Herman Li (; born 3 October 1976) is a Hong Kong-born

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

musician who is one of two lead guitarists for the

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...

band

DragonForce DragonForce are a British power metal band from London, England. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, and are known for their long and fast guitar solos, fantasy-themed lyrics and retro video game-influenced ...

. Li has played with the band based in England since it was formed in 1999 by Li along with

Sam Totman Ian Samuel Totman is an English-born New Zealand musician best known as guitarist and main songwriter for the power metal band DragonForce. Early life Totman was born in England and grew up mainly in New Zealand. He moved back to England arou ...

, who both of them are also the remaining original members of the band. Before DragonForce he was in the black metal band

Demoniac Demoniac were a heavy metal band from New Zealand formed in Wellington in 1993 by singer and bass player Lindsay Dawson, guitarist Sam Totman and Drummer Steve Francis. They later moved to London, UK. Three of the members went on to for ...

Early life

Herman Li was born on 3 October 1976 in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

and moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, then to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

during his teenage years. He speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

fluently.

Playing style

Li draws influences from rock, all subgenres of

metal A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...

as well as

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

music and often mimics sounds from popular retro games from the late 1980s, early 1990s arcade, and PC games. His playing style consists of fast descending and ascending legato and

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music ...

licks, exotic scale runs, making extensive use of the harmonic minor and

Phrygian dominant scale In music, the Phrygian dominant scale is the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale, the fifth being the dominant.Dave Hunter (2005). ''Play Acoustic'', San Francisco: Backbeat, p. 226. . Also called the persian scale, altered Phrygian scale, d ...

, extreme use of his whammy bar, quick full ascending and descending sweep picking arpeggios,

alternate picking Alternate picking is a guitar playing technique that employs alternating downward and upward strokes in a continuous fashion. If the technique is performed at high speed on a single string or course voicing the same note, it may be referred to ...

and two-handed tapping on the higher frets as well as incorporating many other

shred guitar Shred guitar or shredding is a virtuoso lead guitar solo playing style for the guitar, based on various advanced and complex playing techniques, particularly rapid passages and advanced performance effects. Shred guitar includes "fast alternate pi ...

style techniques. Recently, he has started to use a device called the Hot Hand that sits on his right hand like a ring, which causes extreme

vibrato Vibrato ( Italian, from past participle of " vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms ...

when shaken, giving him a greater capacity to emulate certain video game sounds. Li has stated

Joe Satriani Joseph Satriani (born July 15, 1956)Prato, Greg"Joe Satriani – Music Biography, Credits and Discography". '' AllMusic''. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved May 28, 2014. is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and guitar teacher. Early in his ...

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist f ...

and Tony MacAlpine guitar playing heavily inspired his own style. Li is left-handed, but plays guitar right-handed.

Equipment

Guitars

Li uses Ibanez E-Gen guitars, his signature

Ibanez is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, ...

models based on his old Ibanez S Series, which was retired from stage at the end of the Inhuman Rampage tour. The EGEN18 has a "Transparent Violet Flat" finish (transparent purple on a flamed-maple top), and the EGEN8 has a "Platinum Blonde" finish (natural wood finish with a flamed-maple top). Both have a rosewood fingerboard and gold hardware. The E-Gen model has many unique features and improvements over a standard S, including its versatile tone selection with coil tap switching for both the bridge and neck pickups, Edge Zero bridge (the EGEN8 has Edge III), custom DiMarzio HLM pickups (the EGEN8 has Ibanez pickups) and an extended scoop on the lower horn of the body, as well as a "Kung-Fu grip" on the upper horn shaped by Li's hand. It is currently Ibanez's flagship model for S body style guitars. On 9 May 2010 Li announced via Facebook that he had received a custom-made Ibanez 7-string guitar. No details are known yet about this guitar, other than it has seven strings, and it is unknown whether it will be mass-produced for his E-Gen signature line. Before the E-Gen, he had been known to play Ibanez S Prestige guitars. An Ibanez S470SOL (Japanese build 1995), a seven string

540S7 (Japanese build 1991) (used in Revolution Deathsquad, Storming the Burning Fields, before the second verse and in the outro of Heartbreak Armageddon and the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...

section of Operation Ground and Pound), and an Ibanez S540FMTTS (Japanese build 1995). He has also been seen playing an Ibanez S2170FB and an Ibanez S2170FW. He also owns an

Ibanez Jem The Ibanez JEM is an electric guitar manufactured by Ibanez and first produced in 1987. The guitar's most notable user is its co-designer, Steve Vai. As of 2010, there have been five sub-models of the JEM: the JEM7, JEM77, JEM777, JEM555, JEM33 ...

7BSB, which has been used on every

album for recording rhythm guitar parts, an Ibanez J Custom RG, an Ibanez RG2228 (8-string model), and a PRS Modern Eagle, which he received as a gift from

Paul Reed Smith Paul Reed Smith (born February 18, 1956) is an American luthier and the founder and owner of PRS Guitars, a high-end guitar maker. Early life Smith graduated from Bowie High School in 1974. He also attended St. Mary's College of Maryland wh ...

and can be seen in the studio.

Amplifiers and effects

Li is currently building a brand new rig, as stated on his official website. Li uses a Kemper Profiler as his primary amplifier.

Popular culture

Li and fellow band member

are featured as performing twin guitar solos of the

song " Through the Fire and Flames" which has appeared in several video games. In the ''Guitar Hero'' rhythm game series, the song first featured in '' Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock'' as an unlockable bonus song, and later appeared in ''

Guitar Hero Smash Hits ''Guitar Hero Smash Hits'' (titled ''Guitar Hero Greatest Hits'' in Europe and Australia) is a music rhythm game and the fourth expansion game to the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game features 48 songs originally featured in five previous game ...

'' and ''

Guitar Hero Live ''Guitar Hero Live'' is a 2015 music rhythm video game developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It is the seventh main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wi ...

'', as well as Rock Band 3 as DLC. The song also featured in ''

Rocksmith 2014 ''Rocksmith 2014'' is a music video game produced by Ubisoft. It is a followup to the 2011 game '' Rocksmith'', but has been described as a replacement to the original game rather than a sequel. Like its predecessor, the game allows players to plu ...

''.

Notable awards and achievements

Li has won and featured in the following awards: *RIAA Certified Platinum Single "Through the Fire and Flames" *RIAA Certified Gold Record "Inhuman Rampage" *UK Silver Record "Inhuman Rampage" *Music Radar/Total Guitar 2017 – Best Metal Guitarists in the World * Metal Hammer Golden Gods 2009 – Best Shredder Award *Grammy Awards 2009 – Best Metal Performance "Heroes of Our Time" Nomination *Guitar World Reader's Poll 2007 – Best New Talent (winning by 70%) *Guitar World Reader's Poll 2007 – Best Metal *Guitar World Reader's Poll 2007 – Best Riff *Total Guitar Reader's Poll 2007 – Best Solo "Through the Fire and Flames" *Terrorizer Reader's Poll 2006 – Best Band "DragonForce" *Terrorizer Reader's Poll 2006 – Best Musician "Herman Li" *Terrorizer Reader's Poll 2006 – Best Live Act "DragonForce" *Metal Hammer Golden Gods 2005 – Best Shredder Award *Guitar World Magazine – 50 fastest guitarists

Notes

External links

*
Li's profile at the official DragonForce websiteLi's Twitch streaming channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Herman 1976 births Living people English heavy metal guitarists English record producers DragonForce members Hong Kong emigrants to England Hong Kong guitarists Hong Kong record producers Lead guitarists Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Twitch (service) streamers Music YouTubers English YouTubers