Starting out a progressive metal band

We have just started our band. there are only 3 of us(we are looking forward in adding a keyboardist anyway). anyone here can give some advice in starting out with this kind of lineup. what progressive songs are easy to play??? we are just at intermediate level..

thanks

Number 1, GET A KEYBOARDIST!!!!
A good keyboardist influences you in so many ways, even in little things like when to hold back. ;)

We all have different definitions of "progressive", but since I'm extremely biased towards Dream Theater, I'd reccomend "surrounded", off images and words, it's a great song, and it's not that hard.

As far as a band, your main concern is knowing when to shut the hell up. I know it seems hard, but listening to the other members idea's (no matter how dumb they sound to you) will ultimately benifit the band, as well as your playing.

Anyways, you got to have fun, and if things ever go stale, do a cover or something. O ya...and KICK MAXIMUM ASS!!! :cool:

at last a reply..

good advice there thanks

Hmmm, guess no one else has a prog band. :(

hmmm... Progressive rock is a hard genre to define... generally its filled with all sorts of music that don't fit into any other genres... You have bands like Dream Theatre... because they're way too technical to be considered just rock.. or hard rock... Then you have bands like Modest Mouse, Mars Volta, and Queens of the Stone Age that are just as close to being rock as any... The genre is about being different and not doing something different than everyone else. Eventually all Prog bands fall into Genres...Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers... the list goes on. Find some songs from some of those bands that you can do... obvioulsy anything by Dream Theater my be out of reach... but if you're starting a Prog band you should know something about the music and you should have some songs already in mind. Just work toward those songs. I can't suggest any off the top of my head because I don't know what style of prog band you want to have... Do you want a trippy jam band style band, Mars Volta style... or just a band with a different sound... Modest Mouse style??

Progressive... I"ve always just kind of assumed it was the genre for the music that doesn't go anywhere else. You can't go wrong with labeling something progressive. I'd love to have a progressive band, but unfortunately there's really no one around me that can help me make that a reality. All I know are a bunch of bassists and guitarists.

Originally Posted by: aschlemanhmmm... Progressive rock is a hard genre to define... generally its filled with all sorts of music that don't fit into any other genres... You have bands like Dream Theatre... because they're way too technical to be considered just rock.. or hard rock... Then you have bands like Modest Mouse, Mars Volta, and Queens of the Stone Age that are just as close to being rock as any... The genre is about being different and not doing something different than everyone else. Eventually all Prog bands fall into Genres...Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers... the list goes on. Find some songs from some of those bands that you can do... obvioulsy anything by Dream Theater my be out of reach... but if you're starting a Prog band you should know something about the music and you should have some songs already in mind. Just work toward those songs. I can't suggest any off the top of my head because I don't know what style of prog band you want to have... Do you want a trippy jam band style band, Mars Volta style... or just a band with a different sound... Modest Mouse style??

actually we are in to dream theater. but like you said it is out of reach. thats why i ask if anyone of you have easier songs...

I really dont know what exactlly progressive stands for, but it seems like the bands I have heard of in that catagory were master musicans, breaking new ground with the use music methodolagy, the likes thats never been heard before. Going in directions that may rewrite the books. No, I dont know, thats just what comes to my mind when I here that word. But if I am rite you all better roll up your sleves, and start studing the vast rhelms of music. Even if you change your mind, and want to be just a normal "metal band" you should still try to learn all you can. The music bizz is not easy. Keep rockin, and progressin!

does that make dragonforce progressive?? i dont get the whole prog rock./metal thing

You also have to step back and look at what kind of musicians you have in your band... You can't play Led Zeppelin or Queen if you don't have a decent guitarist and singer... much like most other prog stuff... Check out "The Widow" by Mars Volta... Omar Francisco Rodriguez is a good song writer and their style is a little bit like a Led Zeppelin style... not much like anything you hear these days... Also... John Fruscianti from the Chili Peppers plays guitar on the track... Thats one song that I don't think would be really difficult... Other than that... do some research and see what bands fit with your musical influences... style... an ability to play... good luck.

For the longest time I thought of "progressive" as something that costs tremendous amounts of $$$ to produce and where each part of each track has to be lain down 500 times to attain perfection; where all the songs are 20 minutes of precision noodling and are meant largely to showcase the musical education and skill of primadonna virtuosos. I always have pictured acts like Yes, or Emerson Lake & Palmer, who were on some mission trying to reform rock 'n' roll into something with the prestige and standards of classical or avant-garde jazz. And of course, the burnt-out cokehead mastermind behind it all usually drives the whole enterprise into the ground with his neurotic perfectionism and grandiose ego, and you see it all rehashed on Vh1's "Behind the Music."

