Down Picking........ Fast \m/

So, your sitting at home watching Metallica live in Seattle 1989 on your DVD playe, through out the show you can see James Hetfield pulling off those trade mark down picking rhythms he is known so well for. The sound is powerful, extremely heavy, percussive and has this little harmonic effect that you just cannot recreate with alternate picking. So naturally, like so many other people you think; 'Wow I want to be able to do that'. You go up to your room, pick up your guitar and go for, but straight away your wrist tenses up, gets tired and stops. So you go onto the internet for some advice, but there is still something stopping you from playing like the mighty Het, that tension in your wrist just wont go away. Here is the vital detail that most the online tutors forget to tell you.


Now, the first thing im going to tell you is a list of things every one tells you.
- start slow
-build speed gradually with a metronome
-use a hard pick
- warm up before you start
- do not increase speed unless your 100% comfortable with the speed your on.


That list is very import, but what they don't say is this. This is quite possible the biggest Pandora's Box moment I have ever had.


Put on the song Master of puppets and skip to where the verse riff comes in, just before the singing starts. If you listen closely you will hear that on every 4th down pick he will accent the note (pick it slightly harder), its very subtle, but very important.


Heres a similar example:







The main reason guitarists do that is to keep in time with the music, where James accents the note is where the metronome would click. So, if the time signatures 4/4, he will accent every 4th note.
With down picking this techniques has an added bonus. You see, for some rather unknown reason, accenting that note will help release the tension building up in your wrist. so, from now on, when your building up your down picking speed I want you to accent that note every time and see the difference it makes.



I reccomend you take the first three days doing this really slow, starting at 60bpm and go up in steps of 5 till you reach 80 bpm (start on 60 and finish on 80 every time) just to get it in your muscle memory. After that you can get down to business.


This method is tried and tested with great reviews.


Please leave any comments and questions you may have about this, or any other post.


COMING SOON: Building up speed with your metronome.


\m/