The Metal For Life: Mastering Heavy Metal DVD is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for only $14.95. Strap on your ax for an extreme-metal boot camp, as Metal Mike Chlasciak helps you hone your chops to perfection! You'll learn how to traverse the fretboard with ever-essential minor pentatonic scale, incorporate minor scales into riffs and rhythm parts, build power-chord variations for maximum sonic effect and much more.

The following content is related to the May 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.

I understand some of you might find this story's headline (Give Yourself Permission to Be a Musician) a little confusing. Most of you play an instrument, and many of you are serious about following your passion — making guitar playing your profession. So what’s this about permission? Let me explain.

Most of you will probably agree that you often start with an amp setting, tweak as you go through a few other options and then tell yourself that some of the initial settings sounded the best. However, you realize you have a hard time pinpointing exact previous locations of the control knobs. You can get it close, but not exact.