Oli Herbert Metal Guitar – Heavy Rhythms, Leads and Harmonies – level one

Metal Guitar -- Heavy Rhythms, Leads and Harmonies won the NAMM2010 award for “Best instructional book/DVD of the Year” and indeed it is an extremely well crafted and assembled release. I shall be reviewing it side-by-side with Rockhouse Method’s latest innovation the Rock House “On Demand” software.

Oli Herbert of All that Remains is a classically-educated musician and the principal songwriter whilst also managing to find time to teach private students when not occupied with album or touring commitments -- he’s also an Ibanez and Peavey endorser with a refreshingly direct approach to his craft. Although through the length of the DVD he does make reference to a number of concepts over the course of the 75 minute running tume, he refuses to obfuscate them in any way and combined with the superb online support that Rock House Method offer (as noted in the Rusty Cooley review here) you’re never left confused as to the exact definition of a term.

Commencing with the standard welcome and tune-up sections (Oil plays in C# but explains everything in standard pitch) Oli sensibly devotes a large portion of the DVD to the essential art of rhythm guitar -- muting, using a metronome, rhythms, chord inversions and chord scales, gallup/reverse gallup techniques…all in total clarity and with a unaffected guitar so that each demonstration is not only visible, but perfectly audible.

One of the approaches I found particularly effective was to referrence techniques in the context of both rhythm and lead playing -- using open string pedal point riffs and pivot-point type lead approaches to gain the absolute most from what is in essence a simple compositional idea. Continuing into the realms of arpeggios (both swept in in lead excerpts from “The Hopeless” and in the form of arpeggiated chords) Oli also takes the time to cover diatonic and pentatonic scale patterns, the usual warm-up ideas, co-ordiation excercises, two handed tapping and string skipping before closing with an interview conducted by Joe P himself.

The area of beginning/intermediate products has always been slightly murky for various reasons- not least of which as an adequate definition of the terms has never been settled -- but mostly I think because some products aimed at a beginner have missed the vital areas that a beginner needs to digest thoroughly, and some intermediate products are too keen to move into advanced territory. Metal Guitar -- Heavy Rhythms, Leads and Harmonies is the best paced product I’ve yet to see and as such I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending it.

Rating:

Rock House Method

Ibanez Guitars

Peavey

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