Ive thought of a thread like this for a while, maybe one exists that is similar, but the idea is to give a rough outline of a list of songs to progressively learn to play metal guitar. Any help would be appreciated, and even more appreciation would go to to a guy who can make a list for soloing. Here is my list (obviously not every song I know) of songs that I feel that I increased my skill level in learning. If anyone thinks an essential one is missing, and if anyone can continue the list with harder songs, feel free to do so. Heres my list:


Slayer - South of Heaven

Exodus - And Then There Was None

Exodus - A Lesson in Violence (start tremelo picking)

Slayer - Metal Storm

Kreator - Coma of Souls

Slayer - Postmortem (downpicking, faster tremelo picking)

Megadeth - Holy Wars

Death - Flattening of Emotions (very fast tremelo picking)

Death - Lack of Comprehension (tremelo picking sextuplets)

Suffocation - Demise of the Clones

Suffocation - Despise the Sun

Megadeth - Lucretia (sweeping, accuracy)

Necrophagist - Foul Body Autopsy

Necrophagist - Stabwound




Like I said any help will be appreciated

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im still in the midst of learning Nothing Else Matters - Metallica, to improve my fingerpicking skills.. almost got it down.

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I would put some Cryptopsy either at or after the Suffocation mark, it's partuclarly good for increasing your ability to change between different types of chords at fast speeds.

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for learning soloing I would add nothing else matters and sanitarium to begin with. Later on solo's like metallica's fuel and master of puppets.

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now lets guess which one of them is the metallica fan!

lol, only joking, i like metallica aswell...well their earlier stuff

metal wise, i like playing anything by Death, especially off their albums symbolic and sound of perserverance. Very good shit for teaching you most of what u need to know. Testaments disciples of the watch is a good song and solo to learn. From playing metal, i like to go to different styles, like satriani's always with me always with you, too hendrix's red house and little wing. This variation will improve ure skills shit loads

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Ozzy - Mr Crowley

Joe Satriani - allways with me, allways with you

my personal favorites.

Funny that list starts with thras and gradualy builds to death metal

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Necrophagist - intestinal incubation (I learned most of it)
Necrophagist - Extreme unction
Necrophagist - Stabwound
Gorgasm - Anal Skewer
Gorgasm - concubine of despise
Severed Savior - severed savior
Dying fetus - intentional manslaughter
Deeds of flesh - Mark of The Legion
Cryptopsy - Slit your guts (will be tabbed in a while)

Death/ Scavenger of human sorrow
Megadeath/ good morning black friday
Pantera/ shedding Skin
Iron Maiden/ aces high

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yea

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thisones already tabbed pretty correct if im right?? xept for the solos

not that i care just letting u know (wich u probaly already did)

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Who's thisones? if it's the one on metaltabs then it's ok but it has some minor errors. The one that I'm tabbing is going to include all of the solos.

children of bodom - children of bodom

gorguts - obscura (you think about guitar in a different way)

suffocation - demise of the clones/pierced from within

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okee nvm i said a word looking forward to it mate

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sorry about that. And thanks

Holy shit my hero was mentioned. Excellent suggestion by the way. Always with me always with you is one of my favorites. Here are some more suggestions:

Despite Kirk Hammetts' on/off musicality, to get my fingers going when I first started playing I built up the solos at the end of One and Fade to Black. They REALLY helped me out a lot as far as improving my dexterity.

Pantera - This Love: the riff at about 2'47" was something that helped me get my downpicking down (of course Master of Puppets did that, too. While we're talking about Metallica, at 3'16" in Seek and Destroy there is a badass riff to learn downpicking)

Pantera - Cemetary Gates: the famous pinch harmonic riff really got me started on learning those and helped me out a lot

Hmmm..... What else...... Vibrato: Joe Satriani - Mountain Song. Gotta love it.

Lamb of God - these guys kick ass. I can remember playing Laid to Rest all day to build up downpicking/alternate picking mixtures as well as dexterity

Okay here's a really random one. Van Halen's Hot for Teacher helped me with tapping. Don't diss.

i think no boundaries (michael angelo) is good for some FAST picking and sweeping skills DUH
hotel california (eagles) is good for bending

thats all i can think of for now

hate eternal for some riff harmonizing methods

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A sample of my progression from beginning to now....

