
Learn to rock out to the heavy metal classics throughout history.
Lesson 2
Dennis Hodges teaches "Beast and the Harlot" by Avenged Sevenfold.
Length: 59:00 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 4
Dennis brings you "Toxicity" off of the 2002 album from System of a Down. Get your metal face ready.
Length: 29:22 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 5
Learn "Laid to Rest" by Lamb of God. Released in 2004, this action-packed tune is the first track on their third album, Ashes of the Wake.
Length: 25:34 Difficulty: 3.5 Members OnlyLesson 6
"Symphony of Destruction" is track #2 on Countdown to Extinction. This tune is a Megadeth fan favorite.
Length: 26:43 Difficulty: 3.5 Members OnlyLesson 7
Off their 1992 album Vulgar Display of Power, this Pantera song redefined "respect".
Length: 32:46 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 11
"Inside the Fire" is the first single from Disturbed's fourth studio album, Indestructible. Dennis teaches all parts of this song including the solo!
Length: 33:28 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 14
Dennis Hodges teaches Bullet For My Valentine's "Waking The Demon" off their Scream Aim Fire album.
Length: 41:54 Difficulty: 3.5 Members OnlyLesson 16
This is the title song from Cannibal Corpse' first EP. Released in 1993, this is the bands most popular song mainly due to an appearance in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
Length: 33:05 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 17
Dennis Hodges shows you how to play this Judas Priest classic, which is actually a cover of a Fleetwood Mac song.
Length: 30:06 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 18
Released in 2008 on The Showdown's third record, Back Breaker. This song features pummeling rhythm guitar and a tricky solo.
Length: 35:47 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 19
Learn how to play "(sic)" by Slipknot in this lesson.
Length: 20:12 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 20
Dennis puts a heavy metal spin on this classic Christmas song.
Length: 18:04 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 21
Dennis Hodges teaches this pummeling metal song from the band Meshuggah.
Length: 56:12 Difficulty: 4.5 Members OnlyLesson 22
Dennis Hodges teaches an acoustic only version of this hard rock song by A Perfect Circle.
Length: 20:15 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 23
Learn this great Megadeth song from their album Cryptic Writings.
Length: 39:39 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 24
Learn this Megadeth classic from Rust In Peace.
Length: 53:39 Difficulty: 4.0 Members OnlyLesson 25
Learn this Megadeth classic from the Countdown To Extinction album.
Length: 36:16 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 26
Learn this great ballad from the Youthanasia record.
Length: 36:32 Difficulty: 3.5 Members OnlyLesson 27
Dennis Hodges teaches this Metallica classic from the band's 1988 album ...And Justice For All.
Length: 69:02 Difficulty: 3.5 Members OnlyLesson 28
In this lesson, you'll learn how to play "Quintessence" by progressive metal band, Mastodon. The song is on the critically acclaimed album Crack the Skye, which was released in 2009. Dennis Hodges...
Length: 33:01 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 29
Dennis Hodges teaches this Dokken classic note for note. From the signature riffs to the blistering solo, Dennis breaks it all down for you in this lesson.
Length: 41:39 Difficulty: 3.0 Members OnlyLesson 30
Here is a lesson on this devastating piece of classical music written by Niccolò Paganini in the early 19th century. The lesson is aimed at shred guitarists because of the high level of technical proficiency...
Length: 49:14 Difficulty: 4.5 Members Only
About Dennis Hodges
View Full Biography
For better or worse, Dennis Hodges cannot stop playing music, and (he hopes) will never stop playing music.
Growing up in Flint, Michigan, Dennis had a tremendous passion for drawing. He couldn't stop copying moves from bands he saw on MTV, though, and it didn't help that his parents filled the house with Santana, Stevie Ray, and Allman Bros. (on real records, no less!) so it wasn't long till he got his first guitar. It was junk. Within a few weeks his parents traded in a poor acoustic for a less junky 3/4-size electric.
Dennis started lessons right away at the age of 8. He still remembers hating it for awhile, and not taking it seriously until he was 12. He is thankful his parents forced him to practice early on and kept paying for lessons,
even though rational thinking should have stopped them after a year.
Around this time drawing became less important, and guitar consumed all his attention. After 6 years of lessons he parted ways with his teacher and, after trying out two others with no results, decided to continue alone.
His nerdistic tendencies paid off, as he put in hours working on picking and left hand exercises and learned as many Randy Rhoads and Kirk Hammett solos as he could.
Luckily, there were playing opportunities at school talent shows and church. Dennis was playing bass at his church when he was 13, helping to hone his performance skills in a group setting.
In high school, Dennis joined the marching band on sousaphone for all 4 years. It was as awesome as you could expect. He was also fortunate enough to be in several different metal bands, still play at church, and get the
incredible opportunity to play guitar for many local community theaters. This kept his sight-reading in shape and gave him an appreciation for different styles of music (and paid pretty well, from a high
schooler's perspective).
