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Share your technical death metal techniques!

#81
I tend to wear one of these collars to keep my makeup stained sweat and blood ( blood is metal ) from dripping on my bass. The blood/makeup/sweat combination is both slippery and corrosive. By doing this you'll greatly incease the life of your strings and wear and tear on your bass....Not that it matters when I smash my bass and hurl the shrapnel at the crowd. It hasn't really caught on yet, just kinda my thing I guess.
 
#82
I play more progressive stuff than death metal but I usually use two fingers as I find it allows me to do more intricate things. If I need just speed I will use three in a fast motion and if I need more speed for a drone like sound I use a technique whereby I use three fingers and then push my fingers back through the string to get a fourth note. So after my index finger plays the third note (as I play in a ring, middle, index motion) i fan my hand outwards to hit the string before starting the motion again, its downside is it accents that particular note as I hit the string mainly with the nail of my middle finger. I adpated that one from a common flamenco technique (as those guys seem way beyond most bassists for using a similar motion!)
 
#85
good call...keep this thread going!

Just had a new question to ask - I'm a finger style player and I like to keep up with the guitars were possible but at times if I think playing something in half time will sound tighter on the bass as trying to keep up with the tremelo picking during a technical riff might sound abit sloppy on at times.

Anyway my question is does any one have any suggestions for possible OPTIONS for use during those sections were for example both guitars are tremelo picking 32nd notes and the drums are either playing a blast beat or playing double kicks. I ask because during such riffs the obvious option would be just play the root note and play what the guitars do as the bass drum isnt doing anything different to the rhythm of the guitars - or if I cant keep up the same speed I'll do it in half time to sound tighter (does any one else do this by the way? as I feel there is no shame in half timing some stuff if it sounds tighter and doesnt sound 'ploddy'). Where the drums to be doing something different in such riffs you could fit your bass around the drums instead of the guitars but when the drums are just playing straight double kick stuff what other OPTIONS do you have for bass lines other than playing the same thing.

I've attempted different ideas before such as slapping the root and popping the octave of the tremelo picked riffs (if they are doing 32nds I'll slap in 8ths of possibly 16ths) and I've tried tapping similar ideas too...though with trying both I have found when the double kicking is going the bass can be buried and lost when doing 'widdly' bits like slap and tap and is a wasted effort and doesnt cut through the way I'd like.

Anyway - does anyone have any other suggestions for bass lines in such situations over riffs and drums that give you limited options. Walking perhaps? Arpeggios?...any other suggestions?? Lets here them :P
 
#86
Cool thread ^^

I tend to use my thumb as my third picking finger, only using the ring or pinky when there's no other way to do it. Learned that inadvertently when I was a noob...it was from the "My Friend of Misery" solo.


Also, I use this thing I found in a magazine where you hit the string with your middle finger first, then your index, then with the back of your index. Works as a really fast triple pick if you can learn not to hit your fingernail.
 
#87
(hed)-less said:
good call...keep this thread going!

Just had a new question to ask - I'm a finger style player and I like to keep up with the guitars were possible but at times if I think playing something in half time will sound tighter on the bass as trying to keep up with the tremelo picking during a technical riff might sound abit sloppy on at times.

Anyway my question is does any one have any suggestions for possible OPTIONS for use during those sections were for example both guitars are tremelo picking 32nd notes and the drums are either playing a blast beat or playing double kicks. I ask because during such riffs the obvious option would be just play the root note and play what the guitars do as the bass drum isnt doing anything different to the rhythm of the guitars - or if I cant keep up the same speed I'll do it in half time to sound tighter (does any one else do this by the way? as I feel there is no shame in half timing some stuff if it sounds tighter and doesnt sound 'ploddy'). Where the drums to be doing something different in such riffs you could fit your bass around the drums instead of the guitars but when the drums are just playing straight double kick stuff what other OPTIONS do you have for bass lines other than playing the same thing.

I've attempted different ideas before such as slapping the root and popping the octave of the tremelo picked riffs (if they are doing 32nds I'll slap in 8ths of possibly 16ths) and I've tried tapping similar ideas too...though with trying both I have found when the double kicking is going the bass can be buried and lost when doing 'widdly' bits like slap and tap and is a wasted effort and doesnt cut through the way I'd like.

Anyway - does anyone have any other suggestions for bass lines in such situations over riffs and drums that give you limited options. Walking perhaps? Arpeggios?...any other suggestions?? Lets here them :P
Click to expand...

