I was just curious how other players evolved. What were the first songs/riffs you played, did you always play metal, and where you are now!
and what you aspire to?


I can remember starting off, trying to play Nothing Else Matters on our old and battered acoustic.
Then the first "punkish" songs came, along with Iron Maiden Intros and melodies...such as Fear of the Dark.
After some time I started playing Thrash, today I am able to play most songs I want to play. Currently I am completely taken over by Sylosis and learning to play their songs. And I try to play Trivium solos...and want to be faster at sweep picking!

so far...

I'd say my first ever riff was the intro of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters, and then i just started playing whatever songs i liked on my acoustic guitar which i had back then like Breaking the Law, Seasons in the Abyss by Slayer, etc.

first full song was probably Knocking on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan.

ATM i have a huge song-catalog(about 60 known full or almost full songs including 4 from my band) and still counting some of my favorites include:
Scorpions - Big City Nights
Judas Priest - The Green Manalishi, You Got Another Thing Comin'
Manowar - Metal Daze
WASP - Wild Child

I've started with synth when i were 8(yeah the teacher made us by some crapy ,Chinese synth).Back then i knew to play only few folklore songs.Then with 10 i played a piano at school(ok no laugh at audience!).
But it wasn't anything serious .
Then with 15 I've started doing some growl stuff(Like Arch Enemy,and stuff)....I was pretty good in that so I've soon progressed to Black metal high-piched vocals...At the time I was heavy infulenced by Dimmu Borgir ...With 17 ibought some old ,crapu and damaged acoustic guitar.I've practiced a lot .And my first full song was BRODERSKAPETS RING by DB.
Now I have electric guitar(which is new!!!),on which i play everything from IRON MAIDEN,to BURZUM....
Evolution,heh!
So today i play usualy black metal,heavy inspired by old BATHORY,DIMMU BORGIR,BURZUM,IMMORTAL,
and starting with my own one-man BM band ...

"On tis thorny road,evil was only thing that followed,
and hate was only thig that leed the way!"

Piano.. I started this when I was young and my mom is a music teacher but I fuckin hated it lol I just didnt appreciate classical instruments when I was younger. Then I did cello for like 2-3 years. I was ok, but mainly because I was obligated to classes by my parents, I saw it as more of a chore. Then in high school, I decided to join a school "band" (mainly all of my stoner friends) to knock off some "creativity hours" as required by my curriculum.

Well... I was initially going to learn guitar but the band needed a bassist so I thought "I could give that a shot". I started off playing a neglected Ibanez soundgear that the school had at our practices, and I had never played a guitar in my life lol I can still remember our first practice where we had a shitty acoustic, piano, bass and beat up drum kit. Me and the vocalist were really stoned... playin the intro riff to "eye of the tiger" seemed a lot harder than it should be lol. You get the point, moving onwards...

Then I bought my own bass and amp, I started first with playing to bands I liked i.e. dimmu borgir, slayer, cob, etc. I was playing with a pick, but I actually got really good on slayer and cob riffs. I personally liked playing what the lead guitarist does to the best of my abilities. My skills really got better when I started playing Death, Atheist etc. I then chose to switch to fingers as I found it more challenging... anyways, here I am now.

I consider myself to be pretty good at what I do, especially improvising and live gigs are always the best part. I am currently playing more hardcore punk and alt. rock stuff than metal these days as I need to broaden my horizons in style. I think my goal right now is to match my speed with really fast blastbeats. I can certainly do so if I pace myself and use it at the right time, but it does require a long period to which your stamina needs to be built and even proper warmup.

Good thread idea Saitenhexerin

Let's see... although I wouldn't really say it counts at all, when I was fairly young I had a small electronic keyboard, never got any where with it though. Then when I was either 12 or 13 I joined band class, mostly because it was either that or take an extra hour of math each day, so In band class I played the trumpet and failed miserably...let's put it this way, when it came to do a concert my band teacher told me to just pretend to play! Haha!

When I was 15 I got a '93 Ibanez EX3700, made of basswood and flame maple top, dual humbuckers and a centered single coil pick-up, five way switch, gold hardware - I still have the guitar and it' s pretty damn good still, much better tone imo than my custom RG.
I made it a point to learn Sabbath's "Iron Man" as the first song I learnt, not only was it a simple song but, to pay homage to the grand fathers of metal! After that I learned a bit of two Slayer songs, the arpeggio pieces. I got bored of learning how to play other peoples songs though, it was so unsatisfying, so I stopped playing guitar for the better part of a number of years.
Over the last few years I've written roughly 20 tracks, released an EP through Bitter Dawn (with a good review on clods of sodom zine), and a demo through Goat Regime. I can play primitive bass, I do vocals, play the drums and have spent an unrelenting amount of hours mixing and mastering music, I've got a bit of a feel for mic placement, using a mixer and dealing with how sound travels in multiple environments.

