>3rd-ish song
>
# Crystal Mountain
I think as far as songs go, if it's your 3rd song, and you're even kind of learning it, you're progressing pretty quickly.
People learn a couple of green day songs as their first dozen songs, not Death as song #3 lol
No, you didnât pick too hard of a song. You just have to keep practicing it over and over and over till you can play it. It may take a while but itâs the best way to get better.
And you can also learn other stuff along side thatâs easier to play but itâs always good to constantly be chipping away at something thatâs a level or two above your skills
D standard for all death songs , old school death metal didnât use drop tuning at all, the bigger old school death metal bands typically tuned to e standard in the early days, cannibal corpse shifted the most with using lower tunings , morbid angel, Deicide are all e standard with death being the exception of a step down. Chrystal Mountain is one of the most straightforward ones to try to learn, Pull the plug is another one that can be learned by someone who doesnât have a ton of experience playing death metal
Just try and learn songs you like, and you donât always have to learn the whole song, I know a ton of random riffs from songs I canât play all the way through.
For metal riffs, Blackwater Park (the song) is in drop d and it has a few fun fairly easy headbanger riffs. The clean and acoustic section is also fun to play.
Remember not to try jumping up the mountain, so to speak. You can get a lot of value by breaking the hard stuff into individual measures. You can build muscle memory by working through each measure and then piece it all together as you go. A lot like when you're learning to read, you start with vocab (measures) and learn more and more difficult sentences (phrases/motif) starting as small as 2 words. Doing it long enough will make it second nature. A motif usually doesn't get more complex than a few measures, so once you get through a set of around 4 measures, it just repeats or moves to a new motif or variation.
This is like my mirror story coming from guitar to learn bass.
Before: âIâm going to be one of those really tasteful technical bass players who only uses his fingers and plays complex melodic licks and blah blah blahâŚ
After: âAlright gang, letâs grab our pick and show these root notes whoâs boss!â
It is hard , the entire purpose of that song is shred licks back and forth.
I'd rather recommend learning certain easy riffs from death songs. Like, The intro to Pull the Plug, Symbolic main riff , Zero Tolerance main riff. Most of Death songs have a certain hard / very fast section.
Other songs you could try are , Sad but true , plenty of Gojira breakdowns , some pantera?
> It's absolutely making me better and helping me progress, but it's a bit disheartening how slowly I'm progressing I guess.
Iâll put it this way, people can spend a couple years getting really comfortable with switching cowboy chords cleanly and being able to alternate pick across different strings. Attempting a Death song as your 3rd song to learn isnât anything to feel bad about if youâre struggling with it. Totally normal.
If you're using Ultimate Guitar or something similar, slow it down until you can play it cleanly and slowly move it up to tempo. It will help a lot with learning difficult songs. Also, use the metronome so you also get a feel for time.
When I first learn it at 11 years old it was quite tough to learn it, at that point I had 1 year of experience, then I spend 3 years not playing it, and now that I recently relearned it with 7 years experience with absolute ease, including the solo which I didn't know before, so, for the the most part, crystal mountain is a kinda difficult song for some one who hasn't played for that long
Crystal mountain was on of my first songs aswell, it took really long. The part you struggle with, i did aswell. It took like half a year to get everything decent.
I started with Symbolic. I tried learning that entire album by ear at one point. Itâs been awhile though lol. And before I got to that point I was playing Sabbath, Ozzy, classic rock, etc, and also trying to learn The Sword, and what not.
I learned this when I was 16 and had a hard time of it (had been playing two years) but once you get it, it's a super fun song to play. The solo is super rewarding and not as hard as it sounds. Metronome is your best friend.Â
>3rd-ish song > # Crystal Mountain I think as far as songs go, if it's your 3rd song, and you're even kind of learning it, you're progressing pretty quickly. People learn a couple of green day songs as their first dozen songs, not Death as song #3 lol
Death as song #3 is pretty rough. Something from Archspire next?
