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Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 23 2012, 11:29 AM

Task 43: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Lamb-of-God-Style-Riffing/

Righto, my guitar wielding friends... time for more riffs. You didn't think that would be it for your crunch master class did you ??

This one uses more alternate picking but you've still got to maintain that tight palm muting as well as precise left hand position shifting.

If you nail this one you'll be ready to step in if Metallica need a stand in at a show near you !

Deadline is next Friday 30th November !

Posted by: Opetholic Nov 25 2012, 09:41 PM

Wow, Ben, out of all the Tasks about rhythm playing, I like this one by far the best (still not as much as your very own Iced Earth Style lesson, but that I already recorded ). I will definitely give this one a go...

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 25 2012, 09:42 PM

That's great to hear.. I look forward to seeing and hearing it

Posted by: DeGroot Nov 26 2012, 02:40 AM

Hey, its me..... again!

This was a good choice and a fun one to play. This kind of double bass flow gives me less fits than the funky grooves from last week.

Posted by: gregc1 Nov 26 2012, 03:43 AM

Nice one Degroot. I've got it down at about 90% speed right now. Shouldn't be too far behind you.

It's the second half that's hard for me to play clean at full speed.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 26 2012, 11:06 AM

Man that sounds flawless ! Love it

I like how your little one is keeping a watchful eye on your playing, just to make sure you're doing it properly !!



Look forward to hearing it Greg.. there ain't nothin' that you can't do !!

Posted by: DeGroot Nov 26 2012, 06:34 PM

Thanks Ben! My daughter is not so patient if I can't get a take down. Too many takes and I'll start to hear about it!

Her new thing is to 'tweak' my sound as I'm doing these mini recording sessions. Now I have to block off access towards the amp controls.



Thanks man! No doubt, those slippery power chord shifts in the second half is the trickiest part.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 26 2012, 06:37 PM

Oh that is just classic !!!!!

Posted by: Opetholic Nov 26 2012, 10:00 PM

Ok here is my take, I don't know how it will be since there are some riffing machines like Mr D-G and Mr Greg here but well I enjoyed it a lot (since it has some AP )

Here we go

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 26 2012, 11:00 PM

Not bad at all Mert.. that was generally damn tight.. nice work !!

But I have to tell you off.. I shouldn't need to remind a metal guy to include that most important element should I ??

P_ _ _ / M _ _ _ _ G

Posted by: Opetholic Nov 26 2012, 11:26 PM

Oh man this palm muting technique is always evading me. If I don't pay attention to my right hand I end up not palm muting, if I pay attention then I am too slow.. Next time for rhythm playing I should tackle the apprentice bushido task..

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 27 2012, 10:07 AM

Not necessarily.. you can play just fine.. it's just the tone characteristics, the sound that we're looking to hone, not the technique itself. So you're doing good, man... palm muting is a relatively easy thing to get good at

Posted by: gregc1 Nov 29 2012, 07:07 PM

Here's my take on this Task. I actually have video too but my wife is out of town and apparently has the USB I need to get the video off my phone. All of them.

I figured since we're at the deadline I would just go ahead and post the audio. It's not REC quality anyways so no big deal I guess. I have it much cleaner in the 90-95% speed range but I figured I would be true to the task and show my progress at 100% speed. The second part was the hardest for me to keep it nice and staccato and there were struggles in the first part but it seemed easier than the multi-string chugging. Like the Metallica task stamina was an issue but got easier and easier as I went. 80% speed was a struggle to keep up with when I first started.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 29 2012, 09:41 PM

Sounds very nice Greg.. I like your tone on this one, it has a nice, dry staccato feel to it that works very well with the lesson.

Stamina is definitely the hard part with all these riffathons.. have you and DG noticed an increase in your overall riffing stamina though ?

Posted by: Opetholic Nov 29 2012, 09:49 PM

I have a question about this lesson. After Ben's comment on my take which was lacking palm muting and listening to DG's take and especially Greg's take I am slightly confused. Isn't it the case that in the lesson only the low notes on the E string are palm muted and everything else on other strings and high notes on E string are not palm muted ? For example if you look at the 4th part of the lesson you will see that in the melodic line there is no palm muting.. Do you guys agree ?

Posted by: gregc1 Nov 30 2012, 04:18 AM

Thanks Ben. Yeah I've definitely noticed a increase in my stamina. The Metallica task is really what triggered it but it seems to have carried over. No way I could have done this task at full speed a few weeks ago.



I can tell you that I over-muted, I pretty much muted the whole thing. For some reason I can maintain a higher speed while I'm muting rather than playing them open. I know the transition part in the first half is not supposed to be muted and I believe there are a couple more parts not muted as well. I was just so focused on timing that my instincts just took over and I did what was natural for me.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 30 2012, 11:44 AM

You are right, Mert. It's the open E strings that need to be muted in order to give a percussive sound to the riff so that the other, non muted notes act as the accents and stand out even more.

