Powermetal

[jochens87]

I'm very interested in writing music, and I often write some for my punk band. But I´like to listen to Powermetal and Progressive metal too. So I tried to write a powermetalsong. I just thought of something like Blind Guardian (I've no clue, if u know them, because they are German. I'm german too, by the way), Rhapsody or Rage. But I don't manage to write a song that actually sounds like powermetal.
I make it with Guitar Pro 4 , perhaps that's the manko.
Can anyone help me with this? I mean , what are typical things of powermetal?

I would be really pleased to have an answer of you, watsoeva

Thx, a lot, jochen

[Steerpike]

Well, for me power metal has been defined musically by a tight sense of melody and a driving rhythm section.

What kind of things are you writing right now?

[jochens87]

Erm, I'm writing on many songs at the same time. Because I get some ideas (In this case cadences) (i get them normally in boring lessons in school), and then I write 'em down. But normally I write a song at one afternoon. But normally I write ska and punk, and that's not that complex than powermetal.
In my powermetalsong, I have a nice kadenz in the beginning, and then a 3level accustic guitar part that sounds like middleage music. After that, I play the cadence in powerchords and after that the choire gets his chance. Of course double bass is always there.

(I mean, I play cello for 7 years now, sing for 7 years , too, and play for 3 years in an orchestra, so I'm very classic-orientied, and that's y i might like progressive and power metal)

So , thx for ya answer, wuud be glad, if i get some further answer

by the way, do you know blind guardian ??

[Steerpike]

Blind Guardian is one of my favorite bands. I also listen to Rhapsody, Nightwish, Iced Earth, Manowar, Helloween, Edguy, Kamelot, and Lost Horizon.

GuitarPro doesn't do a very good job of conveying power metal, mostly because it's a genre in which the devil is in the details. To my knowledge, you can't recreate specific amp setting in GuitarPro, and power metal guitarists tend to rely on their EQ to help achieve their sound.

Remember that power metal tends to be very experimental. A lot of songs will change key and time signatures more than once. Melody is extremely important, which is where the Classical influence comes in. You have the advantage of being already familiar with that.

Although they're not power metal themselves, you may also want to look through Dio and Iron Maiden's catalogs as they were the bands that inspired the power metal genre.

[jochens87]

cool, thx a lot
In fact, blind guardian is one of my favourite band too. I listen to Nightwish, Rhapsody , but the other I don't know. Dream Theater is very cool too.
But normally I listen to everything, but Rap, Hip-Hop and Soul.

Do you know Wacken??
I'll be there this year!! HEHEHE

Other suggestions are still very pleased be me!! (sounds like crap english)

thx, jochen