Judas Priest - Turbo Lover / Living After Midnight / Breaking The Law / Devils Child / Bloodstone (very easy and inspiring in those early days)
Billy Idol - White Wedding
AC/DC - Shoot To Thrill
Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles
Iron Maiden - Wasted Years / Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Joe Satriani - Crushing Day (was always my fav off that CD)
Type O Negative - Christian Woman / Blood and Fire
Metallica - Seek and Destroy / Of Wolf and Man
Megadeth - In My Darkest Hour / Skin O'My Teeth
Slayer - South Of Heaven (almost)

Until I can play Angel Of Death perfectly (minus solos) I dont consider myself even barely "good"

That is definitely a great song for developing solid tremolo picking. As a matter of fact, the entire Reign in Blood album is phenomenal for building speed and accuracy on many levels. I typically play half the album as part of my warmup routine. Someday I'll go back to the book and learn the rest of the album to complete my 30 minute warmup. I've long forgotten most of the old school stuff I started out with (Maiden, Priest, AC/DC, Metallica, Dio, Satriani, Scorpions, etc...) because there are so many slow parts that are only fun to play with a full band and because they are largely dated at this point. Slayer's Reign in Blood album is fun to play all the way through without a band because it is relentless and constantly changing and because it has a timeless quality to it.

Outside of Slayer, I find older Megadeth, Malmsteen, and Van Halen to have the best riffs and solos which combine technical difficulty with addictive sound.

If you're looking for solo material that has lots of soul and is not overly difficult, than you can't beat Zeppelin, Hendrix, and Pink Floyd.

For acoustic material Zeppelin is the way to go.

Slayer - War Ensemble, palm muted fast shit
Slayer - Postmortem, downpicking and tremolo, I still can't play it without getting tired.
Slayer - Mandatory Suicide, easy but good exercise.
Slayer - Angel of Death, its fun.
Metallica - Master of Puppets, gotta play it...downpicking galore.
Cannibal Corpse - Sentenced to Burn, downpicking.

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Haha yep, many people say its one of their first songs, but no way... That downpicking gets tiring, and the trem picking isnt easy either

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I'm worrying about my downpicking technique though, theres now way in hell I can play without a bit of my arm moving as well as my wrist. Theres on position that work so that only my wrist is moving but it is awkward as hell and I look like a moron.

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Errr, all this is great, but maybe instead of listing songs, you guys could incorporate them into my list? And could someone provide a decent shredding/soloing LIST (I know that there many good enough guitarists around here do make one)

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I think we should keep this thread going and going ... I like the idea of it.

"I Am A Viking" for your first Yngwie song.

"Devil's Slide" by Joe Satriani, for advancing your legato technique.

I'll add:

Between the Buried and Me - Coulrophobia (very tiring downpicking)

Between the Buried and Me - Camilla Rhodes (very fast song)

Between the Buried and Me - Aesthetic (for sweeps)

The Black Dahlia Murder - Funeral thirst (fast tremolo and alternate picking)

Pffft fags.


Pantera - Cowboys From Hell.

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For mad tapping skills... start out on Van Halen "Eruption"... that will build strength and speed... then get a hold of Steve Vai's "Rescue me or Bury me"... the last tapping section of that will be super hard... but its fucking tight as hell if you can pull it off.
Flat picking speed and strenth....Metallica's "Master of puppets" is gold for flat picking exercise...
Alternate picking.... Metallica's "Fade to black" outro solo is pretty good practice,... even "The Call of Ktulu" has an awsome solo peice... that will build lots of strenght in your picking hand as well as control while skiping strings... almost too easy though because of the predictability of running one whole scale down the neck... but always good to start out on.
Fret hand speed.... Just about any classical peices... get a hold of a song called "Eugene's Trick Bag"... its on Steve Vai's Elusive Light and sound album... Its a solo based on Paganinis 5th Caprice.. but then... Joe Satrianis solo in "Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness" is relatively short,... but pretty challenging.. not much picking.. .but lots of fast finger movement....

cheers, mine's too man.

Speaking of Pagannini ... learn all of the caprices. Then you'll have technical facilliation rivaled by very few.

And to become proficient in odd time signatures, Steve Vai's "Incantation" or Tool's "The Grudge" is certainly good work.

Sorry to dig up this old dog but I figured I'd add my own opinion to the mix and this thread could be useful for beginners.

