ok please don't trash me for being a noob or anything but i've been playing guitar for quite some time, i started in blues, then went to grunge (i was young and impressionable) and finally came back to metal and just kept getting into heavier and more complicated shit. anyway i have a new metal project shaping up quite nicely, problem i'm having is this is the first time i'm really stepping into my own as currently the only guitarist. the style we're getting is sort of that heavy as shit death mixed with some sort of black metal lite pieces. i think there was another post on here that mentioned riffing style, its sort of a mix between the chord and low string dotting. anyway on to my point. i never really worked with the "one finger" drops like drop c ala shadows fall and such, as such i really don't have experiencing in soloing in them, as in how scales work with those one finger chords, i mean i know basic soloing techniques for standard and standard drops (like DGCFAD, which i'm guessing works the same as standard tunings.), however when it comes to these drop tunings i am unsure how the scales or soloing works, i probably sound like an idiot, however any help or ideas how to make them work would be appreciated.

hrm....the notes move up two frets....not that hard

say you want an A on the low E string.

standard:5th fret
whole step:7th fret
two steps:9th

frankly i dont think you should rely on theory for riff writing. maybe solos but you dont want predictable riffing

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hmm not sure if thats what i'm looking for, i know if i am in standard tuning and say what i'm soloing over is in E i know i that stripping it to basics i can start pull from the scale at the lowest e, the e at the 7th fret on the A string, or at the E at the 12th fret and use runs and such to move around on the neck, however say i want to lead over a open 1 finger chord in cgcfad tuning (in tab it would be all zeros) i believe that would be a c, since the bass note is C, however with that dropped top string where can i pull leads from, your question may have answered this but i'm feeling rather stupid so you may need to break it down a little more. i can be dumb when it comes to play changes... god you should have seen me when i started trem picking...

Playing solos in drop tuning ain't that hard. I suggest learning the intervals in the scales you use and drawing up your own patterns. I do that all the time when I'm in drop-tuning. If I can find some on scratch paper I'll post them.

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thanks man that would be awesome, truth be told its one of those, hey i thought i was pretty good and now i'm like the low man on the totem pole in a whole new style, i can do metal rhythm fine, but now i would like to break out of that and advance, but i keep gettin lost, guess i got a lot to learn, oh well thats fine by me

I couldn't find any of my notes. I memorized most of them. All well, I'll work some out on the spot. You said death/black, right? I'll put the best I can for that style.

*R=Root, #=Scale Tones

Natural Minor
Intervals: 1-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7

E-\--2--\--b3--\-----\--4---\---->
B-\-----\--b7--\-----\--R---\---->
G-\--4--\------\--5--\--b6--\---->
D-\--R--\------\--2--\--b3--\---->
A-\--5--\--b6--\-----\--b7--\---->
D-\--R--\------\--2--\--b3--\---->

Harmonic Minor
Intervals: 1-2-b3-4-5-b6-7

E-\--2--\--b3--\-----\--4---\---->
B-\-----\------\--7--\--R---\---->
G-\--4--\------\--5--\--b6--\---->
D-\--R--\------\--2--\--b3--\---->
A-\--5--\--b6--\-----\------\-7-->
D-\--R--\------\--2--\--b3--\---->

Phyrigian
Intervals: 1-b2-b3-4-5-b6-b7

E-\-----\--b3--\-----\--4---\---->
B-\-----\--b7--\-----\--R---\-b2->
G-\--4--\------\--5--\--b6--\---->
D-\--R--\--b2--\-----\--b3--\---->
A-\--5--\--b6--\-----\--b7--\---->
D-\--R--\--b2--\-----\--b3--\---->

I planned on mapping the entire fretboard and breaking each scale up into groups of 4 frets each (for each of your four fingers) but I just glanced at the clock and its late as hell and I have a dentist appointment in six hours that I must get sleep for (goddamn braces). I hope this helped. Also remember that sometimes playing chromatically can be good. Look at Jeff Hanneman from Slayer: he writes wicked awesome solos and know almost no theory!

I've been where you are before. Good luck!

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Instead of tuning just the top string down a step, tune all the strings down a whole step, then everything you knew in strandard will stay the same, just a step lower.

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thanks death, as for your last comment we do tune everything down a step ala cradle of filth (DGCFAD) i know those are the same as standard, it was the CGCFAD tuning that i was lost on playing, lamb of god, those notes are great man, its the kind of start i need, at least from that i can get an idea of where i can go and have it not sound like shit, it's starting to make more sense, i'm gonna record myself a riff and play some of those over it to mess around with where i can go, thanks again, in a later post i'll put some links to material we are workin on

EDIT: those diagrams are even a bigger help than i realized, it's finally something other than my blues pentatonic that i keep falling into which works fine for straight rock and such, but doesn't quite feel right over a blast beat