I also have this flashback to Eddie Van Halen playing his guitar with a violin bow, underwater next to a coral reef while dolphins were swimming around. Was that him? Who was that? I remember being 9 years old and seeing it on MTV or something. It was one of those guys from back in the mid-late 1980s. Maybe it was Randy Rhodes? I don't remember....

Well, needless to say, I came up on hardcore punk rock and down-and-dirty thrash metal and the like... so to me "progressive" was always a dirty word that equated to overproduced, overdone, insufferable and tedious. On the other hand, bands that were avant-garde and experimental in their early heydays such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fugazi, Public Image Ltd., etc. were in my mind always known as "post-punk", "indie rock" (back in the 1980s and early 1990s before it meant what it seems to mean today), or "alternative rock", all of which had far, far more in common with the Sex Pistols or Siouxsie and the Banshees than they did with Pink Floyd or Yes. Then you had these loony weirdos from the 1960s like Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, 13th Floor Elevators, etc. who were in a category all their own.

Well, I've branched out since then. I'd rather chew glass than listen to Emerson, Lake & Palmer... Yes, the Grateful Dead or the Eagles or whoever... and I can only take so much of Dream Theater or Queensryche even though I'm a lifelong metalhead, but I now love King Crimson after having discovered them after all these years... and they don't get any more virtuosic, perfectionist, or egotistical than Mr. Robert Fripp. Some of this "neo-prog" stuff coming out these days like Air (the French guys) is pretty good.

Also, Iron Maiden and 1980s Metallica (everything before the Black Album) have always been A-1 in my book, and they're just as neo-classical or progressive as they are punk rock. Maiden came around with the New Wave of British Metal with Judas Priest and the like, right around when the Damned were tearing up London; Metallica came around in the California hardcore thrash punk scenes of L.A. and San Francisco and were just as influenced by the Misfits, Bad Brains, and Black Flag as they were by Ritchie Blackmore or Joe Satriani (Kirk Hammet's guitar teacher).

As far as the Nordic black metal type stuff goes... when it's like 20 minutes long with cellos and operatic backing vocals and they're doing endless arpeggios that take 10 years to learn... I can only take so much. I prefer good old fashioned 40 second grindcore bash-your-brains-out vomit. :D

But, the long and the short of it is... the two sides, punk/thrash/noise and neo-classical/progressive can certainly get along.

Crap! I'm gonna be late for work! :eek:

Hey you can do a lot with a three piece band . Van Halen , Rush , Truimph all three piece . Take any song you like and experiment with it as a band . Create your own versions .
I play in a classic Rock band in Miami . We are only 3 piece . We cover a lot of songs ,and at time make our own arrangement of songs .
Hope this help .

Originally Posted by: Vegas WierdoFor the longest time I thought of "progressive" as something that costs tremendous amounts of $$$ to produce and where each part of each track has to be lain down 500 times to attain perfection; where all the songs are 20 minutes of precision noodling and are meant largely to showcase the musical education and skill of primadonna virtuosos. I always have pictured acts like Yes, or Emerson Lake & Palmer, who were on some mission trying to reform rock 'n' roll into something with the prestige and standards of classical or avant-garde jazz. And of course, the burnt-out cokehead mastermind behind it all usually drives the whole enterprise into the ground with his neurotic perfectionism and grandiose ego, and you see it all rehashed on Vh1's "Behind the Music."

I also have this flashback to Eddie Van Halen playing his guitar with a violin bow, underwater next to a coral reef while dolphins were swimming around. Was that him? Who was that? I remember being 9 years old and seeing it on MTV or something. It was one of those guys from back in the mid-late 1980s. Maybe it was Randy Rhodes? I don't remember....

Well, needless to say, I came up on hardcore punk rock and down-and-dirty thrash metal and the like... so to me "progressive" was always a dirty word that equated to overproduced, overdone, insufferable and tedious. On the other hand, bands that were avant-garde and experimental in their early heydays such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fugazi, Public Image Ltd., etc. were in my mind always known as "post-punk", "indie rock" (back in the 1980s and early 1990s before it meant what it seems to mean today), or "alternative rock", all of which had far, far more in common with the Sex Pistols or Siouxsie and the Banshees than they did with Pink Floyd or Yes. Then you had these loony weirdos from the 1960s like Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, 13th Floor Elevators, etc. who were in a category all their own.

Well, I've branched out since then. I'd rather chew glass than listen to Emerson, Lake & Palmer... Yes, the Grateful Dead or the Eagles or whoever... and I can only take so much of Dream Theater or Queensryche even though I'm a lifelong metalhead, but I now love King Crimson after having discovered them after all these years... and they don't get any more virtuosic, perfectionist, or egotistical than Mr. Robert Fripp. Some of this "neo-prog" stuff coming out these days like Air (the French guys) is pretty good.