Steve Vai - For The Love of God - Good for improving a melodic ear
Paganini - Caprice #5 in Am
Children of Bodom - Deadnight Warrior, Children of Bodom, Everytime I Die
Anything by Yngwie Malmsteen
Necrophagist - Stabwound
Necrophagist - Only Ash Remains
Lamb of God - A lot of their stuff is good for developing disciplined picking.

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Try classical gas or some blackbird picking to bone up on fingerpicking. That or blackstar/disciples from hell. I remember those being hard when I started.

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As far as incorporating songs to your list, I would say "Seven" by Necrophagist would go right above foul body autopsy. This is an excellent song to develop string skipping accuracy and speed!! Plus the solo in it is fairly decent

And for solos, I don't know where to put this on your list, but the solo from "Dimished to be" - Necrophagist is probably one of their easier ones that they play.

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Ensiferum - Iron

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here's one with pretty hard to do "finger-stretches"... I learnt it a while ago and it still hurts (my left hand) to play it for long periods..

Old Man's Child - God of Impiety

another stupid song to learn but that still practices alot is the boss batlle song from final fantasy (6)

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allmost any cob

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In my opinion its all very personal. When you see a song that is out of your reach, all you need is determination and perseverance. Just say too yourself "Man that's fucking hard, I wanna play that" and over time youll learn the tab (since going at it straight might put you off)

To contradict myself, Psycroptic songs get you to that "higher level" (unless you blast Necrophagist all day, which most of us dont, so it is worth a mention)
Psycroptic = heaps of tremolo picking, nice doomy riffs, catchy, and awesome.. give it a shot!

looks like this hasn't been mentioned

King Diamond - The Family Ghost
or
King Diamond - anything off the Abigail album

that shit fucking rules...

also Toxik, Necrophagist, Megadeth, and Metallica to improve picking/solos/playing in all generalities

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They have awesome,unique sounding riffs.

Scar Spangled Banner by Exodus is IMO really helpful especially for your fretting fingers. It makes your picking hand do some work too, since you're jumping from string to string constantly.

And my god what a awesome thrashriff!!

For fast pentatonic exercise I like Liquid Tension's Paradigm Shift, but mostly BLS solos.

Good suggestions, guys, keep it going

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All Led Zep for slide blues, quicker picking and accuracy
Slayer - Angel' and War Ensemble
Necrophagist - Foul Body Autopsy
JS Bach

i dont want to spoil your fun, but that song isnt ment to be fingerpicked. you better try benighted by opeth, about the same level

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Psycroptic sound good, I've never heard them.
Cloaca's tabs make them sound good.

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Thunderstruck

Great song to learn if you are beginning to learn alternate picking. Alt pick it, not pulls and hammers. Once you can play it to speed like that it sounds mint

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Yeah man, that song is awesome, so is 'Face of Melinda' The start of that is awesome fingerpicking practise

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for the past week i have been learning epitaph (i know all the riffs now, and the solo is coming along) and i will never ever look at guitar or practice again in my life the same way

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Necrophagist - The Stillborn One and Seven. I had a tough time with the low end string skipping riffs. Speed, timing, harmonics... those songs cover just about every technique there is. Plus the solos kick ass.

tapping it sounds just the same...or at least for me it does...

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Concerto but Cacophony has made me a much better guitarist. Not only is it a dynamic song but it covers all aspects of shred guitar. It did take me a two months to learn and play properly but it was worth it.

i think every one has a problem learning a necrophagist song, seven was a pain in the ass, but it taught me so much

Once you can play Necrophagist songs, learn some Martyr ones. That's what I've been doing and trust me, it's harder.

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SLAYER- raining blood-good for down strokes,triplets and trem picking. also a good introduction to all of slayers crazy trem solos.
RIFLES AT RECESS-the downfall of roman catholicism and how it directly affects kevin smith-good for trem picking consistancy(keeping it up) and double time feel harmonization.
METALLICA-(welcome home)sanitarium-nice easy solos,also an introduction to legato.
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE-my last serenade-all down strokes.builds strength and an introduction to making pretty riffs with 2 guitars
BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME-selkies,the endless obsession-if you can play it,you should'nt be reading this.
THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER-elder misanthopy-builds speed and precision.
METALLICA-one-good for shredding and clean metal solos.
MUDVAYNE-death blooms-good for alternate picking,the whole song is played like that.
ill think of more later.Kryla;/

sweet, ill check it out

yeah man, the timing in warp zone KILLS me. i love that solo though, i always noodle around on it

mongrains got some serious reach

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can someone give me practice to imrove my speed

frantic disembowelment for riffing..

and the second solo in we bleed for soloing

Yeah i know, but if you can alt pick it, you can legato it easily.

