# Playing Tech Death... HELP



## scottro202 (Nov 9, 2010)

Well, I may be joining a technical deathcore vegetarian progressive grindcore or whatever you wanna call it band. Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, the like. I come from a classic metal/hard rock type background. What do I do to get into tech death? I've started learning some stuff from Periphery, Born of Osiris, basically anything close that's either in B standard or Drop C.

Anything ya'll can do to offer some advice? The syncopated breakdowns are where I struggle the most. The lead stuff I can handle fairy well, and the fast riffing isn't too bad either. 

Any help appreciated!!


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## Winspear (Nov 9, 2010)

What do you do to get into tech death?
Listen to it and hope you like it, I guess 

You say the syncopated breakdowns are where you struggle. In terms of technique, these are usually the easiest parts to play, by far. So I presume you mean you just can't remember the chugging rhythms? All I can say to that is to listen to plenty of breakdowns. You start to get a feel for the 'random' placement of chugs and they start to sound a lot less random. Much like listenting to stuff in time signatures like 7/8 becomes incredibly natural after a while (most stuff I write now is in 7/8 by accident )


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## SirMyghin (Nov 9, 2010)

count 7/8 1 2 3, 1 2 3 4, kind of like fast compound time and it might be easier to follow.


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## scottro202 (Nov 9, 2010)

EtherealEntity said:


> What do you do to get into tech death?
> Listen to it and hope you like it, I guess
> 
> You say the syncopated breakdowns are where you struggle. In terms of technique, these are usually the easiest parts to play, by far. So I presume you mean you just can't remember the chugging rhythms? All I can say to that is to listen to plenty of breakdowns. You start to get a feel for the 'random' placement of chugs and they start to sound a lot less random. Much like listenting to stuff in time signatures like 7/8 becomes incredibly natural after a while (most stuff I write now is in 7/8 by accident )



Well, it's the "randomness" of the chugs, like you said, that's difficult to get a feel for. I've always been "groove" oriented in my playing, and these random breakdowns are killing me 

And I've been listening to tech death and djent and the like for a couple years, so the music itself is nothing new. It's just this is my first crack at playing it.


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## Tree (Nov 9, 2010)

Try writing the pattern down on paper in front of you. That way you can focus on just the numbers and start to get a feel for it.

EDIT: I was surprised that you weren't being flamed for calling VOM and BOO tech death, but I now see that you have been.
 People are cruel


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## davemeistro (Nov 10, 2010)

scottro202 said:


> Well, it's the "randomness" of the chugs, like you said, that's difficult to get a feel for. I've always been "groove" oriented in my playing, and these random breakdowns are killing me
> 
> And I've been listening to tech death and djent and the like for a couple years, so the music itself is nothing new. It's just this is my first crack at playing it.



Usually, the trick for me is to try and ignore the drums, and listen to the guitars. If you can do that, it'll probably be easier to 'feel' the guitar groove instead of the groove the drums make you feel. Once I got the general idea for the guitar riff, I usually start listening to the drums again so I can understand both of the rhythms together, then just practice till it's perfect.


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## Stealthdjentstic (Nov 10, 2010)

Probably the best advice is to stop calling BOO and VoM technical death metal; thats how we all know you really come from a hard rock backround


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## AySay (Nov 10, 2010)

listen to necrophagist please, and copy everything they do.


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## CrushingAnvil (Nov 10, 2010)

scottro202 said:


> Well, I may be joining a technical deathcore vegetarian progressive grindcore or whatever you wanna call it band. Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, the like. I come from a classic metal/hard rock type background. What do I do to get into tech death? I've started learning some stuff from Periphery, Born of Osiris, basically anything close that's either in B standard or Drop C.
> 
> Anything ya'll can do to offer some advice? The syncopated breakdowns are where I struggle the most. The lead stuff I can handle fairy well, and the fast riffing isn't too bad either.
> 
> Any help appreciated!!



Kill Yourself before they take you.


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## CrushingAnvil (Nov 10, 2010)

AySay said:


> listen to necrophagist please, and copy everything they do.



While I don't agree with copying...I'd rather play music JUST LIKE Necrophagist, than play vegetariancore breakdown jazz clean wankery deathcore.


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## CrushingAnvil (Nov 10, 2010)

Stealthtastic said:


> Probably the best advice is to stop calling BOO and VoM technical death metal; thats how we all know you really come from a hard rock backround





I love You stealth.

Listen to Decapitated and Cryptopsy and make them shit their overly tight jeans.


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## Cabinet (Nov 10, 2010)

If you look at a lot of Necrophagists work, specifically the tab book, a lot of his rhythms are basically just playing octaves with string skipping. So maybe if you have some kind of idea you have just add 8th notes an octave higher and see how it sounds to you.


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## scottro202 (Nov 10, 2010)

Stealthtastic said:


> Probably the best advice is to stop calling BOO and VoM technical death metal; thats how we all know you really come from a hard rock backround



 Fair enough.

