Herman Li (born: October 3, 1976) is a Hong Konger musician who is one of two lead guitarists for the power metal band DragonForce.
Early life
Herman Li was born on 3 October 1976 in Hong Kong and moved to England during his teenage years. He speaks English, French and Cantonese fluently.
Playing style
Li draws influences from rock, all subgenres of metal as well as video game music and often mimics sounds from popular retro games from the late 80s, early 90s arcade, and PC games. For example, Li has been known for making several Pac-Man-like noises in the song "Through the Fire and Flames" on Inhuman Rampage. His playing style consists of fast descending and ascending legato and staccato licks, exotic scale runs, making extensive use of the harmonic minor and Phrygian dominant scale, extreme use of his whammy bar, quick full ascending and descending sweep picking arpeggios, alternate picking and two-handed tapping on the higher frets as well as incorporating many other shred guitar 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 when shaken, giving him a greater capacity to emulate certain video game sounds. Li has stated Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Tony MacAlpine guitar playing heavily inspired his own style. Li is left-handed, but plays guitar right-handed.
Personal life
Herman Li currently lives in London, England (also have residence in Los Angeles, California). Besides being a part of DragonForce, he also does streaming on Twitch. He has been streaming since June 24, 2018. He is into martial arts and Porsche racing.
Because his YouTube channel is small, he will use the official DragonForce account to upload VODs and clips of his Twitch channel for the time being.