In 2001, Dennis came to Bexley, Ohio to study guitar at Capital University with Stan Smith. His studies emphasized jazz and classical guitar. Here his metal past merged with a deeper understanding of the instrument and
music in general, and the basis for most of his teaching style was set in motion.
Dennis now plays guitar for Upper Arlington Lutheran Church every Sunday, for St. Christopher in Grandview, Ohio, with the youth group, and also plays for touring Broadway shows that stop in Columbus. Occasionally,
he plays weddings and private parties, and he is starting a new cover band with some friends, called Dr. Awkward. He is blessed to have his understanding and supportive wife Kate, and is glad to be at JamPlay!
Our acoustic guitar lessons are taught by qualified instructors with various backgrounds with the instrument.
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.HOW DID I MISS THIS?!
We had to take it down for a few years due to a licensing issue. But we just got a deal with the publisher. So this song, and many more awesome tunes will be returning!
That's pure awesomeness!!! Any chance to get the backing for this one??
Wow... I played Inside the Fire by Disturbed and Synced it up with your song demo... Sounds AMAZING. Good job dennis!
i cant wait to show my friends that i can finally play a hard song :)
what kind of guitar are you playing?
im just saying, but the main riff that is played in the intro and the verses is a little wrong on the lesson video. the notes are all the same but its played on the 7th fret on the 6th sting not the open 5th string then he just hits the 10th fret 6th string and bounces of the 8th and 7th fret on the 5th . its the same notes but it gives it a little different sound. and also the chorus is a little different. I only know this becouse guitar world has i video where the guitarist from disturbed himself shows how he plays it
yes, you are correct, I didn't come across that video when I was searching YouTube while preparing this song. Sometimes that happens.
How bout some indestructable. I signed up for that song... :)
Nevermind I found them under supplemental content... HMMM!
Hellooooo! Again Where's the Tab for these songs... Anybody know?
Whres the Tab????
Thanks Dennis the song to me is one of the greatest metal songs out there. Do you think you could do a lesson on "My Curse" by Killswitch Engage
I requested that they do a video on My Curse.
Dennis, what guage of strings do you use for drop C and other various detuning?
dennis, great job as usual!!! i love this song now! awesome riffs, and you play to the T!!! also yes, i am curious how you have your amp set up for recording? sounds great!!! of course i love the sound of that specific guitar too!!! horns up!!
Dave, The "Rig" was this: Rocktron Prophesy on one of my presets into The Effect Return Jack of Chris Dawson's Crate GX-130C Amp (Doing that bypasses all preamp circuits and just uses the poweramp) Into Behringer 4x12 Using Sm57 and Sennheiser E 906 mics. That is it. Once I got it into the editing software I tried to make it sound doubled and panned a little to give it that "4x12" sound. Of course I applied 2 parametric eqs and a sonic maximizer plugin as well as compression! I wish we had a gear section that took us from getting a good sound from the amp and speakers to getting a good recorded sound as well as live sound! I know that is one thing that I have always struggled with...What sounds good to you in a room at home may not sound good when mic'ed up at a club or when you go to record. And when you play metal, like this song for instance, it to me is as much about the tone as it is the playing!
everyone did an awesome job ... thanks for the insight, Aaron :) It was worth waiting for the editing!
ah, thank you Aaron for spillin the beans on that! i have been curious about the rocktron prophesy for a while. yes i too struggle with tone, as you can tell by my backing tracks work. i am still a newbie at that, at it is like learning a whole new instrument in itself. good work on the tone for that video. i love that mike though as it is pretty transparent. i use one live, and sometimes when i record personally. we use it here for video as well.
Np Dave.
Honestly... we didn't do much different than normal, aside from playing through an old Berhinger 4x12, I think we're just getting a little bit better at tracking, so the mixes are a little cleaner. I think this lesson sounds great though as well! It terms of relaying to you guys what settings everything is at, we could maybe take a still photo of the amp prior to filming, then post it in supplemental. I had always thought of doing that, so maybe we'll put it into play.
Now that I'm thinking about it a little more, we used Aaron's Rocktron Prophesy for these lessons through that 4x12. There are so many settings on that thing there's no way I can recall haha. Biggest difference I think, with our new studio setup, is our ability to really push some volume since the amp is isolated from the recording room. Moving some air certainly helps for songs like these.
I've been waiting for this one for a long...time.
this is beastly. keep shredding dennis
glad to hear people enjoy the lesson, thanks! as far as sound goes, I'm a little embarrassed to say that for this (and song lessons 10 and 13) I had nothing to do with the sound! I used Aaron's (video editor) gear for this shoot, so I went with his presets and EQ was messed with later I think. I guess I could pretend to be a rock star and say my guitar tech does all that stuff for me.
I was kind of wondering if you could possibly in the future tell us how your amps are set up. Keep up the great work
Dennis, awesome as always! I can't wait to get started.
Nice Sonic Shirt Dennis
CRAZY! ive been waiting so frikkin' long for this lesson!!!! great job!! \m/(>.