Also, Iron Maiden and 1980s Metallica (everything before the Black Album) have always been A-1 in my book, and they're just as neo-classical or progressive as they are punk rock. Maiden came around with the New Wave of British Metal with Judas Priest and the like, right around when the Damned were tearing up London; Metallica came around in the California hardcore thrash punk scenes of L.A. and San Francisco and were just as influenced by the Misfits, Bad Brains, and Black Flag as they were by Ritchie Blackmore or Joe Satriani (Kirk Hammet's guitar teacher).

As far as the Nordic black metal type stuff goes... when it's like 20 minutes long with cellos and operatic backing vocals and they're doing endless arpeggios that take 10 years to learn... I can only take so much. I prefer good old fashioned 40 second grindcore bash-your-brains-out vomit. :D

But, the long and the short of it is... the two sides, punk/thrash/noise and neo-classical/progressive can certainly get along.

Crap! I'm gonna be late for work! :eek:

You seem to have a indepth, vast knowledge of musical forms, but I worry about your personal safety should a certain hardcore, sycoticlly loyal, grass roots Iron Maiden fan base see the words progressive/ and punk in the same sentence with their beloved Ground breaking metal band. I mean to me a word is just a word, but there are limits,{example} Carmin electra, and gross, nasty, and ugly are terms that just wont work together due to the dynamic unchangable laws of physics + quantem mechanics surounded by electrostatic pulses of imposibility to the highest power. Now the **** is getting deep! No, dude I am just hazing you a little. You may very well here a progessivlly intoxicating hint of punkish flavor deep down in the boweles of Maidens molten inner core, I just wouldent go public deep into indian territory without the much needed research into the dynamics around metals newist deadly infections known as,{ Progessive Punk Pox }, or PPP. I hope theres a cure, I fear cross contamination due to my mear touching of the subject.

Originally Posted by: Mario AmengualHey you can do a lot with a three piece band . Van Halen , Rush , Truimph all three piece . Take any song you like and experiment with it as a band . Create your own versions .
I play in a classic Rock band in Miami . We are only 3 piece . We cover a lot of songs ,and at time make our own arrangement of songs .
Hope this help .

Ive always considered members of the band each a piece with, or without an instrument. But thats just me? Unless your refering to VanHalens peroid between vocalists?

Originally Posted by: axemaster911Ive always considered members of the band each a piece with, or without an instrument. But thats just me? Unless your refering to VanHalens peroid between vocalists?

I think I'm gonna have to agree with you there. Just because someone doesn't play an instrument while singing doesn't mean they don't have to practice. That's like saying that Bruce Dickinson doesn't count as a member to Iron Maiden because all he does is sing.

King Crimson and Fripp are creditted as CREATING Progressive Rock so you may want to check that out. They are definately a league all of their own.

Originally Posted by: EricJ1186King Crimson and Fripp are creditted as CREATING Progressive Rock so you may want to check that out. They are definately a league all of their own.

Maby you can give us a definition of what exactly progressive rock is? I am looking forward to an expert point of view.

I always thought of progressive rock, or progressive music in general, as music that doesn't specifically follow any form. Ie: verse, chorus, verse, bridge etc etc. Progressive music seems to flow like a movie with several parts that seemlessly change, and with each changing part a new mood would arise and the scene would shift, like in a movie.
Think of a classical piece and imagine it played by a modern day rock band, I think that would fit into the progressive genre quite nicely!
That's what I think anyway, haha.

Prog Rock is def. one of my favorite genres. You can have so much fun with it!
My main musiacl influence is Dream Theater and I often find my playing and songwriting style similar to their's. You shoud listen to all different bands and see how they arrange songs. Having a keyboard player would be a great asset to the band! The only prob. is you need some good money to get some really great sounds out of one. You should ask around for keyboard players and have tryouts. There is always someone close by with amazing talent. You just have to look a little bit.

Originally Posted by: SolarScarsI always thought of progressive rock, or progressive music in general, as music that doesn't specifically follow any form. Ie: verse, chorus, verse, bridge etc etc. Progressive music seems to flow like a movie with several parts that seemlessly change, and with each changing part a new mood would arise and the scene would shift, like in a movie.
Think of a classical piece and imagine it played by a modern day rock band, I think that would fit into the progressive genre quite nicely!
That's what I think anyway, haha.

I very much agree with you on this, especially the shifts during the song, creating moods wherever the music leads you. I see progressive rock as music with incredible depth, instead of the, pardon my saying, 'shallow' songs most bands play nowadays

most songs are about one particular emotion or experience, while progressive rock often lets you experience the whole sensation, for instance: anger, sorrow, grief and happiness all in one song, and then I say: that's complete