Is there a "chug" book?

[UnderTheFlame83]

Also do hand exercises before playing. It really helps. I can't add anything new. Everyone else has already covered it. Just keep practicing. You'll be chugging before long.

[Demanic]

Let go...

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[nexion218]

Here's the mentioned video of Ola teaching how to chug:

I"m a bit oversimplifying here, but don't get caught up in the exact chords. Chug is right hand and properly set up gear. You've mentioned Ola... He has the "will it chug?" series. If you notice, it's not about technique, but gear. He just does randpm palm muted riffs there, the rest is tweaking knobs.

Also, as it has been said: power chords, power chords and power chords. You can try palm muted perfect fourths too by fretting the same fret on adjacent strings (except for G and B, but you're not gonna chug up there anyways), they sound rad! Oh, and get a Nazgūl! jk

[dave74]

I know this all joking here in this thread, or mostly at least, but it does touch upon (p.i.) something that I've really noticed on a lot of the young "prodigy" videos where they are doing covers well beyond their years, as well as many guys (and girls too) doing gear demo and show-off videos.

Muting/dampening seems to be a vastly under-developed/utilized/appreciated skill. Many players sound like they only have on and off, and on tends to be so light it's barely perceptible.

It's almost like people are so concerned with pushing out of tune that they are afraid to make it oomph and get some real speaker grab going.

Obviously if you over dampen on a floyd it will indeed start pitching sharp, and that's where the skills control is needed to develop, so that there is a full range of dampening-pressure dynamics at his or her disposal.

IMO riffs sound much more interesting when there is a constant variance of dampening, from open to soft to medium to hard-chug where the speaker is clutching and grabbing tight.

Plenty of metal players get it and use it, but many don't even try to develop their muting annunciation.,,,, and yes as previously posted, that goes right along in tandem with picking angle and attack.

[dave74]

Let go...

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That's not wrong at all!

Close those eyes and join with the speaker,,,,,,make it your b****!

[nexion218]

Muting/dampening seems to be a vastly under-developed/utilized/appreciated skill. Many players sound like they only have on and off, and on tends to be so light it's barely perceptible.

Word! Right hand dynamics in metal are vastly overlooked. Hand placement can be crucial to the chug and it's really worth experimenting with it! Though with some of today's music it's a pretty moot point with boosted EMGs run into Tubescreamers and at least 3 compressors and noisegates hooked up to ultra gain amps... No matter what Yngwie says, less can be more. And the more I tweak gear, the more I find that the amount of gain is one of those instances where less is more, even in full blown extreme chuggachugga metal.

[El Dunco]

Let go...

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RELEASE YOUR ANGER!

[ArtieToo]

You've mentioned Ola... He has the "will it chug?" series.

Good video. Thanks. And yeah, I like Ola. His videos are fun.

[JB_From_Hell]

A big part of what you’re hearing from Ola is chugging on the open low string (he’s typically down a whole step or drop C) and playing lots of single note riffs or power chords on the 4th and 5th string. I know that he uses 10-52 strings, and the lower tension on a 52 at C is definitely a big part of that sound.

Tuning the 6th string a whole step lower than the others increases the interval between the open low note and is a big ingredient in that sound, so there’s more to it than just playing power chords with one finger.

But seriously, call me about this sometime. Ola and I are about the same age, seem to have cut our teeth on the same stuff.

As a side note, he holds his pick strangely relative to everyone else. Most people angle the pick with the edge toward the bridge higher, his is the opposite. Watch his right hand closely... it’s weird looking.

[Iron1]

It has nothing to do with tuning or chords and everything to do with pick angle and palm mute location. Every bridge/trem has a sweet spot where you lay your palm. Flat picking won't do it, you need to angle the pick to get a bit of a scraping/sawing effect on the string(s). As said above, Ola has the trailing (bridge side) edge of the pick angled down, but most angle down the leading (neck side) edge. You can find examples of popular bands chugging as far back as the 70s (Sabbath, Heart, to name a few) and nearly every metal band after the early 80s does it. If you can't chug, you can't metal.

Gear does play a part in making it sound great, but any decent metal player can make a guitar chug acoustically.

[JB_From_Hell]

It has nothing to do with tuning...

I really think a little flop in the string helps.

[PFDarkside]

As a side note, he holds his pick strangely relative to everyone else. Most people angle the pick with the edge toward the bridge higher, his is the opposite. Watch his right hand closely... it’s weird looking.

It’s like watching Marty Friedman... how do you start doing that?

[ArtieToo]

I'll have to pay closer attention to that.

[weepingminotaur]

Gain. Find the bare minimum that you need and not an iota more. Oversaturation will kill the crispness.

Tuning. You can chug in E standard, or drop B, or whatever you want. Don't get too hung up on it.

Technique. Practice alternating between palm-muting a note or power chord a few times and playing the same note/chord open. Once you're comfortable, start doing that with sequences of notes and/or chords. Be as economical as you can with your picking motion. Doing so will allow you to play faster.

[Mincer]

It is one part of guitar I was never interested in. But its great we have choices.