How does dragonforce play so fast?

Answer 1

Hi!

I assume you're talking about the guitar playing of Herman Li - the lead guitarist in Dragonforce.

First of all, it is important to note that, to be fair, much as I like the band, they use a LOT of studio mixing and effects. Having gone to see them live, that is pretty obvious.

That said, you can still get a similar sound to Dragonforce. In essence, you'll need a decent guitar with a fast action - low bridge to allow quick depression of the strings. Also, you'll need effects pedals, to get a reasonably authentic sound. At LEAST, a metal distortion pedal, a Wah pedal and a Whammy pedal. I use:

Digitech Whammy (Expression) pedal

Ibanez WD7 Weeping Demon Wah (Expression) pedal

Behringer UM300 Ultra Metal pedal

Essentially, you'll need as good co-ordination with your feet as with your hands in most of their tracks, since the solos use a lot of Wah Wah and Whammy effects (the sort of super-high-pitched wails of the lead guitar). You'll often end up using both feet and once, and, of course, giving your fingers a good work out on the strings at the same time too!

Basically, as with most things, there's no magic formula, it's just practice - I'd recommend you start off learning numbers by other metal bands. Start off with slower, easier bands and songs - Iron Maiden solos etc, to get your hands used to moving reasonably quickly, then work up from there.

Try also to work out the slower Dragonforce songs and solos. Mostly they use similar finger and hand movements to those in the faster songs, so, once again, that will allow you to teach your hands how to move, just at a slower pace. Then, before you know it, you can work up to the insane solos!

Hope that helps, best of luck!

Answer 2

They are extremely talented and practice a lot. I bet Herman and Sam have been playing since they were 6.