Picking Patterns
- Many metal songs use what I call doubles, which are just two notes hit in rapid succession. You will usually need to alternate pick these two notes because they are usually played very quickly. Two songs that use a lot of these doubles in their main riffs are Meshuggah – Humiliative and Decapitated – Spheres Of Madness.
- Triplets are usually one of the harder picking patterns for people. So be sure to play slowly and build your speed up slowly. Be sure to make your picking as accurate as possible. Generally speaking, I like to divide triplets into two varieties (even though technically speaking they are the same type of triplet) based on the first note.
- The first type is an open note, followed by a triplet. An simple example of this is the main riff to the song Metallica – Battery.
-----------------|------------------- -----------------|------------------- -----------------|------------------- -----------------|-----------5-5-4-5- -----------8-8-7-|-----------7-7-6-7- -0-000-000-6-6-5-|-0-000-000---------
The second type is just a triple with nothing in front of it. In this type, the triple just starts off with no starting note at all. An example of this is from the main riff to Lamb Of God – Hourglass.
----------------------------------|--------- ----------------------------------|--------- ----------------------------------|--------- ----------------------------------|--------- ---------7h8-----9h10-------------|--------- -000-000-----000------000-3-6-5-1-|-000-000-
- There are other types of basic picking patterns like quadruples, quintuples, and so on. Practice counting how these sound and play them slow, and work them up until you can play them fast.
- Speed picking is another difficult technique to master. Again, remember that accuracy and cleanliness is more important than speed. There are a lot of songs you can use to improve your speed picking. Here are a few.
- A moderately fast riff you can practice is the verse riff to Metallica – Whiplash. Your picking should be loose and comfortable, but at the same time, hit the three open parts right on time. You can play the entire power chord, or just the fifth and the octave.
---------------|--------------- -Power chords--|-Just fifth---- ---------------|--and octave--- ---------------|---------7-6-5- ---------7-6-5-|---------7-6-5- -0-(...)-5-4-3-|-0-(...)-------
- An example of a very fast riff with palm muting is in Sepultura – Arise. The same principles apply for this riff, but you must take extra care to stay on beat because it is faster.
- Speed picking without any palm muting is the last example we’ll go over. Check out Dimmu Borgir – Master Of Disharmony for an example. It’s a simple riff of just an E chord and a Bb chord picked very fast without any palm muting. Once again, even though it’s fast, you must stay on beat. Do not attempt to just play the two chords as fast as you can, because that would not be correct. Stay on beat and play accurately. For this style of picking, I like to bend my wrist at a 90 degree angle and just twist my arm to move my pick.
- Finally, we can combine all of these techniques and play some interesting and complex syncopated riffs. Some good songs are Metallica – Disposable Heroes or Megadeth – She Wolf which are pretty much the same since Dave Mustaine probably wrote both of them, and also Fear Factory – Shock, and Meshuggah – Future Breed Machine. Listen carefully for singles, doubles, triples, or whatever else is in the riff to learn how to play it.
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