We’ve all been asked the question, “But does it djent?”
At this point, most people will respond, often violently, “Dude, it’s not funny anymore.” This reaction is warranted, as many people who ask if something “djents” are either the type of person who doesn’t know when a joke is dead, or the type of person who really doesn’t know how to djent.
I present to you a drop-dead-simple blueprint to djent, a “Djent for Dummies” how-to guide, if you will. Follow these six simple steps, and never again will you wonder if a song, person or inanimate object can djent. Furthermore, you can now simply provide a link to this guide to anyone who asks in the future.
Step 1: Tune to drop C or below
The easiest way to achieve the heavy sound of djent is to down tune. Just beware the flapping strings due to the lowered action on your axe.
Step 2: Dial in heavy acoustic drum kit samples
Djent is all about a dense, hard-hitting rhythm section. Whether the drummer plays a part or not, the various drum kit pieces will need to be thickened up and mapped to an extremely meticulous grid, which leads us to…
Step 3: Quantize the beat
No matter how tight a human drummer is, they aren’t tight enough for djent. Forget feel; we’re going for robotic perfection.
Step 4: Play four types of guitar notes
In general, djent requires only a few different articulations when it comes to guitar playing. A short and long open note, a muted ghost note and a quick bent note should do.
Step 5: Copy, paste, repeat
This is where the composition happens. Copy and paste the various guitar notes to sync up with the quantized bass and snare hits. Be creative in your arrangement for maximum djenting effectiveness.
Step 6: Pretend to play it
Sure, you didn’t actually perform your djent masterpiece live, but that doesn’t mean the common folks need to know.
Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win. His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.
