page_title: Heavy metal guitar
section_title: Role of women
hierarchical_section_title: Heavy metal guitar / Role of women
caption_attribution_description: English: Lita Ford performing at Jones Beach on July 13, 2012.
context_page_description: Heavy metal guitar is the use of highly-amplified electric guitar in heavy metal. Heavy metal guitar playing is rooted in the guitar playing styles developed in 1960s-era blues rock and psychedelic rock, and it uses a massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos and overall loudness. The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal. The heavy metal guitar sound comes from a combined use of high volumes and heavy distortion.
  Heavy metal bands often have two electric guitarists, with one guitarist playing rhythm guitar and one guitarist playing lead guitar. The rhythm guitar player is part of the rhythm section of the band, along with the bass guitarist and the drummer. The lead guitarist plays guitar solos, instrumental melody lines and melodic fill passages. In power trios, which consist of a guitarist, bassist and drummer, with one or more members singing lead vocals, the single guitarist will switch between rhythm guitar and lead guitar roles as needed.
context_section_description: In relation to the gender composition of heavy metal bands, it has been said that "[h]eavy metal performers are almost exclusively male" "...[a]t least until the mid-1980s" apart from "... exceptions such as Girlschool". However, "...now [in the 2010s] maybe more than ever–strong metal women have put up their dukes and got down to it","carv[ing] out a considerable place for [them]selves". Given that most heavy metal musicians are male, most metal guitarists are male. Almost all of the most well-known metal guitarists in major bands are male.
  Women have less roles in rock music genres like metal because the "... rebellion of rock music was largely a male rebellion". Philip Auslander says that "Although there were many women in rock by the late 1960s, most performed only as singers, a traditionally feminine position in popular music". Though some women played instruments in American all-female garage rock bands, none of these bands achieved more than regional success. So they "did not provide viable templates for women's on-going participation in rock".
  Notable women metal guitarists include:
  Lita Ford (born 1958) is an American rock guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, who was the lead guitarist for The Runaways in the late 1970s before embarking on a solo career in the 1980s. In 1975, at age 16, Ford was recruited by recording impresario Kim Fowley to join the all-female rock band he was assembling called The Runaways. Ford's guitar playing was a key part of the band's sound. After The Runaways disbanded, Ford signed with RCA Records in the 1980s and developed a pop-metal sound. In 1988, she released her most commercially successful album, the self-produced Lita. The album featured several singles including "Kiss Me Deadly", "Back to the Cave", "Close My Eyes Forever", and "Falling In and Out of Love", a song co-written by Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe.
  The Great Kat is the stage name of Katherine Thomas (born 1966), an English-born musician best known for her thrash metal interpretations of well-known pieces of classical music. Most feature her using the electric guitar, but some have her on violin. Thomas is a classically trained violinist, graduating from the Juilliard School and touring for a time playing conventional classical music before crossing over to metal.Guitar One magazine listed her as one of the "Fastest Shredders of All Time".
  Morgan Lander (born 1982) is the lead singer and guitarist for the Canadian metal group Kittie. She is known for her use of metal growls as a vocalist, though she also sings with a clean voice as well. She uses Hamer Vectors, a custom GW Flying V, Gibson Flying V's, Peavey 6505s, Marshall 4x12 cabinets, Krank Amplification Krankenstein+'s, and Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifiers.
caption: Lita Ford playing guitar in 2012.
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