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joe satriani-just about all his stuff
steve vai- just about all his stuff
jason becker- opus pocus/or altitudes
joquin rodrigo-anything from concierto de arajanez
bach- prelude in G maj cello suite 1
bach- toccatta + fugue
bach- prelude in Cmin for lute
Malaguena
Isaac Albeniz-Asturias
........

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huh?

Yeah. Psycroptic would be good. Bloody hard though.

The live in my home town actually. Not far from where i live. Top blokes they are.

They have a new album coming out in a few months. Look out for it.

It's coming out this month man.

Whoops. it is too.

I have been living in a cave this past few months.

Just playing the backing rhythms is enough for me.
His stuff is always fun to jam along to.

For learning, beginner to intermediate to advanced, I say the best songs are:

Beginner:
Forever - The Berzerker
Reality - The Berzerker
December Wolves
White Zombie

Intermediate:
War Ensemble - Slayer
Incarnate Solvent Abuse - Carcass
Death
Hate Eternal


Advanced:
Cannibal Corpse
Necrophagist
Cynic
Dying Fetus
Nile

Something like that???

Just record, learn yourself, find you misses and select such song, where you mistakes will be frequently. If you got to know about pitch harms only yesterday, learn Anathema "Sleepless". If you cannot find any note by string bending, learn some hard rock or blues solo, for example, Scorpions "Noone Like You". If you don't have a metronome in you head, first learn any thrash or death metal song (not such as "Philosopher", easier ), then smoothly raise to progressive, and year later you would play "Ytsee Jam" . It's all individual and relative

what stuff should I learn that helps me considering i'm playing around 1,5 years?I won't even try Necrophagist,Nile,Cannibal Corpse,Slayer or such stuff,cause it makes absolutely no sense.If you can recommend anything with slower trem picking and left hand finger movement it would be very nice .

Learning some Origin is always fun Maybe someone would help me attack some other songs to tab so that we have more Origin on this site \m/. Fast tremolo picking, nice quick sweeps, good shit. I love Origin. A good song to learn from them is Staring From the Abyss. I still need to learn a few more riffs but the sweeps at the beginning of the song are awesome and I can pull them off pretty nicely. Some good sweeps to develop the "rolling" technique at high speeds.

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Try some lamb of god.

You wont be able to play it at first but working up to speed and the dexterity required will help a lot.

Also. Learn Crystal Mountain by Death. First Metal song i ever learned.

This is how I bassicaly learned but I also will add some more just for my own advice.


•Metallica-Seek And Destroy (First song I ever learned and it's great way to start using all of the strings instead of just doing power chords on the 6th string and trunge between the first sixth frets)

•Slayer-Angel Of Death or Necrophobic (To start to Increase speed)

•Kreator-Betrayer or Extreeme Aggressions (To use both speed and train your left hand to move up and down the neck)

•Megadeth-Holly Wars (Great way to start learning how to do some sweeps and getting a good sense of melody)

•Symphony X-Inferno (Great song. It helps you getting used to having your fingers moving constantly. The solos might prove a bit difficult but they are worth it.)

•Cryptopsy-Phobophile (Again to build speed and using quick chord changes)

•Dying Fetus-Praise The Lord (An awsome song. It's great learning how to pick and then suddenly tap and then keep changing the two. Also this will get you used to odd time changes and crazy riffage.)

•Necrophagist-Stabwoud (The final song to be able to play. It took me almost over a year...actually no over a year to learn this song. It's extreemly difficult but when you play it no one can touch you...provided that they don't also listen to Necrophagist. LOL)


Also recomend some Steve Vai, Racer X, Nile and Opeth. Also learning some Jazz (like I did) helps increase speed and get your hand used to quick chord changes.

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Try learning some fucking hjard stuff. Memorise, then practise.

Its how you advance

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what i ment is it's easier to play that song alt. picking than it is down storkes. try it both ways you'll see what i mean. especially the chorus.

