Lemmy's Legacy I - Punk & Roll

Hi GMC!

Welcome to Lemmy’s Legacy series! In these series of 4 lesson I’ll cover the composing and guitar style of Lemmy’s band Motorhead. These are not only a tribute to Lemmy, a legend of rock and heavy metal, this lessons are a masterclass for beginner/intermediate guitarists that want to take their guitar technique, composing and arranging skills to a new level.
Before we start, let me share some info that you need to know about Lemmy and Motorhead:

“Ian Fraser Kilmister (24 December 1945 – 28 December 2015), better known as Lemmy, was an English musician, singer, and songwriter who founded and fronted the rock band Motörhead. His music was one of the foundations of the heavy metal genre.”
“Motörhead (/?mo?t?rh?d/) were an English Heavy Metal band formed in June 1975 by bassist, singer, and songwriter Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister, who was the sole constant member, guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. The band are often considered a precursor to, or one of the earliest members of, the new wave of British heavy metal, which re-energised heavy metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s.” - Wikipedia


Music Style:
This first tune is called “Punk & Roll” and covers their rocker punk side inspired by their most popular songs like Ace of Spades, Overkill, and Motorhead. This type of songs reflect Lemmy’s roots base on early rock and roll like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash but played fast and agressive with distortion. This become really clear when watching some vids of Lemmy playing the bass lines of his songs. You’ll notice that he is playing classic roll riffs on bass, at a very fast tempo, and amplified with a guitar amp (JCM800).


Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
If we think on Classic rock and blues, we think on Blues Scale. This is the most used scale by Motorhead to compose their riffs and solos. This tune is in A minor, and the main riff is base don A blues scale. The other parts of the tune (verse, bridge and chorus) are in A minor. The solo section modulates on tone higher (B minor) at first, and then another tone (C# minor).

Techniques:
This is a full song lesson so you’ll get into a real music situation. The lesson includes riffing, chord progressions and guitar solos so the techniques covered are palm muting, alternate picking, bending, legato and vibrato.

Sound:
I used LePoin plugins to create the guitar tone. These are free amp emulators that are extremely recommended. The cabinet used for this guitar tone is Lextac and before it a tube screamer emulation. Check out the settings:



I used Cubase to record audio and midi, superior drummer for drums and Trillian for bass.

Tuning: Standard Tuning

Tempo: 199 BPM