I have to say first, I am not a skilled guitarist, so keep that in mind. The first thing you should do, is learn how to learn, by ear. Learn some simple riffs, learn how to get the rhythms right. Eventually, your ear will start to recognize the differences, which they call “intervals,” between different notes. Start with simple stuff, at first. Black Sabbath is good for this, because they use blues melodies, where there are fewer notes, further apart, so it’s easier to distinguish between them.
You’ll start to notice the intervals, in songs you’re listening to. Octaves are easy to hear, so are fifths. The self titled song, by Black Sabbath, starts of with a riff, that’s a root(the lowest note of the scale), octave(same note, but one octave up, the sound wave is twice the frequency), and a half octave(tritone). Get your ear used to the simple stuff, then, eventually, you’ll be able to hear a riff, and figure it out by ear.
Figure out which notes are used in each riff, and song, and that’s a scale, or mode. Different cultures share lots of the same ones, they just have different names for them. If you don’t know the official name for it, that’s not important, just be able to play it. You’ll understand how to create different feelings, through different scales, and which notes to emphasize, and how, why, and when, to use the “wrong” notes, if you wish to.
Start by learning riffs and songs you like, simple stuff first, and just keep doing it. Power chords are used a lot in metal, and other heavy genres, because they sound good with heavily distorted sounds. More complex chords only sound good with cleaner guitars(although sometimes people use them with distorted sounds, in black metal, or indie rock). Chords are harder to analyze, with your ear, however. You should eventually learn how to use them, but the basic fundamentals, or any guitar music, are the main melody. Learn how to figure out guitar melodies, by ear, and that’ll set you up, to learn everything else.
_________________ The only “-isms” you need, are individualism, and GISM. I like Slayer solos
With my weed, I smoke every day If I'm not high, the hate will escape I smoke and smoke, stoned as a fuck Weed is my life, weed is my love… -John Gallagher
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