SINGAPORE: Fans love them for their super fast melodies and lightning speed-moves on the guitar. Others would credit them for creating one of the most difficult songs in the video game "Guitar Hero".

British band DragonForce was recently in Singapore for a world tour.

It's the kind of music that leaves fans head-banging for more. But DragonForce, a grammy-nominated British band also catches attention for having an Asian guitarist.

Herman Li, guitarist, DragonForce, said: “Somehow, me being different, actually helps with success because people go ‘whoa’ there's this band with a Chinese guitar player. Somehow people actually recognise us because of that."

Even though the band's happy that video games like "Guitar Hero" are promoting their kind of music, the musicians are nowhere near giving up their instruments for consoles.

Herman added: "You do have professional video gamers. But I think you probably get more out in the end by learning the guitar than playing video games but I'm sure pro-gamers will disagree."

Practice may make perfect but band-members have gone the extra mile to truly master the strings.

"Playing 12 hours of guitar is not enough. I spent a lot of time just learning how to record guitars, how to build the guitar, how to make good guitar sound out of amplification as well as playing the guitar and somehow by doing Brazilian jujitsu, which involves a lot of grappling with the fingers, it makes my fingers stronger," Herman continued.

The six-member group is also keen for their fans to develop music tastes beyond just rock.

The guitarist added: “They think everything is ARGHHHHHHHHHH and there's noise in rock and metal. You can listen to rock music while listening to pop music, techno, classic, dance music. People go for different moods. They don't want to hear guitar solos every time they hear music right?”

Still, fans would be quick to say that solos remain a big part of DragonForce. -CNA/vm