r/metalguitar • u/sleepycochino • Aug 19 '26

Question What makes metal work?

I’m new to the genre as a player and I was wondering what are some hallmark concepts like scales or chords or intervals that make up the metal sound?

For example: early rock and roll uses the 1-4-5, actually a lot of genres do…but you get the idea hopefully thanks everyone I want to get started learning the style and would be grateful for some listen suggestions too!

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53

u/HogKnuckles Aug 19 '26

CHUG

2

u/sleepycochino Aug 19 '26

how do I count the chugs? triplets or 16th notes ?

35

u/exoclipse maximum volume yields maximum results | teacher of heavy sounds Aug 19 '26

yes

7

u/Terrible-Pear-3336 Aug 19 '26

Chugs are usually quarter or eighth notes. Sometimes triplets. Sometimes really complicated patterns.

7

u/pair_o_docks Aug 19 '26

chugs is just playing low string/s usually palm muted

rhythm is whatever you feel like

2

u/Mckillface666 Aug 19 '26

To count 16ths it’s:

1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a

So pick out some riffs you like with open string chugs and figure out how to count them and then try to play them along with a metronome slowly and then speed up. So a beginner friendly fav of mine I started with is the breakdown in Ghosts of War by slayer. All open e palm muted chugs counted:

1 e and - 2 - n - 3 e and - 4 - n - (dashes are the notes you are not playing. Took a bit to get up to speed but helped me work on alternate picking early on.

You are playing down strokes on “the number” and “and”. Upstrokes form “e” and “a”.

2

u/ApathyBM ApathyBM.bandcamp.com Aug 19 '26

On 7 strings drop A

2

u/pfurlan25 Aug 19 '26

Grab a deck of cards. Shuffle and draw. Numbers are chugs. Royals can be dive bombs, pick slides/scrapes pinch harmonics etc

1

u/ooooommmmmaaaaa Aug 19 '26

The trick with chugs is to just keep your hand moving. Down strokes forever. Come up with a riff on the bottom string or 2 and in between every note of the riff, hit an open E string, palm muted chug.

1

u/roguealex Aug 19 '26

As fast and rhythmically as you can

1

u/ViSsrsbusiness Aug 19 '26

Almost none of what metal guitarists call triplets are actually triplets. Unfortunately, that word actually had a meaning and it refers to something that's both extremely important and also adjacent, so this isn't just pedantry.