How to Play Metalcore on Guitar And Getting Familiar with the Genre A Matura Paper by Yannic Kuna, 2013/2014 In collaboration with Beat Hüppin www.metalcoreonguitar.wordpress.com Contents 1. Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................... 3 2. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3 3. What is Metalcore? .............................................................................................................................. 5 4. August 2010 (about the author)................................................................................................... 7 5. Before it starts ....................................................................................................................................... 8 5.1 Guitar ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 5.2 Pick (Plectrum) ...................................................................................................................................... 10 5.3 Metronome .............................................................................................................................................. 10 5.4 Tuning ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 5.5 Tabulature ................................................................................................................................................ 12 6. Techniques ........................................................................................................................................... 14 6.1 Power chords .......................................................................................................................................... 14 6.2 Palm Muting (+chugs) ......................................................................................................................... 16 6.3 Hammer-on and pull-offs ................................................................................................................... 17 6.4 Bending ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 6.5 Chewy Riffs .............................................................................................................................................. 18 6.6 Pinch Harmonics ................................................................................................................................... 20 6.7 Tremolo Picking ..................................................................................................................................... 20 6.8 Solos ........................................................................................................................................................... 21 6.8.1 How to Write a Guitar Solo ............................................................................................................ 21 6.8.2 Tips .......................................................................................................................................................... 21 6.9 Tapping ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 6.10 Sweep Picking ...................................................................................................................................... 24 7. How to get better? ............................................................................................................................. 26 8. Avoiding common mistakes ........................................................................................................ 28 9. Interview with the guitarists of "Save Your Last Breath" ............................................ 30 10. Final Words .......................................................................................................................................... 34 11. References ............................................................................................................................................ 35 2 1. Acknowledgement There are a few people, without whose help this project would not have become what it is now. Special thanks go to: . Beat Hüppin, my guitar teacher, for supervising me throughout the process of writing and graciously contributing his time, energy and ideas; . The guitarists of "Save Your Last Breath", for participating in the interview; . The YouTuber from "My boring Channel"1, for showing me the magnificence of having a Wordpress-website; . Patrick Ralston, for fine-tuning and proofreading this document; . And you, the reader of "How to Play Metalcore on Guitar"! 2. Introduction Whether successfully advising my little sister on how to tie her shoelaces or getting my classmates to understand that really difficult math problem; seeing someone improve in a certain discipline due to the fact that I assisted them, is what really keeps me going and makes me happy. In my opinion there is so much beauty in that procedure, which is why creating study material or even becoming a school teacher doesn't seem unreasonable to me. These are two goals I would really like to achieve. I am delighted at already hav- ing reached the first one of these. Absolutely no doubts came up when I was playing with the idea of creating a teaching aid regarding the content. Playing Metalcore on guitar has had a huge impact on my life and always gives me much pleasure. Logically, I chose that. I feel that the best teachers are the ones that love their subject from the bottom of their hearts and I'm definitely provided with that. What you are about to read is the pure result of my appreciation of Metalcore and the art of teaching. As part of a major high school project I wanted to turn that combination in reality. 1 http://www.youtube.com/user/mreae?feature=watch 3 German is my native tongue and therefore many of my peers were frowning regarding the language I chose for this paper. I do have to admit that it is rather risky and has some downsides such as having a slower working progress or not getting on the same level of professional language. However, in my opinion, the advantages are way more dominant; English is the fourth most spoken language in the world while German is only the tenth.2 So, addressing as many readers as possible and spreading my work more easily over the globe are the main reasons for my decision. At this point I also want to make you aware that there is no such thing as the best pick, the best way to learn new techniques or the best guitarist. Everything is, when it comes to music, a matter of taste and preference and that’s good. It keeps things interesting and makes people come up with new ideas because if there was, let us say a best music genre; we would’ve already found and stuck to it. What I am trying to say is the following: This book represents my attempt at making you acquainted with how I see this type of music and how I play guitar. Essentially, that is all I can do. HAVE FUN And whenever you have a question just ask me on the "Questions and Feedback" section on my website and I’ll try to respond as soon as I can. 2 http://www.vistawide.com/languages/top_30_languages.htm 4 3. What is Metalcore? Metalcore is a music-fusion genre that incorporates elements of heavy metal and hard- core punk. Elements . Energetic Vocals . Provoking and/or All the mentioned . Loud and distorted political lyrics elements plus: Guitar . Suppressed lead guitar . Breakdown . Dense Bass and melodies and empha- . Dissonance Drum Sound size rhythm to achieve . Double Bass . Instrumental Cast: the "in-your-face" kind Drumming 2 guitars, a bass and of sound . Religious lyrics drums . Greater use of the bass (Christianity) . Loud, hard and fast Notable Bands . Black Sabbath . The Sex Pistols . Trivium . Judas Priest . NOFX . Underoath . Iron Maiden . Billy Talent . Killswitch Engage 5 It’s extremely hard to find one band that lays the foundation for the genre because the band itself was also influenced by other bands, moving the start further back in time. Therefore drawing a line and saying "in this year with this band Metalcore started" is really difficult and individual. Here is my view on this. I am going to divide the history into two groups: . In about 1985-2000 Bands like As I Lay Dying or Slipknot started using char- acteristics that denote the genre. With the beginning of the new Millennium Metalcore also had its very special turning point. From that point in time onwards, this type of music was brought to the masses. People started wearing band shirts and going to shows more often. One could say it became "Mainstream". Bullet for my Valentine, Asking Alexandria or The Devil Wears Prada were some the initiators of the genres commercial success. [Image 1] Mick Thompson and James Root from Slipknot [Image 3]Chris Rubey from the Devil Wears Prada [Image 2] Tim Lambesis and Nick Hipa from As I Lay Dying 6 4. August 2010 (about the author) As the sun was rising I was already widely awake. Few sunrays were shining directly in my eyes. While blinking I started smiling because of the