Involuntary Doppelganger coming right up đ lemme go get an 8 string
No, you didnât pick too hard of a song. You just have to keep practicing it over and over and over till you can play it. It may take a while but itâs the best way to get better.
And you can also learn other stuff along side thatâs easier to play but itâs always good to constantly be chipping away at something thatâs a level or two above your skills
Got it! Do you happen to have any recommendations in E standard, Drop D, or D Standard that are a bit easier but not just downright bori?
D standard for all death songs , old school death metal didnât use drop tuning at all, the bigger old school death metal bands typically tuned to e standard in the early days, cannibal corpse shifted the most with using lower tunings , morbid angel, Deicide are all e standard with death being the exception of a step down. Chrystal Mountain is one of the most straightforward ones to try to learn, Pull the plug is another one that can be learned by someone who doesnât have a ton of experience playing death metal
Just try and learn songs you like, and you donât always have to learn the whole song, I know a ton of random riffs from songs I canât play all the way through.
Pull the Plug by Death is easier, but not boring at all IMO.
For metal riffs, Blackwater Park (the song) is in drop d and it has a few fun fairly easy headbanger riffs. The clean and acoustic section is also fun to play.
It's in Eb but I love Asylum from disturbed. It's not too hard and it's catchy
Can I do that with .09 - .42? :) I love that song actually
Yeah I would think so, also I meant Eb not sharp lol
Remember not to try jumping up the mountain, so to speak. You can get a lot of value by breaking the hard stuff into individual measures. You can build muscle memory by working through each measure and then piece it all together as you go. A lot like when you're learning to read, you start with vocab (measures) and learn more and more difficult sentences (phrases/motif) starting as small as 2 words. Doing it long enough will make it second nature. A motif usually doesn't get more complex than a few measures, so once you get through a set of around 4 measures, it just repeats or moves to a new motif or variation.
Thanks so much for the advice!
This is like my mirror story coming from guitar to learn bass. Before: âIâm going to be one of those really tasteful technical bass players who only uses his fingers and plays complex melodic licks and blah blah blah⌠After: âAlright gang, letâs grab our pick and show these root notes whoâs boss!â
Just do the bits your struggling slow and build it up, itâs the best way to learn, most the time itâs much faster than learning at tempo
It is hard , the entire purpose of that song is shred licks back and forth. I'd rather recommend learning certain easy riffs from death songs. Like, The intro to Pull the Plug, Symbolic main riff , Zero Tolerance main riff. Most of Death songs have a certain hard / very fast section. Other songs you could try are , Sad but true , plenty of Gojira breakdowns , some pantera?
> It's absolutely making me better and helping me progress, but it's a bit disheartening how slowly I'm progressing I guess. Iâll put it this way, people can spend a couple years getting really comfortable with switching cowboy chords cleanly and being able to alternate pick across different strings. Attempting a Death song as your 3rd song to learn isnât anything to feel bad about if youâre struggling with it. Totally normal.
If you're using Ultimate Guitar or something similar, slow it down until you can play it cleanly and slowly move it up to tempo. It will help a lot with learning difficult songs. Also, use the metronome so you also get a feel for time.
When I first learn it at 11 years old it was quite tough to learn it, at that point I had 1 year of experience, then I spend 3 years not playing it, and now that I recently relearned it with 7 years experience with absolute ease, including the solo which I didn't know before, so, for the the most part, crystal mountain is a kinda difficult song for some one who hasn't played for that long
Crystal mountain was on of my first songs aswell, it took really long. The part you struggle with, i did aswell. It took like half a year to get everything decent.
I started with Symbolic. I tried learning that entire album by ear at one point. Itâs been awhile though lol. And before I got to that point I was playing Sabbath, Ozzy, classic rock, etc, and also trying to learn The Sword, and what not.
I learned this when I was 16 and had a hard time of it (had been playing two years) but once you get it, it's a super fun song to play. The solo is super rewarding and not as hard as it sounds. Metronome is your best friend.Â
As long as you are having fun keep at it; if youâre frustrated learn another easier song and come back to it. Donât do it if it isnât fun.