I've known Necrophagist for years now, and always knew them as tech death. But the band I'm auditioning for, they have their genre as "djenty tech death", and 2 of their influences are BOO and VoM, which kinda confused me, but I really wanna be in a metal band so who cares 

And when I was recording today (first time in a while), I somehow lost my ability to play to a metronome 

Guess who practiced non stop to a metronome for almost 3 hours today??


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## Fionn (Nov 11, 2010)

so what would you call VoM and BOO then, ive always thought of them as tech death...


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## sh4z (Nov 11, 2010)

deathcore/progressive deathcore?


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## Self Bias (Nov 11, 2010)

Cabinet said:


> If you look at a lot of Necrophagists work, specifically the tab book, a lot of his rhythms are basically just playing octaves with string skipping. So maybe if you have some kind of idea you have just add 8th notes an octave higher and see how it sounds to you.



Does Muhammed and co. do that with inside picking, AKA econo? Pain in the ass. Outside?
I wish I could find just one other guy in my miserable hometown that could hang with any of this stuff.


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Nov 11, 2010)

i tell ya what, born of osiris, periphery and veil of maya are NOT tech death.

for the op, i would suggest listening to some necro, spawn of possession, cryptopsy, things like that.
but to be honost, just like any other genera, your not going to pick it up over night. so basically, i'm saying it doesnt sound like you would be right for the project. thats not saying do go for it, but i'm just saying that you cant expect to start playing a certian type of music(which is insanely demanding in playing proficentcy) and know what your doing


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## Cabinet (Nov 11, 2010)

Self Bias said:


> Does Muhammed and co. do that with inside picking, AKA econo? Pain in the ass. Outside?
> I wish I could find just one other guy in my miserable hometown that could hang with any of this stuff.


I'm not too sure if he does one or the other, if you watch some live videos of him playing it just looks like constant alternate picking. I think one of the main things you'll have to become fluent with is being able to pick difficult passages and keep it strictly 8th or 16th notes


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## -One- (Nov 11, 2010)

Fionn said:


> so what would you call VoM and BOO then, ive always thought of them as tech death...


Sumeriancore


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## AngelSKinGarden (Nov 11, 2010)

SirMyghan has it right. Divide the time signature into easily countable pieces.
Another very helpful thing is to listen to just the down beats. 

Overall, I would say get ready to make a lot of "lead" based progressions and reciprocal riffs that include sweeps, tapping, fast alternate picking and tremolo picking. Stick with harmonic minor and diminished chords/scales if you want to play it safe, but really...these are starting points. You need to have an ear for what is sick.


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## scottro202 (Nov 11, 2010)

Ok, I'd like to shift the focus of the thread from a "Teach Scotty how to play whatever your definition of technical death metal is" to a "Teach Scotty how to play whateverthefuck Veil of Maya and Born of Osiris are" thread, because that's what I want/need to learn how to play  

Thanks for the suggestions!! And sorry for mispeaking, according to ya'll I was way off on the genre of BOO and VoM


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## Stealthdjentstic (Nov 11, 2010)

Lots of minor thirds....and rape the shit out of the harmonic minor scale. Occasional diminished sweep too. 

Oh and breakdowns in odd time signatures.

1. Open up Gp5
2. Change time signature to random odd number
3. Press 0000000000 and fill the line up with 0's
4. Now delete some zero's randomly
5. Add random melodies that rape the aforementioned harmonic minor scale.


That will get you progressive deathcore 

Occasionally change things up by throwing in some minor third runs.


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## AngelSKinGarden (Nov 11, 2010)

Stealthtastic said:


> Lots of minor thirds....and rape the shit out of the harmonic minor scale. Occasional diminished sweep too.
> 
> Oh and breakdowns in odd time signatures.
> 
> ...




Dammit, don't give away all the trade secrets! 

I try to avoid minor thirds like the plague in all situations except in arps or chords. They occur so damn naturally when just riffing around...you close you're eyes and think "aww that sounds sweet" and realize your just primarily bouncing back and forth between C and Eb


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## CrushingAnvil (Nov 12, 2010)

Fionn said:


> so what would you call VoM and BOO then, ive always thought of them as tech death...



Cork sniffers deathcore.


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## CrushingAnvil (Nov 12, 2010)

Stealthtastic said:


> Lots of minor thirds....and rape the shit out of the harmonic minor scale. Occasional diminished sweep too.
> 
> Oh and breakdowns in odd time signatures.
> 
> ...



Oh god...


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## highlordmugfug (Nov 12, 2010)

If the odd breakdowny rhythms are all you're having trouble with, then listen to some Meshuggah.


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## telecaster90 (Nov 12, 2010)

Vegetarian is a genre?


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## Randy (Nov 12, 2010)

*Wow, I'm really disappointed in some of you. You guys know the genre baiting thing doesn't fly here, especially in GM, so you decided to take it full tilt in Music Theory instead. The next person I catch trying to incite a hate-fest gets a month to learn not to be a opportunist jerk.*


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