Necrophagist just killers!!! It's unreal skills... If you're a mazochist, also learn Theory In Practice.

I must be masochistic then...

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thx for the help guys,I'm gonna try some lamb of god,opeth and maybe 2 or 3 necrophagist riffs

according to paul gilbert..

Q: What advice do you have for an up and coming guitar player?

A: Practice all the time. Learn one new thing every day. And try to learn these songs:

1. "Circumstances" by Rush (from the album "Hemispheres")
2. "Mother Mary" by UFO (from "Strangers in the Night")
3. "Little Dreamer" by Van Halen (from "Van Halen")
4. "If I Fell" by The Beatles (from "A Hard Day's Night")
5. "Riff Raff" by AC/DC (from "If You Want Blood You've Got It")
6. "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" by The Ramones (from "Rocket to Russia")
7. "Gettin' Betta" by Pat Travers (from "Live! Go For What You Know")
8. "Day of the Eagle" by Robin Trower (from "Bridge of Sighs")
9. "Majestic" by Journey (from "Evolution")
10. "No Matter What" by Badfinger (from "The Very Best of Badfinger")

After that, you should be ready for anything!

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sea of lies-symphony X
or any symphony X song off the divine wings of tragedy albulm

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marcel coenen=race against time

plus a billion points to your legato playing

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Jason Becker - Mable's Fatal Fable

Ok, I can't play the entire song yet, actually only the intro and main theme. Even so, this song has schooled my with really fast rapid hammer on pull of combinations and a little bit more sweep exercising. It is a very interesting song for any shredder to learn.

Marty Friedman - Dragon Mistress

Quite a bit easier than the above song but still great for advancing shred techniques and smooth playing.

This list is arranged according to difficulty, but does it include the solos.
Because the solo of the South of Heaven itseld is really hard for me.

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I ordered both tab books(warp zone,hopeless hopes)from Martyr's website a couple years ago, this stuff improved my playing drastically, more than any other.

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yes,i know this is an old thread, but ive been using it for some time and i think re-igniting it would help a lot of people who are trying to work out which song to learn next. its a really useful thread and i think it should be made a sticky

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Nice idea, but I'd rather say it COULD be a useful thread. I was reading through it before opening my "What Song Shall I Learn Next" thread, but it didn't help me too much. Besides from the list in the first post, people always just mentioned new songs without telling "it's easier than that song but slightly harder than that one and it helps you learning..."
In my opinion it would be cool, if someone could list alle the songs mentioned here starting with the easiest and ending with the hardest. And it would be even cooler is someone would also add a few words too each song, saying what techniques you'll train with it. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I think it could be done, helping together, as one could start the list with, let's say, 3 songs, the next one just quotes/copies it and adds 2 other songs in the correct position and so on...

I'd love to have such a list and could be helpful when it comes to songs for beginners.

ok then:

pantera - mouth for war-
helps with accurate slides, good for beginners. the bit of the solo where you play 11-12-15 on each string is good alternate picking practice as well.

cannibal corpse - hammer smashed face-
really fun to play and not too hard, the string skipping verse riff is good to practice.

death - the philosopher-
a good start with tapping.

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alright, i copied your list and added three songs on a postition, that i think would fit (though i never played the songs you mentioned - if necessary please correct me)


black sabbath - paranoid
extremly easy and probably the first metal song one should learn. the rhythm guitar is just downstroak powercords and slow speed. the solo is slow pentatonic stuff spiced with some slides, hammeron/pulloffs and bends

black sabbath - iron maiden
slightly harder than paranoid, because the rhythm parts include slides and the solo is slightly faster. plus the rhythm isn't that easy (compared to paranoid)

pantera - mouth for war-
helps with accurate slides, good for beginners. the bit of the solo where you play 11-12-15 on each string is good alternate picking practice as well.

cannibal corpse - hammer smashed face-
really fun to play and not too hard, the string skipping verse riff is good to practice.

death - crystal mountains
fun to play, espaecially the chorus. i liked, that the rhythm parts also include some scale runs, which aren't too fast but might be good for someone just starting out with playing leadguitar. the solo isn't too extraordinary - basically just alternate picking at moderate tempo. the song includes triplets, which might be a bit tricky for someone new to that

death - the philosopher-
a good start with tapping

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