Welcome to this weeks article! Its all about metal and getting your riffs to sound heavier.

Want to sound heavier?!!!

Do you want to be able to write heavy riffs time after time?

Read on as this might just help you. Trying to go heavier, I tried every lower tuning I could possibly find. From Drop B to Db tuning to Drop A, Drop C and I started out with Drop D. I was missing some key factors though. It wasn’t until I noticed this that my riffs started to sound like actual heavy metal riffs.

Inverted Power Chords and Fourths

There are different ways of sounding heavy and Im gonna start off with inverted power chords and 4ths. You have your power chords and better yet you have your inverted power chords. If you have a C5 chord, simply play it on the 3rd fret of the 5th string…now add the low G right under the C. Sounds much more terrorizing. Thats an inverted power chord.

Another way to get some heavier riffs is to use intervals of Perfect 4ths. Like that last chord, simply play the 3rd fret of the 6th and 5th strings together and you still have either an inverted C5 power chord or a Gsus4 chord. Either way it sounds heavy. Make use of these chords and you will definitely sound heavier. For example: go up and down the 5th and 6th string using the examples above and you will hear a heavier sound than you normally do if you would just use power chords that are not inverted.

My thoughts on drop tuning for heavy riffs

I used to love Drop D tuning. Then I came across the truth. The truth was that I didn’t know my guitar well enough to produce the sounds I wanted. Yeah you can drop tune, but what I find when I drop tune is.. I sacrifice technical potential. I tend to let lower notes take the place of higher, more technical riffs. This is where the money riffs are at though. Those heavy riffs that we all love from our favorite bands are all pretty much technical in one way or another.

Sure, Dimebag used Drop D, but he also incorporated some higher notes along with his riffs. In other words, he didn’t just shred on the lower 2 strings. He made use of the whole guitar with large squeals and inventive use of the guitar neck.

When I use lower tuning, I tend to let the deepness of the chords or the notes resonate, because it sounds good. But it doesn’t sound great. It doesn’t sound the way that I want it to because it doesn’t sound heavy enough. So I tend to use whole notes and half notes and I won’t think about riffing that much because I’m entranced by the deepness of the notes. Do you know what I mean? Do you do this?

Yeah, deep might sound good, but the reason that I’m not thinking about riffing is because my ears are entranced by the low tones. For some reason, I just don’t think about riffing as much as I do when I’m in standard tuning. For me, a riff a few pitches up, with some pinch harmonics and some demented notes… sounds much heavier than a 7 string guitar that is only playing a few power chords on the low strings.

Vibrato, pinch harmonics and choice of notes all make a huge difference in whether a riff sounds heavy or not.

On the other hand, the benefit of drop tuning your low e string to a D is that now you can play power chords much faster. Just watch that you don’t write riffs that don’t require much thought or practice. Just my 2 cents. The other benefit is that you can rip across the low D and create nasty, heavy, great sounding riffs. But again, just be careful you don’t let the illusion of lower tones convince you that its a heavy riff simply because it uses lower tones.

This is a fallacy which I hear a lot in hard rock and alternative bands. A true heavy metal band has all the elements I talked about and it really doesnt matter what tuning you are in or what gauge string you are using or how low your notes are. Its really about what notes you choose for your riff that really make it heavy. Two notes that come to mind are flat 5 intervals and sharp 5 intervals. Minor 3rds are great as well.

The point of this article is that if you’re gonna go heavy, I want you to do it the right way. Use some higher notes along with your riffs and don’t come up with easy riffs. Easy riffs make you sound like an amateur. Heavy riffs have certain notes in them that cause the riff to sound heavy. I talk more about this below. Add some notes to your riffs,. If you like composing throw in some cello and lower range instruments in there as well… and not only bass.

If you’re always ripping in Drop D tuning and lower tunings to sound heavy, something tells me that you don’t know your guitar well enough to make it do what you want it to do. Below I suggest some ways you can start sounding heavier right away.

In standard tuning I will rip the hell out of the minor riffs but I won’t do that in a drop tuning.

Why is that? Its because the drop tuning sounds beautiful, yet deceptively heavy if I just let it ring. Just some thoughts to think about. Heres what I mean…

If you listen to any Pantera record, any Testament record, any Instrumental shred record such as Andy James, Joe Stump, Marty Friedman etc…They all make use of notes all over the neck (combined) with lower note riffs.

They also use heavy metal scales. The heaviest bands are not heavy simply because they use drop, or lower tunings. They are heavy because they sound dark, evil, demonic, they write about (heavy) subject matter and have blazing drums underneath them to help the guitarist propel those ideas out. Try composing some heavy riffs to some fast, double bass drum loops, preferably above 150 and you’ll see how it becomes a tad bit easier to write something heavy.

Ways you can begin to start sounding heavier on your guitar:

Below are 8 ways you can start implementing heavy riffs right away.

Use brooding tones. (m2, m3, b5, #5) Scales such as Harmonic Minor, Hungarian minor and the Augmented, Whole Tone and Diminished Scales. Come up with riffs using those scales and you’ll start sounding like a heavy metal pro instantly. Speed up your songs. 100 -110 bpm is the hard rock arena, to sound heavier… either go real slow and get intricate with your riffs… or speed it up and bang out some power riffs using the above scales at 150 bpm and higher. Inverted power chords. Simply put the 5th in the bass. The more riffs your song has the heavier it sounds. Start thinking a little bigger than you usually do. Heavy metal songs go past the 4 minute mark quite often. There is tons of creativity in a heavy metal song. The more changes your riff has, the heavier it can sound. Pinch harmonics . This is a big one. A simple, well played, pinched harmonic can make your riff stand out among the rest. Its so powerful that it will change your approach to writing heavy metal guitar riffs. Practice your pinch harmonics until you can do them on every string on every note and then write some heavy riffs with some pinch harmonics. Think about it, you never hear a pinch harmonic on the radio but you hear it all over Alex Skolnick Testament guitar riffs, Pantera, modern heavy metal bands, prog bands etc… Dive bombs can also add depth as well as interest to your riffs. You can then have the drummer pause for a second and come back in with the entire band. This reminds me of a Dimebag article from Guitar World where he was talking about doing the same riff an octave higher before the band would come in and he would then drop the riff an octave. This is one way to get an explosive introduction to your song. 16th notes or 16th note triplets are not heard all that much in softer rock or popular music. Make use of these. You can then venture out into quintuplets and septuplets later on too. Use tremolo. Tremolo can give you that death metal sound. Mix tremolo with some pinched harmonics and wide vibrato and you got yourself a really heavy riff.

Heavy is different for everybody but if you ask me…Heavy to me is angry, fast and technical… not necessarily riffs on really low tunings.

Check out early Slayer and Testament for proof. Needless to say…you can also check out Pantera.

Take out your guitar and implement the stuff talked about above such as the scales and creativity, and don’t settle for riffs just because they are in a lower octave, think a bit more about how you can make it heavier by using pinch harmonics, dive bombs and demented evil sounding notes. Listening to heavy music will give you a very good idea of things you can do. I feel its one of the best ways to improve on the guitar and come up with some really heavy guitar riffs.

Talk soon’

For guitar lessons via Skype or at my home in Miami, Fl call 786 554 8455 or simply email me at the contact form.