Looking at your video, the way you anchor your hand might mean that it isn't necessarily 'in position' to mute heavily. Also, it's quite far back, nearer the bridge so any muting you do sounds a lot brighter and not quite as chuggy. At least that's what I have found in my experience.

It could just be a case of slightly bringing the big, lower part of your thumb joint in towards the bottom E string a bit more to connect with the strings and get the mute... or it could be a case of bringing the whole hand forward by a centimetre or two so the far side of your inner palm is able to touch the strings and get the palm muting effect.

Maybe a combo of those things or neither ! It's hard to say exactly but I don't think it will take a drastic alteration at all so fear not, I don't think you need to alter your picking technique at all, just a bit of experimentation to get the optimum postion so you can AP and palm mute together

Posted by: Opetholic Dec 1 2012, 03:32 PM

Ok here is another take. Here I changed my tone to a more dry one, maybe palm mutings are more apparent here ? I don't know..

Posted by: gregc1 Dec 1 2012, 05:53 PM

Nice dude. That sounded really good.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Dec 1 2012, 06:11 PM

It's a little more apparent, especially in the second half but most of the open E's still sound un muted to me. I'm starting to gravitate more towards the theory that it might be because you're hand is quite far back to the bridge so the muting is light.

Posted by: GrindGuer Dec 1 2012, 07:41 PM

Hey there,
as a totally Lamb Of God fan, I had to work on this one. But as you all figured out, the palm muting thing is quite difficult,especially to some middle range guitar player like me. Anyway, i really want to play this good. So I'm starting slow, and after a all week, I can't go faster than 130 bpm (stop laughing right now, all of you! )

Can you tell me if the muting is enough or not ? If the timing is acceptable or if I need to go even slower ?
Thank you.

http://soundcloud.com/grindguer/lamb-of-god-style-riffing/s-lukU9

Posted by: Ben Higgins Dec 1 2012, 07:49 PM

Man, that sounds 'right on the money', as we say in Olde England !

Muting sounds right and so does the timing.. well done !

Posted by: GrindGuer Dec 1 2012, 09:08 PM

Thank you Ben. I'll try to get it up to speed...

Posted by: gregc1 Dec 1 2012, 09:16 PM

Hell yeah Grind, that sounded extremely accurate.

Posted by: DeGroot Dec 1 2012, 09:37 PM

Hey Opeth,

Not sure this will help but I analyzed my picking hand closer to see what I do for palm muting. I always have the side of my palm resting over the bridge (just enough to dampen the strings) and cup my hand slightly when I'm accenting notes that I don't want muted. It is a subtle move that you probably can't see in a video (couple moments it is more noticable in the second half). Maybe not the best habit to have cause sometimes I slightly mute notes that I shouldn't. Specially when playing non-metal stuff.

Anyway, really nice tight playing by all!

Posted by: Opetholic Dec 1 2012, 10:19 PM

Thanks DG for the explanation I will see if I can apply your technique. My problem is the following: my picking technique is such that I attack the strings from a very steep angle, at least perpendicular to the string and many times more than 90 degrees. So that creates a big cup inside my hand. I think this is a habit I have due to long and long years of classical guitar playing. In classical guitar you always need to maintain this cup, as if holding an orange in your hand.. Anyway, so that makes it hard for me to palm mute

Posted by: DeGroot Dec 2 2012, 06:15 AM

Oh, that is interesting about your classical guitar approach! Then you probably have very good habits. I did notice that you rest your guitar on your left side. I just started playing this way too (with a foot stool) because it is more comfortable for me and I really like the neck angle.

Just a small suggestion: Have you tried just straight away chugging to this track with just an open E string? Might be a good way to get that natural feel of just plain palm muting without the distraction of accents and position shifts.

Posted by: Opetholic Dec 2 2012, 08:44 AM

That is an excellent suggestion DG I will try that with this or with other tracks when I have difficulty with palm muting Thanks for the help..

Posted by: Ben Higgins Dec 2 2012, 09:40 AM

I think I know what you mean. So your thumb side is more inwards towards your guitar and your little finger side is further away from the guitar to ensure all notes ring out ? That's what I would have said looking at your videos. I think you can combat this either by altering the angle so your little finger side comes inward and your thumb a bit out... or if you moved the whole thing forward a little you could mute the bottom E with the big, fleshy part where your thumb joins the inner palm.. I think

Posted by: GrindGuer Dec 2 2012, 07:22 PM

Hey,
I know it's not accurate enough, but that's where I am in this end of week-end.
Thank you Greg for your kind words.
I'll continue on with this, cause I really want to play it well.
Cheers

http://soundcloud.com/grindguer/lamb-of-god-style-riffing-1/s-ZjauA

Posted by: Ben Higgins Dec 2 2012, 07:54 PM

Blimey, that is not bad AT ALL ! Very, very good, Double G !

There was nothing that stood out as bad.. overall that was solid. If you keep going with this then you must update us because if you can get it even better than that, then you're doing very well indeed !