Original lesson: Metal for beginners - Megadeth #1 by Darius Wave

Hi Petr,

This is a good first take of this rhythm metal lesson. The problem here is related to timing, and also to clearness when playing single notes riffs. The way to master it is with practice in small block, maybe at slower tempos. I say "maybe" because I think that most of the parts are slow enough and that you tend more to rush the beat that to play before it. This means that it's not a technique limitation, it's related to how familiar you are with this slow groove.

There are some moments where the rhythm is better, while some other parts where the problem becomes more important. The same happens with the definition of your riffing, it's sloppy in some parts, mostly reaching the end of the lesson. This is related to hand sync issues, as well as palm muting, which sometimes is not tight.

Work on this issues and share a new take in 1 week if it's possible.

Keep the hard work.

Hi Petr, there's lots of chunky riffing in this lesson so it's a good test of palm muting and timing.

Your tone choice is good for this kind of lesson - not too much distortion.

Your main issue is related to timing. As Gabriel said, a lot of the time you are slightly ahead of the beat and are rushing the riffs. So the good thing is that it's not a lack of skill that is your problem, just timing. Do you tap your foot at all when you play? This can act as a useful reference point. Try doing it whilst playing along with the original lesson as well as the backing track.

Hey there Petr!

I like your attempt to this lesson. From the good things I can mention you focus, great gain amount choice and (aside from just a few moments) quite clean playing.

As for the tone - you went in a good direction. I think I would give bakc some low end cause it just a little too thin. At the same time proportion of mids and highs is ok.

On thing that I can tell for sure is you could start to play harder. You would easily notice that you can't get crunchy and tight sound if you would have been plugged into a good tube amp or a honest simulation (dynamics-wise). The problem at the beginner or intermediate stage is we usually set the tone that sounds good with the skills we have at the moment. Instead of adjusting our skills to be able to sound good an literally everything (including cheap practise amps ). Device you use has a kind of treble boost in front of distortion (or it just behaves like this). It does not make you have to play strong enough. I belive it's a essential thing.

Of course...you can still use your tone - overall it has a pleasant freq response but the advice above is to help you make one step further.

Timing is a weakest point of this take - you need to focus harder because I know you are able to have a descent timing (you proved it in other takes). In this one you simply rush / play in front of the beat

At 0:16 you have "pixelized" the slide what I mean is...this harmonics lick is a kind of ornament. It's not like "skipping" from one fret to another. It's more like a smooth, left hand move from left to right so we execute every harmonic that happens on a fingers way. If you try to make fret positions a s a target you may fail to get some harmonics because some of them do not work oin the exact position of the fret...rather somewhere behind or in front). I hope it sounds clear. If not - send me a message so I'll explain different way


About your left hand. At this point some of your cleaness in playing comes from low gain ...and very sharp (attack wise) kind of distortion that doesn't make you have to set the gain higher to get enough punch. This means some of unwanted noises are not exposed and you may not know they're there. We need to change to idea of your left hand shaping for a more versatile - the one that works no matter what kind of gain amount you choose. You should essentially keep your left hand index finger flat and touching string below the one you play...all the time. This way we avoid unwanted, oipen string noise.

You lef hand is great for playing on low distortions and cleans...more a classical shape but it won't work 100% correct once you choose different type of sound. It's worth rethinking. You're on the good path and it's a tiny tweak, that won't make you totally change everything you did before - it's just an add

Well done!

Almost there, 5.7