I want to prepare starting a viking/pagan/folk metal band with some of mine friends with me on lead guitar but I really have problems writing some music of that sort.No matter how hard I try it somehow always ends up beeing power metal-ish stuff,.so i wonder in which scales bands like nomans land/ensiferum/mithtyn etc make these nice sounding licks.Also there seems to be something special going on with the rhytm...any hints would be nice,

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hmm.. maybe write power-metalish songs with black metal riffs for good measure?

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Move progressions across the perfects (4th, 5th) somewhat often. Harmonize with that as well. Stick to minor applications (typically), ...although I love a killer major happy go lucky viking or irish vamp. Just mimic some of your favorite type bands progressions and try to use them in your own way.

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I'm actually playing around with that currently,it actually seems as if amon amarth does that type of harmonizing you explained,but they seem ONLY to use them for the perfect 4ths (or minor 4ths??) when a riff finishes.
I'm currently trying that stuff with some slower melodies though

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Also, examine tabs or try to play along with songs, just to see what kind of rhythm & progressions are used. Just to get a bit of inspiration, you know.

Another band you might want to check out is Korpiklaani. Folk-metal-swing. They use other instruments for lead mostly, but you can play that on guitar as well.

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hey I'm not that much of a noob as you might think maybe,I know Korpiklaani for sure,.The best beer metal band ever!!(well besides Turisas and Trollfest I guess)
Anyway,it seems as I lack the definition of progressions,do you mean by this the way how the riffs change/develop?

Also,most viking/pagan/folk metal bands seem to just use powerchords for rhytm if I'm not wrong,somehow just underlining the leads.

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I'm in two of those bands myself, but it's just trying and trying, and listening to other bands for inspiration.

I play lead myself as well, but it ain't difficult, for me it's harder to write power metal songs haha

an option to write faster songs, if someone made lyrics allready for a song... this way you can control the length of your riffs better. But most folk riffs has the same patterns, you should decide if you want to play folk or viking metal.... or a combination of it...

Celtic & irish bands/songs are a good inspiration.

Where to start a riff, is kinda difficult to explain, that could be anywhere on the guitar. I always hobby with these frets on different strings and order:

For example:
E- 0-1-3-4 or 3-5-7-8 or 8-10-12-13 or 7-8-10-12-13

could also be like this:

A--------1----------4-3----------
E- 1-4-3---4-3-0-4------4-3-1-0-

Not that this riff sound any good, but that's the idea of playing.

higher on frets I never play, cause it gets more into a solo riff... which ain't necessary to play on high frets... most viking/folk bands don't go higher as well.

Most Viking/Folk metal bands play in D or E

I could try to make some sort of pattern, which maybe help you to write faster those viking/folk songs... do you have Guitar pro 5??

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cool,someone who plays in a viking band,you must show me your bands stuff sometimes,
anyway,I'd actually like more to play in a viking/pagan metal band more than folk/viking,but getting tabs of really good pagan metal bands is hard to find anywhere on the net so I would rather choose viking metal with a few folkish passage here and there.
Also,as I listen to quite a lot ensiferum/nomans land/bergthron/Arkona/mythotyn it seems that they use higher pitches for these simple melodic licks(although mythotyn varies quite a bit in that terms) which I like really much,but I obviously didnt really study the riffs too much so I'll try how I can come up with something this way.

the only irish folk metal band I know of are cruachan(not so sure about the other bands in which category they fall).Do you have some recommendations?
And yes,I've got gp5, Thx for the help dude

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You've probably heard about Moonsorrow? If not, you shoud check them out. It's some really good pagan metal.

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yeah moonsorrow is some pretty good shit

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sure I know moonsorrow,who doesn't,
I quite like them,but I don't think I want to achieve a sound too much alike them,cause their songs are WAY too long for me to write such stuff.

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Try to use their style of music as inspiration to create your own. Don't mimic them exactly i.e. have to create long epics because moonsorrow creates long epics. Find something you really like about the band and try to apply that in your own fashion. Good Luck!

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good source of inspiration,I think I'm progressing well at writing my first viking-is riff,but I'll send the gp tab of if so you guys can tell me whether its just another power-metal riff or whether I made it right this time,

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getting curious

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In drop tunings(ie: DADGBE) I always come up with super super nice folky/viking ish/magic trolls in the forest shit with my acoustic. Just go listen to a bunch of Scandinavian death, black, viking metal and shit like Windir, Bathory and Ensiferum. Some of it will stick.

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Alright, I might not be an ace on this topic, but it seems that the rythms are deeply routed in genetic polka note progressions, with the notes converted into minor scale.

good luck with that... i am working on the same thing myself, and i can only seem to write stuff that sounds more melodic and less heavy then i want.

I would use like harmonic minor scales, those always sound good, they have really strong notes. But Thyrfing I think is probably one of the best viking metal bands I have heard. I really like there first cd and urkraft. Good stuff. Falkenbach is also really good when it comes to viking metal to.

Harmonic Minor is the best scale to go for if youre aiming to get this kind of sounds IMO.

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Stick to the modes, especially the major ones, and a good trick is to fall back on the leading tone of the harmonic minor scale only when you are homing in on the minor root note. I recommend some Renaissance folk music to help.

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