, one can observe a lot of screaming, chanting of verses and poetry which are extremely loud. Stage diving and slam dancing are two styles of dancing which is influenced by the punk scenario. People who were the fans of this kind of music had a very distinct way of dressing up. Their clothes such as their T-shirts, jeans had a totally different feel to it. There was a lot of extremism to it such as wearing clothes that were styled to look like torn, studs, spikes, use of safety pins etc. The hairstyle was another feature of their personality which separated from the rest of the masses. They weird crew cuts on them and a few even colored their hair in bright shades of yellow and pink.

Some of the noted bands of punk music style are 88 Fingers Louie, Angry Samoans, Antidote, Bad Religion, Biohazard, Blood for Blood, Career Suicide, Civil Disobedience and many more.

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.

While My Pencilina Gently Weeps

"The pencilina is an electric board zither played primarily by striking the strings with sticks; also by plucking and bowing." And musical instrument inventor/singer-songwriter Bradford Reed is, so far as I know, the world's only performer on this nifty instrument. It's a credit to his songwriting that I didn't know anything about this instrument when I first heard his music - I just liked the song.

Of this 1996 album, the Brooklynite writes, "A strictly live pencilina album. For better or worse I used to have a very purist approach to recording- It must be live. A 50/50 split of instrumental and vocal tunes." Yup, no other instruments - just the one-man-band doing his eccentric thing. Songs range from slightly dissonant, possibly micro-tonal, plinkety-plunking, to actual catchy tunes. The slightly rough, unaffected singing makes Reed appear to be some sort of indie-rock Harry Partch.

Bradford Reed - "Live! At Home"

This album's going out of print, but he's got more for sale on his site. I recommend "Solo Live Songs" if, for no other reason, the excellent "She's A Rocket." And I can't believe I'm writing about someone from Brooklyn. I'm so trendy! Please forgive.

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE...

One month ago I posted a collection of artists who are making the world a more beautiful place by freely distributing songs or albums, and I asked you to vote for your favorite. Like "The X-Factor," only with good music. I might do this again, only for commercial releases, not freebies. Was one month not enough time? Anyway, the final tally is..(drumroll)...

Buttress O'Kneel - 12
Bloody Death Skull - 8
Oreaganomics - 2
Bivouac - 1
Jinnwoo - 1
Docteur Legume et Les Surfwerks - 1
all the others - no votes

Buttress O'Kneel is the winner! Take your bow, lady. Words like "mashup" and "remix" don't really do justice to Buttress O'Kneel's method - Top 40 pop crap gets sliced, diced, and tossed into a dizzying, exciting hardcore electro stew. Compared to other djs who timidly drop a Vanilla Ice acapella over a Chemical Bros instro just to move a dance floor, O'Kneel shreds copyrights with a blood-curdling vehemence. Smash the state!

Her 2000 album "Compact Scipppp" utilizes skipping CDs a la Oval to lovely effect, but after that, the kid gloves came off, and every album since then has employed the same break-core/sample attack. All her albums are free, and all are good. Dive in anywhere.

This is good timing, actually - she has a new album now out called Compop 14.6: Avant-Tarde: Tardcore that throws Bob Marley, Katy Perry, Black Sabbath, Queen and numerous others into the meat grinder, records their screams of agony, then mixes them with results ranging from toe-tappin' almost-pop to abstract glitch. Play loud.

Buttress O'Kneel - 11 albums

"We Love Bananas Because They Have No Bones"

(Vote for "M4M Idol" - only a couple days left!)

Debuting in the early 1930s, The Hoosier Hot Shots were one of the first, and best, novelty groups of the 78 rpm era, and if you can't figure out what they were like from such song titles as "From The Indies To The Andes In His Undies," well, pardner, there ain't much I can tell ya. Listen to me, talking like a hayseed - that's what listening to these guys will do to you. But despite their "rural" schtick, they were actually plenty sophisticated, essentially playing hot jazz with as much virtuosic flair as any fancy-pants big-city orchestra. Only funnier.

Their trademark sounds were a cartoon-ish slide whistle, klezmer-esque clarinet, superb multi-part vocal harmonies, and, quoth wiki, "...a strange, homemade instrument known both as the "Wabash Washboard" and "the Zither," played by Hezzie [Trietsch]. It consisted of a corrugated sheet metal washboard on a metal stand with various noisemakers attached, including bells and a multi-octave range of squeeze-type bicycle horns."

Hard to pick favorites, but can you really go wrong with a song called "We Love Bananas Because They Have No Bones"? And what happens to "Sioux City Sue" will interest the pain and bondage crowd. What must be a much later recording then their '30s/'40s heyday has them demolishing Elvis' "Hound Dog." Surprisingly, they play it straight on the sentimental ballad "Someday (You'll Want Me To Want You)." Tho it is pretty weird hearing the slide whistle try to make like a lonely sax solo.

Some saintly soul has prepared four short albums (10 songs apiece), w/a bonus ep of a few songs taken from YouTube vids. Albums (or just individual tracks) can be downloaded for free here:

HOOSIER HOT SHOTS

"This is the silliest music I've ever heard. A-"
- Robert Christgau