Rob Zombie Style

Hi GMC! Welcome to my new lesson! Today we have a composition based on the style of the talented artist called "Rob Zombie".

Music style & influences:
Rob is an amazing musician, singer and horror films director. His music style always has “horror films” vibes and this lesson I tried to recreate it. Rob's music is like a continuation of his previous band called “White Zombie”.  This band has a very particular sound thanks to the combination of Thrash/Groove metal, New metal, Techno & Industrial music.  Songs like “More Human Than Human” and “Super-Charger Heaven” defined perfectly his style in the 90’s.  In his solo albums he continued developing that style. I based on “Educated Horses”, his last solo album, to compose this tune. I chose that album because is more rocker than electronic and the guitars have been recorded by John 5 who played with Marylyn Manson and is one of the most interesting modern metal players.   His “demonic” guitar style fits perfect with Rob Zombies music.

Structure:
This lesson is a good lesson for beginners because it’s very easy technically.  It starts with a dropped D repetitive riff.  Then the main guitar plays some octave chords and two strings bending which are very used ideas by White Zombie, Rob Zombie and John 5. Then we have a “banjo” part that is played in unison by the electric guitar and a banjo. Finally you’ll find a melody very inspired in “horror” played by harmonized guitars.

Virtual Instruments & arrangement:
I added some Reason Virtual Instruments to the rock quartet to make this sound a bit more similar to Rob’s music. You’ll hear a drum loop in the beginning created with the Redrum (Tecno kit).  I also added a synth from the “Thör” module in this part.  Then I added a Banjo with the “NNTX” module that plays unison with the guitar.

Techniques:
The level of this lesson is from beginners to intermediate and the techniques used are palm muting, bending, vibrato, alternate picking and legato.

Tuning:
I use “Dropped D” tuning as John 5 in many of his songs. He also uses Dropped C.

Scales & tonality:
The composition is in D minor.  The main idea in this music is to generate “tension” all the time so you will find more repetitive riffs than “commercial” chord progressions.  This makes everything sound a bit like “modal” like Techno music.  The scales used are D pentatonic minor and D Phrygian.

Ok guys! I hope that you enjoy this lesson!

Keep on rocking!

Gabriel.