💥The Key To Technical Death Metal! Demystifying the Evil! (Metal Bass Monday Ep.26) 

Necrophagist has a song that is literally called Dimished to B

One thing i've realized about tech death, is that you're never ready to play tech death, tech death is ready to play you and have you trying to figure out a riff for months no matter how good you are

The key is not to try impressing everyone with how complicated you can make a musical piece, and write something memorable. There's a reason why albums from bands like Atheist and Death are still relevant today.

I remember that Extreme Metal Bass by Alex Webster was really good book and it gave me an idea how to play death metal chops. Damn, time to fire up some Cannibal Corpse and Nile records!

Thank you so much for the Perspective! Just what I needed to know!!!!

Completely clueless about musical theory, yet i understood every word you said...when you mentioned diminished scale, i was like oooooh noooo theory incoming, yet i was wrong because i managed to get everything ! Thank you for explaining in such a detailed way, and playing slow enough for me to follow. Expanding our knowledge and opening our eyes for another video, thank you very much.

This video is incredible and exactly what I needed, thank you!

i just love your enthusiasm for this matter. Good that i found this channel!

You’re badass. Best talk and lesson I’ve seen on RU-vid. Subscribed!

that was a really nice breakdown. Your explanation was easy to understand. Thank you. Also Thank you for featuring that beautiful blue 6 string. What an amazing instrument.

Great video . The way you explain makes it very easy to understand this genre thank you

Great info Rodney. Now that you pointed out the use of the diminished scale, I can't stop hearing it in these examples you mentioned.

Sir, I ' m a guitarist and I don't even play bass yet but I found this lesson very inspiring. I've just realized why I like Death metal most then other metal genres. diminished and harmonic Minor Scales... It was truly a revelation. Keep it up!

Awesome man👍 These are serious pearls of wisdom you're dropping here. Kind of knowledge I wished I had access to when learning to play. Took me years to decipher stuff like this by ear lol. God bless the information age!

Very cool lesson. As always I’ll be toying with what you shown here. You the man 🤘

This was very helpful! My teacher recommended I start studying music that is as far outside of my everyday listening as possible. Enter technical death metal! The combination of the diminished and whole tone scale really gave me a light bulb moment. I remember learning these scales as a beginner, but never knew where they fit in. Now I do! 🤘 Thanks Rodney!

Truly appreciate this information, and the lesson involved. Always a pleasure Rodney. Much obliged Sir!

I mean you mentioned beyond creation at the end and they have lots of non diminished stuff

Great info! Taking a look at the quick little fill near the start of Death's Crystal Mountain is just them playing around that diminished scale. That said, it seems quite melodic they way they put it together.

Great video. Every genre of music has its scales.

Thank you Sr🫡 You are a genius 🤯 Cheers from Japan 🇯🇵🤝

Great Video! Thank you!

Very nice observations - cheers!

Thanks for the lesson sir. 👏

Great lecture master. What are (in your opinion) the top 5 innovative bands in Technical Death Metal?

Cool video, thank you sir

There was a time that I was listening extensively to tech death, but that's been a while. Might have to give Cryptopsy a spin again and listen for the things!

Great great video ! You just opened a new window for me , I was always intimidated by the technical death , thanks , I'm already waiting for next Monday , by the way , what a beautiful bass , what brand is it ???

The new EHB i've been playing has a bypass switch. I've been working on finding the sound I want both passive and active. This diminished lesson is really cool. I appreciate the speed of TDM, but I can totally apply this to the slower melodically dissident stuff I like to play (a la Draconian).

Can’t wait for the interview with Jack Gibson. Exodus is one of my fave bands and I love his playing and his tone. Especially on Exhibit B: The Human Condition and the song Downfall where the band backs off and Jack steps forth with just crushing bass tone. Not to mention like Ellefson having to keep up with Mustaine. He has to keep up with Gary Holt and that in itself can certainly be no cakewalk. Phenomenal player.

I'm trying to get up to tech death speeds. Very intense on the ole hands,l for me anyway. That bass is beautiful man🤘

Wow! Demystified! Now I wish my wife and daughter weren't asleep still so I can go practice this. Dude, your videos are friggin' awesome!

Ive found lots of technical death metal to use Double Harmonic Minor as well 🤘🏽

A long time ago when I first started playing bass, someone told me I should learn scales. So I went to studybass.com and played through various scales and Diminished and Blues were the most badass so I stuck to those. When you started the video by discussing Diminished it was incredibly validating. It's also pretty great that the most used scale in tech death metal is probably the easiest : )

I just started into tech death metal and I'm glad I found your video! Your content is really interesting! May I ask what bass is this? :) It looks really cool

Very interesting video this one I’ve recently been listening to this sort of style when I first saw Revocation supporting Killswitch Engage. Good to know it’s not as daunting as I thought if i wanted to learn some.

Interesting info. I'm not in to tech death at all, but I respect the musicians... all that technicality detracts from the heaviness for me. I'll take Bolt Thrower over Archspire any day.

Great video!! Sharp as a razor this guy is.

You cant really knock tech death musicians for "falling back" on a certain technique. You can look through any genre and find very distict patterns of notes that almost every band in that genre uses. Hell, even within a bands own discography. The core of every iron maiden song is the same exact pattern at different parts of the fretboard, and the same exact thing goes for a lot of heavy metal from that era. Its just part of that style or sound. Im not trying to argue your point or anything, just something that came to mind while i was watching. Great vid!

Very useful! Can you do the same for prog? Never really got into the genre but it is my favorite one to listen to

Wow, huge

It is about time someone did a video talking about this subject. You hear about it some what on guitar. But I think this is the first I have ever heard someone do a deep dive on it for Bass. And. Now I'm sure you can do this stuff on 4-string. But usually you will see people doing this stuff on 5-string, 6-string and 7-string basses and maybe beyond. Also you can do two handed tapping and what I love to do is take that tritone shape you were talking about and use both hands to spread it out a minor third or a major third. But try that with all major thirds to create the spacey augmented triad. It is a bit harder to do because your hands are rolling in an unnatural way. One band that uses augmented triads and the whole tone scale is Rings of Saturn. Also learn to play lots of chords on bass in a hard and rocky way by striking and strumming with your fingers or a pick. Power Chords Extended Power Chords, Octave Chords, Tritone Chords, and Augmented Chords. When you are playing single notes as a bass player, those chords can really fatten up the sound of what the guitar players are doing from time to time. Check this out and check out this guy's videos. I mean this bassists is just absolutely sick! And there are others like him out there. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fVCoX7_OaSk.html

Hey Rodney, how to the EMG Js sound in there? How do they compare to the Ps in your other basses? I'm considering replacing the Bartolinis in my Ibby 6er.

Amazing lesson! Consider me subscribed!

Does anybody know what bass he’s playing in the video? It looks sick

17:19 same thing true for prog metal too? Have you done a video on that?

I know this is a late question but what about melodic sections like the intro to relentless mutation or solos like, for example, Omnipresent Perception by Beyond Creation Edit: didn’t fully watch the video when I wrote the comment so the part of the question was asked but what scale would you use for melodic sections, minor or phrygian

Great vid man👍 but still: dimished keys do have a root note though🤫

How about deeds of flesh and suffocation they are technical as all fuck in my opinion

I’ve never seen you

Sorry, I had to be like # 667 and ruin everything...

I do not like idiots !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!