Lesson: Doom Metal Riffs

This is a riff I wrote while transcribing some Candlemass songs. It is in the "doom metal" style. The first part sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. That night, as I was falling asleep, I realized that it is a little like "Shedding Skin" by Pantera- but with rhythmic and melodic differences.

MP3 Example | Midi File

Be sure to tune down a half step. Note the chromatic movement; in a diatonic scale there will not be two successive half steps. This helps to give the riff an eerie, unsettled quality.
Position the index over the fifth fret and use one finger per fret in bar one. The pinky plays the 8th fret, the ring plays fret 7 and the middle plays fret 6. This makes a great left-hand exercise!
I played the first riff eight times and the second part twice. In bar five I played an extra quarter note at the end of the measure on the first time through.

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