Metal ? Classical ?

93'guy SG

Summary : Do you agree that Metal music orginated from Classical music ?

Share your views !

Warning : Wall of Text .

Continue if you want to read the WoT .

This message is to all metal fans: we need to know our roots. No, I’m not talking about Black Sabbath or Motorhead, Elvis or The Rolling Stones. I’m talking about classical music. If you’re about to hit the back button, understand this is coming from a guy who plays an ESP and wears a Mastodon shirt. Hear me out, it’s for your own good.

Remember the first time you heard “Far Beyond Driven, ” or, “The New American Gospel? ” I hope I don’t speak only for myself when I say all I heard was noise. For one reason or another though, I believed there was something to them, and now I can’t get enough. The way we learn to enjoy music is by attempting to understand it. This means listening critically to a lot of an artist’s work and recognizing patterns or themes, and familiarizing yourself with the genre and other artists who attempt the same thing. A lot of times we even check out the band’s Wikipedia to try and understand where the individual members are coming from. It’s when you understand a lot of different styles and sounds that you start to craft your own ideal, from your own circumstances, with your own patterns and nuances.

Classical Music is just another form to analyze and understand. Let me start by saying that as a heavy metal guy, the classical genres that I most enjoy are the Minor Symphonies by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, the darker piano music of Chopin, and the slow wandering string ensembles, listening as a song-writer, rhythm guitar player, and solo guitar player, respectively. If any of the last three are you, I’m tellin’ you, this stuff is great.

Beethoven was an angry old man (like Lars Ulrich) and his best music is full of tension, angst, and sorrow (what a coincidence). The tools of any songwriter are the different instruments, song structure, dynamics, tempo, transitions, repetition, and the like. A 30-minute instrumental told by a symphony orchestra is the most vivid, capable form this could take, and Beethoven is master. He uses different combinations of instruments to create varying sounds to express varying thoughts. He can utilize tempo and dynamics to create smooth lines of singing melody, or harsh, abrasive rhythms. Don’t believe me? Windows Media Center comes pre-loaded with Beethoven’s Fifth. Listen to it 5 times at full blast in your car and pay close attention. You’ll see.

The work of the rhythm guitar player involves chord progressions, rhythms, and runs up and down scales. This is basically all piano music is. Most of the piano music your familiar with is the boring, pre-fab, G Major stuff by Bach or Mozart. While these are masterpieces in their own right, they aren’t for us. Chopin came about a hundred years after them and was on our side. He’s the John Petrucci of the 17th century. He used massive chords, searing left-hand runs, complex chord progressions, key changes, and had a keen understanding of major/minor/augmented/chromatic scales, even tritone, as every good metal guitar player should. I say from experience, this stuff expands your musical imagination like nothing else, and you will see it in your playing. If you wanna see what I mean, copy/paste “Revolutionary Etude” to YouTube. Listen to the whole thing (c'mon, you’re reading this; you don’t have anything better to do).

Yo Mama is so bad at the cello, but Yo Yo Ma is not. Sorry, too easy, I know, just trying to get your attention. But this guy understands his medium in a Dimebag-esque fashion. Every note is played with lucid attention to detail. They both capture the attention of the listener and keep you begging to hear the next note. Remember the part of Master and Commander where Russel Crowe is string-syncing (lip-syncing? ) to that kick-ass cello ballad? Ya, that’s our guy. I can't help but think of the guitar solos of "Walk" or "Psycho Holiday." By listening to people who understand every nuance of sound their instrument makes and use each one to their advantage, we learn to do the same. Understanding how this is done this with different instruments is essential to this process.

Musical skill comes from practice. Musical talent comes from understanding. Both are equally important, but the extent of the latter separates the good from the great. You want to be a great musician. Understand classical music will bring you one step closer.

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NeverSayGoodBye SG

.....you wear a Mastodon T-shirt, I listen to Mastodon too, that doesn't mean I 've to agreed with you. Metal is Metal, classical is classical. Why bring in Bach or Mozart into the scene. Tell me Mastodon is great, I agreed. Tell me Tch don't know what whisky, I give a thumbs down. If everytime when we listen to heavy metal music and need to incorporate some classical music into it, can imagine how messy it is.

Enjoy metal as it is, try not to be so classically endowed. Keep it separated, as what the band "Offsprings" said in their song. The screaming and growling in metal is sweet music to me, the symphony from an orchestra might put me to sleep.....

charlize SG

So we can post classical music in this forum?

NeverSayGoodBye SG

So we can post classical music in this forum?

.....why not? as long as charlize composed it