Power Metal Hymns, Advice of some kind xD Options

[Marabou]

Hey its me Christoffer, i have mostly been practising lessons and i have not had much time to chat or do stuff like that lately but i have an eargent need of some advice.... Im currently playing in a band and im having the hardest time coming up with cool powermetal Hymns or melodies and so on... I try to sing stuff in my head and play it on the guitar but its not working out quite well and i was wondering if anyone here could give me some advice on what scales i should play, or maybe some backingtracks to listen to as i play. I have no idea what im supposed to do to come up with these things, for an example the opening hymn to the song "Frozen Sky" by "Conquest" is a really awesome melody or hymn or what you´d call it but it feels like´i´ll never be able to come up with anything like that.

If you have the time and you feel that you can help me please contact me through the mail, any help is much appreciated !

//Christoffer Holm

[Todd Simpson]

This is a great question. How to begin? Well, to start with. Take the chord structure and key of the song you are working on as a starting point. E.G. What key is the song/solo section in? If it's in A, or specifically, A Minor for example, then the A Minor scale is a good place to start. So try running the A Minor scale while listening to the song. See which bits of the scale sound nice with the music. Then always try to land on a rood note. E.G. A, when you complete a given lick or run. Then start adding in various chops, licks, solo bits that you have learned so far, keeping them in key. Before you know it you will have worked out the entire solo or melody part.

Hope this helps
Todd

[Santiago Diaz Ga...]

E minor scale is a must on every power metal band. But for hymns or those catchy melodies, you should try experimenting with major scales. B major is a cool scale to start doing something

[The Uncreator]

Scale wise, Power Metal has a lot of Harmonic Minor, basic Pentatonic, and almost anything Neoclassical will fit with it as well. Power Metal "hymns" or melodies will borrow from other music a lot of them time, Like classical, folk, or anything "orchestral". And like Santiago said above me, E minor is big in power metal. The chord progressions are a natural fit it seems.

The goal is to not get too involved in the melody sometimes, Just mess around without really trying to think so hard about the melody, and you could end up playing a few cool licks to make into a nice epic tune.

[Marabou]

Hey guys its me, Christoffer again, i just wanna say thank you to everyone who replied to my message! Its cool to see that people respond so quickly and that they respond with such effort, im going to try all of the things you guys had in mind and hopefully i´ll have a sweet melody on the way and again, thank you very much guys

[Santiago Diaz Ga...]

Be sure to record it and post it here. We will help as much as we can

[Zsolt Galambos]

Another great start would be to have down your favorite bands' songs and analyze what they've done. A lot of the times you'll find out that they are using the same patterns/cliches and change a few chords/bmp/melodies - which is not bad at all for a start. So you might want to use these at first and after try to experiment to come up with your own ideas.

[Marcus Siepen]

Another great start would be to have down your favorite bands' songs and analyze what they've done. A lot of the times you'll find out that they are using the same patterns/cliches and change a few chords/bmp/melodies - which is not bad at all for a start. So you might want to use these at first and after try to experiment to come up with your own ideas.

+1 I would also sit down and listen to your fave kinda bands and try to find out what they are doing and what it is that attracts you in their music, you can learn a lot by this. when you realize what they are doing, try to use the same tricks/techniques and see what happens.