
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 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 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 Only
About Dennis Hodges
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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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Free LessonSeries DetailsSteve Eulberg does a quick review of this lesson series and talks about moving on.
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Jane Miller talks about chord solos in part one of this fascinating mini-series.
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Free LessonSeries DetailsIn this lesson Eric talks about playing basic lead in the Memphis Blues style.
Free LessonSeries DetailsAlbert Collins brought a lot of style to the blues scene. In this lesson, Kenny breaks down Albert's style for you to learn.
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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.not bad sounds good
not bad sounds good
Can u upload the backing track for this song,plz.
awesome ur my fav teacher on here, can u learn more bullet for my valentine songs?
in the song demo, I heard a pause and a click at ~3:06-3:07, did you record that part separately or mess up there? great lesson, by th way thumbs up if you heard it
u got a great metal band... how bout maybe some as i lay dying
how did you get that username dude REALLY??? acdc just like that.
would've been better if he had gotten the username "dennishodges"
i wouldnt mind learning darkest nights, theres so many good songs by them its hard to choose haha, all that remains would be good too but waay more challenging haha
:D Freaking awesome!!!! XD i knew you were my number one teacher!!!
cool pick for a song, Dennis. Moar Slayer!!!
yea i'd love to learn some slayer
me to
so its unanimous (i probably spelled that wrong) MORE SLAYER!!!
I think we need some Killswitch Engage, maybe my curse.
I couldn't agree more. Hell, i will be happy learning almost any KSE song.
dude i kind of learned the intro to this song with tabs andthen i tried this and in 30 minutes i can play 75% of the song already this is awesome thx for making this
thnx man
wiked
Hey, Is it just me or did they take off One - Metallica from the web site???????
its just u
awesome could u do a song called seek and destroy by metallica
i cant get the tuning for drop c or whatever. tips? :D
I miss the other lessons... D:
This song is tight. Could you also teach my curse by Killswitch Engage, I NEED MY KILLSWITCH
WOW ... that is all
you have to do tears dont fall for real best song eva
kick ass lesson, but WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE BEARD???!!!! D:
hey dennis could you 'teach end of days' by bullet for my vallentine?
Dennis, should I play the main riff downpicked or alternate? I can do both I'm just wondering what the right way is. Great lesson btw.
While I obviously am not Dennis, my hair is not as sweet as his was in this video. From me dicking around with this riff I think it sounds better when you are downpicking it. Since it's so quick I get a better chugging sound out of downs. If your upstroke is strong and it sounds the same as a down who cares though?
Now that we got a little bullet i think its time for some Killswitch engage
I agree! love the guitars in KsE
Whooo this made my week, BFMV is amazing! Thanks Dennis!
The intro repeats 6 times bro. You said five. but its cool.
Ah my bad its 5. Woops
yay! i could cry :)
Dude this is the best day in a while, bullet rocks hands down. im not worthy im not worthy
yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! finaly some bfmv!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks dennis !!!!!!!!!!!
Dennis...you rock!!!
Simply Perfect Dennis. I'd expect nothing less.
Dennis, I dunno if you feel the way I do. But I feel like it is time for a flat out death metal song lesson. Nothing crazy hard but with some beefy heavy riffs. Like I dunno, Cannibal Corpse? Maybe Nile?
How about some Dillinger (hint hint) ;)
We need some Opeth!
Dennis, I could kiss you! (Could but won't that is). Love this song and so happy an instructer like yourself is teaching it to a guitar noob like me! Keep Rockin'
i love you dennis this song kicks ass cant wait to learn it yessss you should do room 409 by bullet for my valentine or hand of blood that song kicks ass too anywho i love bullet for my valentine and i love you too dennis