Whenever we take up something new, we naturally look to the pros for inspiration – and if you’re new to the guitar, it’s especially important to do so. While scales and chord charts are crucial in expanding your musical vocabulary, these can become dull as the goal can be hazy in the beginning. That’s why I strongly advocate learning the songs you like and studying actual players when starting out (in addition to practicing theory, of course!)
Below, I’ve compiled a short list of the players you should be checking out if you’re totally new to the instrument. It’s a mix of lead and rhythm players from different genres all with one thing in common: they each have an incredibly unique style that’s instantly recognisable.
James Hetfield (Metallica)
He’s the forefather of thrash metal, and he’s got a right hand that’s more machine than man. Papa Het – as he’s affectionately known – is the master of downpicking, and the architect of some of music’s most recognizable hooks. Even if you’re totally new to metal music, play the first three seconds of Enter Sandman – you’ll know it.
Hetfield’s ability to deliver blistering riffs with pinpoint accuracy one minute and feel-driven clean lines the next – all while singing and effortlessly controlling the crowd is truly something to behold. His influence is far reaching, too. Even Shakira – one of the biggest pop artists in the world – penned a version of Nothing Else Matters back in 2011.
Notable tracks include Seek & Destroy, Master of Puppets (above), Battery, Blackened… Hell, you’ll do yourself a disservice if you don’t actively listen to Metallica’s entire back catalogue.
Synyster Gates (Avenged Sevenfold)
Synyster Gates is the chief shredder in one of the biggest modern metal bands in the world right now – Avenged Sevenfold. He’s propelled the group forward over their over-20-year career with his dizzying solos and dazzling harmony lines (realized and often co-written with rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance).
While popular tracks like Nightmare, Bat Country and Afterlife showcase his abilities as a rapid-note virtuoso, what sets him apart – in my opinion – is his unparalleled ear for feel. As a newcomer to the guitar, the concept of feel may appear esoteric, however it simply refers to the way a player speaks through their instrument beyond the notes that are being played.
For example, have you ever listened to a vocal line that really made you connect with the music, beyond the meaning of the lyrics? The combination of vocal technique and style gives the singer their unique ability to speak to you as a listener. The same thing happens with the guitar, and Synyster Gates has mastered this.
Notable tracks with fast solos include the aforementioned as well as Beast and the Harlot, Welcome to the Family and The Stage. For more of his feel-driven lead lines, check out Set Me Free, So Far Away and Buried Alive.
Eric Gales
A lot of the practice licks you’ll be given in the beginning will center around the blues. Therefore, it’s important to develop a list of blues heroes to aspire to! The list is virtually endless, too, from historical heavyweights B.B. King and Howlin’ Wolf to contemporaries like John Mayer and Gary Clark Jr.
Eric Gales is a truly gifted blues player with total fretboard fluency. Rather than opt for a left-handed guitar, he instead flips over a right-handed guitar – a somewhat Hendrixian approach. However, while Jimi Hendrix would restring the guitar to have the low E string at the top (as is convention), Gales has mastered playing the guitar entirely upside-down. This serves as a glaring case-in-point that there is no right way to play guitar – only a ‘most popular way’… And if one of the world’s best guitarists plays upside-down, we may as well throw the rulebook out the window – an exciting concept in my eyes.
With a plethora of quality recorded material to choose from, it’s hard to pick favourites, however mine are Carry Yourself, Steep Climb and Boogie Man (feat. Gary Clark Jr.)
Jimi Hendrix
Widely touted as the most influential – and by some, the best – guitar player who’s ever lived, Jimi Hendrix took the guitar to a whole new level, pioneering the use of heavy distortion and feedback to a mainstream audience. His rebellious commercial appeal led scores of aspiring players to pick up a guitar for the first time. And to think that he changed the landscape this drastically in as little as four years…
As I mentioned previously, Hendrix was a leftie, in a time where left-handed guitars weren’t widely available. How did he solve the problem? He flipped the guitar over! It’s remarkable that even with the cutaway hindering access to the upper fretboard, he was still able to play the guitar as if it were another appendage of himself.
Jimi Hendrix tragically died of an accidental drug overdose in London in 1970, but his legacy has burned bright ever since – and will continue to do so for as long as the guitar exists.
Track-wise, personal favourites of mine include Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), All Along the Watchtower, Purple Haze and Little Wing.
Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath)
They call him the godfather of heavy metal. Tony Iommi’s contribution to modern metal can’t be overstated, taking credit for a cornucopia of riffs that we all wish we’d written. Iron Man, Paranoid and War Pigs all have one thing in common: simplicity and power.
An accident working at a sheet metal factory at the age of 17 saw Iommi lose the tips of his middle and ring fingers on his right hand. After initially being told by doctors that he would never play guitar again, he remained defiant, fashioning two protective thimbles using material from a Fairy Liquid bottle. The loss of his two middle fingertips did improve his technique in some ways, he says, as it forced him to use his pinky more. Also, silver lining: could there be a more metal pair of fingers to lose?
It’s the players that carry on despite losing two fingers – it’s the guys that play upside down – that tie in with the rebellious nature of rock ‘n’ roll. It’s these players with unconventional styles – be they by choice or circumstance – that embody what the guitar is about.
Beyond the aforementioned tracks, I recommend listening to Children of the Grave and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
Tosin Abasi (Animals As Leaders)
It’s hard to believe that any other modern guitarist has pushed the boundaries as much as Tosin Abasi. Constantly pioneering new techniques and styles, he made a name for himself as founder and lead guitarist of instrumental prog-metal trio Animals As Leaders, and has since grown as a solo artist and educator, teaching legions of aspiring proggers his ground-breaking licks.
Spearheading the djent scene with other contemporaries like Misha Mansoor [Periphery] and Fredrik Thordendal [Meshuggah], Abasi takes the notion that the guitar is dead and shatters it. Side note: djent is a subgenre of prog metal characterized by heavily drop-tuned, distorted, palm-muted guitars and odd time signatures.
Of Animals As leaders’ vastly technical catalogue, I’d recommend checking out Kascade (above), Tooth and Claw and An Infinite Regression. But I’d encourage you to go further and listen to more, because it’s mind-bending stuff.