Well, there's always the chance to pull out some crazy melody, if you demand to be heard in the band it can really work. Take a listen to "Smite" by Blood Red Throne to get a listen of what I'm thinking about, the guitars are just doing 16th burst double patterns and Erlend does some wicked melody kind of thing.
 
#88
ahhhh yeh! great example! I'm listening to it now...I love Blood Red Throne...yeh are you talking about the bass line he does at the very start of the song in the first riff - and then is repeated later in the song? If so I know what you mean...I cant quite figure out what he is doing there...but it sounds great and very impressive none the less.
 
#89
(hed)-less said:
ahhhh yeh! great example! I'm listening to it now...I love Blood Red Throne...yeh are you talking about the bass line he does at the very start of the song in the first riff - and then is repeated later in the song? If so I know what you mean...I cant quite figure out what he is doing there...but it sounds great and very impressive none the less.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm talking about, maybe if Erlend sees this he'll clue us in on what he's doing there :smug:
 
#90
How did you guys get past the speed where you can't think the individual notes anymore?
I can play 16ths at 100bpm pretty steady with the 3213 2132 1321 technique, but if I want to go faster it gets sloppy cause I can't hum or think that fast you know... Do I just need to give it some time to adapt to the 'feel of four' with three fingers, so I need to think less?
And how did you guys get the different fingers to sound the same?
 
#91
Willem said:
How did you guys get past the speed where you can't think the individual notes anymore?
I can play 16ths at 100bpm pretty steady with the 3213 2132 1321 technique, but if I want to go faster it gets sloppy cause I can't hum or think that fast you know... Do I just need to give it some time to adapt to the 'feel of four' with three fingers, so I need to think less?
And how did you guys get the different fingers to sound the same?
Click to expand...

The thing is, I don't really think of a riff at full speed, I think about it at maybe half the speed, and just play it full speed on the bass, try doing it, it works very well for me. And you should definitely just sit down with the metronome and practice, and practice, and practice, with these kind of techniques it usually takes a while for improvement to really show up. Try making a journal of your times too (As suggested to me by Docbop), it'll give you a chance to really see how far you are progressing.
 
#93
Willem said:
Hey Beast

you're very close to get listed as an influence to me like pablo migraine!

Can you please list those exercises you do as a warm up? I don't my gear to be better than my skills...:p
Click to expand...

There's no need, I'm just doing what I can to help :-)

Well, generally I do the chromatic scale using four finger picking starting on different notes/areas on the fretboard. I also trill for 30 seconds using each finger, to strengthen up those hammerons and pulloffs. Then I'll mess around with some improv, or some minor thirds or what not. If you'd like, and if you have guitar pro, I can tab out all of my exercises.
 
#94
Please do my friend! I always like to see how other death metal bassists approach warming up. I tend to sit in front of the T.V and put on a movie or a cartoon every night for an hour and just move up and down the strings with my right hand fingering 1232123212321, throw in a few scales and improv here and there. By the end of the hour or however long you want to warm up for, your fingers feel a lot stronger.
 
#96
Alright, just finished going through a bunch of exercises, and this is pretty much what I did.

Major scale+all modes through two octaves and to a metronome. Double up each note if your working for speed. Don't double if your just working for finger gymnastics. Go through in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, and octaves.

Here are the other scales that I do with those exercises: Whole-tone Diminished, Harmonic Minor, Hungarian Minor, Pentatonics, Blues scales

Do chromatic runs up and down fretboard, starting at different points, be sure to do a few past the 12th fret as well, learn to use your top note too.

Do triads/arpeggios to metronome. Majors, Minors, Sus's, Dims, Augs, all of them that you can create, be sure to establish a relationship between the intervals of each arpeggio, and your ear, so you'll notice these patterns in music.

Put a metronome to 16th notes, use all four fingers on your picking hand, and try to match every note, if four fingers really does not work for you, three will most likely work.

Slapping: Practice 16th note patterns thumbing, just like what you would be doing with your 4 (3) fingers. Do the same with plucking, and then do it alternating, slap pluck slap pluck. Do some of the scale exercises with thumbing/plucking.

Tapping: Do the scale exercises below the 12th fret with your left hand just hammering on. Then do them above the 12th fret with your right hand. Pick up some piano sheet music and play it.

Some very nice songs to check out in case you need a good workout as well.

Sacrifice Unto Sebek- Nile
Frantic Disembowelment- Cannibal Corpse
Reduced to Slavery- Dying Fetus
Eagle Nature- Cynic
Only Ash Remains- Necrophagist
Execration Text- Nile
Master of Puppets- Metallica
Aces High- Iron Maiden

Enjoy!:hyper:
 

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