There's been a bit of evolution, not as much as I'd like but I'm fairly comfortable with what progress I have made. Eventually I'd like to build a new studio, get some decent equipment again and also actually go to school to become a sound tech./audio engineer.

Written by Saitenhexerin on 30.09.2009 at 10:26

I was just curious how other players evolved. What were the first songs/riffs you played, did you always play metal, and where you are now!
and what you aspire to?


I can remember starting off, trying to play Nothing Else Matters on our old and battered acoustic.
Then the first "punkish" songs came, along with Iron Maiden Intros and melodies...such as Fear of the Dark.
After some time I started playing Thrash, today I am able to play most songs I want to play. Currently I am completely taken over by Sylosis and learning to play their songs. And I try to play Trivium solos...and want to be faster at sweep picking!

so far...

Has to be "Skin O' My Teeth"

On drums i'd say my evolution was very "stop-go", as in, i've only had very little time to practice on a drum kit seeing as i don't own one, but i'm seeing progress, my double bass isn't as clean and accurate as i'd like to but with a few hours of work i feel i could pull off the intros to Painkiller and Exciter by Priest. plus the bassist in my current band is gonna bring me in his second band as a drummer hehehe, gonna be nice finally having an excuse to bangah za drummah.

Written by Hermann Langke on 29.10.2009 at 16:49


Has to be "Skin O' My Teeth"

What has to be Skin O My Teeth? That's a Megadeth song as far as I know...

Written by Saitenhexerin on 29.10.2009 at 20:12

Written by Hermann Langke on 29.10.2009 at 16:49


Has to be "Skin O' My Teeth"

What has to be Skin O My Teeth? That's a Megadeth song as far as I know...

Yup it is and i love it...........

Written by Hermann Langke on 30.10.2009 at 13:19

Written by Saitenhexerin on 29.10.2009 at 20:12

Written by Hermann Langke on 29.10.2009 at 16:49


Has to be "Skin O' My Teeth"

What has to be Skin O My Teeth? That's a Megadeth song as far as I know...

Yup it is and i love it...........

No it was Hangar 18! That's a bitch, rocks as hell!

Written by Saitenhexerin on 02.11.2009 at 10:21

Written by Hermann Langke on 30.10.2009 at 13:19

Written by Saitenhexerin on 29.10.2009 at 20:12

Written by Hermann Langke on 29.10.2009 at 16:49


Has to be "Skin O' My Teeth"

What has to be Skin O My Teeth? That's a Megadeth song as far as I know...

Yup it is and i love it...........

No it was Hangar 18! That's a bitch, rocks as hell!

I didn't play Hangar 18.Its' tough.

I started playing the beatles when i first started playing bass. shit like that and the kinks and (much to my hatred) the police. now i play shit like NOFX, iron maiden, michael jackson and shit like that. variety is always good and im presently looking for an idea for something new to learn. bass is epic hahah.

Written by LeChron James on 05.11.2009 at 09:08

I started playing the beatles when i first started playing bass. shit like that and the kinks and (much to my hatred) the police. now i play shit like NOFX, iron maiden, michael jackson and shit like that. variety is always good and im presently looking for an idea for something new to learn. bass is epic hahah.

Learn to play proper jazz & blues style bass and you'll have a tonne of interesting methods/ideas to throw into metal.

I started playing when i was nearly-19. about 4.5 years ago. i never really took lessons, and it was hard to practice with stress of full-time construction work. but thats besides the point. the first riff i learned was judas priest's breaking the law (intro) and then i tried to learn Aces High by iron maiden. bad move. at least i got the verse part

these days, i've learned hero in a dream by ensiferum, reincarnation of benjamin breeg by iron maiden (working on for the greater good of god), shores in flames by bathory, tyrants by immortal, and demon of the fall by opeth. none of the solos in the previous mentioned. and if you're wondering, i never did finish aces high...

When I frst started playing I learned a lot of Zeppelin and Hendrix riffs, basic blues stuff. Then I started to learn just about every Nirvana song... wihch I look back and regret now. My musical taste evolved of course, and I started playing everything from old Metallica to Slayer, to Judas Preist, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. I know about 90% of Iced Earth's catalogue now. In the past few years though I have not had nearly as much interest in learning songs by other artists so much as writing my own material.

Written by Urizen367 on 08.11.2009 at 20:42

I started playing when i was nearly-19. about 4.5 years ago. i never really took lessons, and it was hard to practice with stress of full-time construction work. but thats besides the point. the first riff i learned was judas priest's breaking the law (intro) and then i tried to learn Aces High by iron maiden. bad move. at least i got the verse part

these days, i've learned hero in a dream by ensiferum, reincarnation of benjamin breeg by iron maiden (working on for the greater good of god), shores in flames by bathory, tyrants by immortal, and demon of the fall by opeth. none of the solos in the previous mentioned. and if you're wondering, i never did finish aces high...

Same shit happened to me.I started to play guitar without lessions before...It was hard for me in the begining too,but i managed to learn it..Now after a year of playing i got my own BM songs...
Evolution man,evolution...:-)