
Discover the minimum gear for black metal, including guitar, lead, and amp; learn you can start on an acoustic guitar, and build a home rig with pedals for high-gain tone.
Explore that there are no best string gauges; choices depend on playing style and tuning. Learn why changing gauges may alter feel and require a setup, affecting tension and intonation.
Add ambience to your black metal guitar by using reverb and delay, moving from a dry tone to a cavernous, echoing sound with subtle modulation.
Master tremolo picking and speed through adjustable forearm and wrist positions, anchor your fingers on the scratch plate, and experiment with pick angle and slant for precise, energetic string work.
Learn to mute unwanted strings across six-string riffs using left-hand fingertips, thumb over the neck, and selective right-hand muting to keep only the target notes clean.
Improve timing, accuracy, and speed on black metal guitar by practicing with a metronome, locking into the beat, and accentuating the first beat of each bar to sync with drummers.
Develop a six-minute warm-up for black metal guitar, using G major and A arpeggios with progressive picking patterns at 120 bpm to keep joints loose and prevent tension.
Develop speed and stamina for tremolo picking using metronome-driven drills, cross-string practice, and tempo methods that emphasize the first beat and precise muting.
Learn tremolo picking on two adjacent strings across the neck, covering every adjacent pair, with focused left-right hand synchronization, muting unwanted strings, and metronome-guided practice to strengthen technique.
Master tremolo picking across multiple strings while muting with the fleshy part of the fingers. Practice slowly with a metronome, sinking the hands and building speed across the riff.
Master tremolo picking on open strings and transition to power chords, using 16 picks per note, palm muting when desired, and practicing with a metronome.
Learn to tremolo pick through chords by targeting bottom, middle, and high strings, using flexible patterns and a metronome to build precise right-hand technique.
Practice tremolo picking chords and muting notes with palm muting. Play E minor, C minor, G minor, and B flat major; use a metronome, then scales and modes.
Practice tremolo picking by alternating muted and unmuted notes across all strings in a minor scale, starting from the open bottom string. Focus on the hand chop motion.
Master the D minor and A minor scales in one position and three-notes-per-string patterns, with their relative majors, F and C, and the basics of relative major/minor theory.
Explore the G dorian mode as the second mode of the F major scale, using the same notes in different positions on the guitar fretboard, with practical fingerings.
Learn a Hungarian minor riff built around the Hungarian microscale for ultimate black metal guitar.
Explore diatonic harmony by focusing on the key with no sharps or flats, using the C major scale and contrasting non-diatonic tones like F sharp and the Hungarian minor idea.
Explore fourths on guitar, including augmented and inverted fourths, and apply power chords across strings to shape black metal rhythm sounds.
Explore the power of the perfect fifth on guitar, learning different shapes, inversions, and open-string variations across strings, with muting tips and diatonic context.
Learn to recognize and play minor triads on guitar by locating three-note shapes F, A, D across strings, using D minor as a reference, and experiment with multiple voicings.
Explore diminished triads within the major scale, learn how a flattened fifth creates them, and practice fingerings across strings to locate the B, D, and F notes.
Learn movable G major and minor chord shapes, shift them to B minor, and use open, barre, and triad variations to expand your black metal guitar repertoire.
Explore minor chord shapes across the fretboard and move them to play C minor, G minor, or E flat minor, muting the bottom string with the thumb.
Learn to create discordance in riffs using semitone intervals, including minor seconds and diminished fifths. Apply these tensions to chords to shape heavier black metal guitar sounds.
Learn to use a loop pedal or any loop to build riffs by adding harmonies on top of a basic loop, then merge two guitar parts into one riff.
Craft black metal melodies using riffs and picking patterns, loops, and power chords to build dynamic harmonies. Explore theory like Phrygian and layer melodies across one or two guitars.
Apply 12 tips to write black metal riffs, using tools, dynamics, and a whole-song perspective while abandoning rigid theory when needed.
Here we look at some of the forgotten, or not so common techniques used in Black Metal.
Explore riff-based black metal song structures, highlighting repetitive riffs, variations, and the lack of traditional verse-chorus patterns, with examples like Quintessence and Freezing Moon to illustrate dynamics and build.
Take away practical material you can practice going forward and revisit these lessons anytime; thank you for staying with me.
Welcome to this Black Metal Guitar Course, where you’ll dive into the raw, atmospheric, and aggressive world of black metal. This genre is known for its blistering tremolo picking, haunting chord progressions, and dark, expressive melodies that capture a sense of chaos and bleakness.
With over 4 and a half hours of video instruction and 50 tabs, in this course, you will learn everything you need to master the art of Black Metal guitar. We examine the techniques of both the left and right hand, the theory, the chords, the intervals and the structure of iconic songs. You will learn how to create your own riffs, songs, melodies, and harmonies ten times easier than you thought possible. We'll look at equipment, and how to practice efficiently to get the most out of your practice routines.
By the end of this course, you'll have everything you need to create Black Metal riffs, songs, and albums of your own!
Want picking practice drills? They're in in here.
Want to know how to use different chords to create raw emotion in your riffs? It's in here.
Whether you're a beginner looking to explore extreme metal or an experienced player wanting to refine your technique, this course will equip you with the essential skills to craft an authentic black metal sound.
Black metal is more than just fast riffs and distortion—it’s about evoking an atmosphere. You’ll learn how to use dissonance, minor scales, and unorthodox chord voicings to create eerie, immersive soundscapes.
From lightning-fast tremolo picking to complex layering of melodies and the effective use of effects like reverb and delay, you’ll gain the knowledge needed to write and perform your own black metal compositions. By the end of this course, you’ll not only master the mechanics but also understand the philosophy and mood behind the music. Get ready to unleash raw, unholy darkness through your guitar.