help with downpicking

[Dead Winter]

Hey guys, I need a little help here. I need to speed up my right hand in my downpicking. I can play up and down style speed metal fine, it's my all down strokes that are giving me trouble...for instance creeping death. I can play the song fine, but it's about 5-10 bpm slower than i'd like it. Any advice?

 

[7 Dying Trees]

Take the riff, play it at comfortable speed, all downpicked. Then speed it up a bit untill you reach your limit (ie, cannot play it), then go back down to a comfortable speed. Repeat process.

And try playing everything with down picking unless you can't , also good practice.

 

[Dead Winter]

thanks

 

[Ibsen]

Usually it's because your muscle in your right armneeds strength. Try lifting weights. If you just want solid practice, then just get fast the same way you did with speed picking. Practice it! Or, try having a time everyday where you just downpick (puch yourself to your absolute limit) and do that until you absolutely cannot do it anymore. In time, the pain will go away and you will gain speed.

 

[Sacha]

I got good at downpicking by learning old Metallica songs like Battery, MOP, etc and slowly building up speed like others have suggested. Try playing through the whole MOP album using mostly down picks like James does and you will be raging! (and tired)

 

[WarHead]

Originally posted by Ibsen
Usually it's because your muscle in your right armneeds strength. Try lifting weights. If you just want solid practice, then just get fast the same way you did with speed picking. Practice it! Or, try having a time everyday where you just downpick (puch yourself to your absolute limit) and do that until you absolutely cannot do it anymore. In time, the pain will go away and you will gain speed.

ahhhh noooo dont do that.,..thats a good way to get a form of tendanidous or carpal tunnel snydrome.,.,our guitarist's tendons are fucked up now because he pushed himself too far,.,

 

[The Wanderer]

Originally posted by Ibsen
Usually it's because your muscle in your right armneeds strength. Try lifting weights. If you just want solid practice, then just get fast the same way you did with speed picking. Practice it! Or, try having a time everyday where you just downpick (puch yourself to your absolute limit) and do that until you absolutely cannot do it anymore. In time, the pain will go away and you will gain speed.

yeah, warhead is actually right.

you dont want to push yourself like that. you will fuck up something.
just practice it at comfrotable speeds til your really even. use a drum machine or metronome and then just steadily raise the speed. it'll work, trust me. also, having good picking technique helps too. isoloate your wrist. no need to use yoru forearm. it should all come from your wrist. strength in your arm has nothing to do with it. your hand and arm should be relaxed with just your wrist dong the moving. only move as much as you need. it'll come.

 

[WarHead]

Originally posted by The Wanderer


yeah, warhead is actually right.

you dont want to push yourself like that. you will fuck up something.
just practice it at comfrotable speeds til your really even. use a drum machine or metronome and then just steadily raise the speed. it'll work, trust me. also, having good picking technique helps too. isoloate your wrist. no need to use yoru forearm. it should all come from your wrist. strength in your arm has nothing to do with it. your hand and arm should be relaxed with just your wrist dong the moving. only move as much as you need. it'll come.

\m/ (><) \m/

Heed his words.,.or you will regret it when your arm is fucked and cant play for about 4 to 5 weeks!

 

[Fuþorc]

I've been playing for 8 years and the best way I know how to build speed is to use a drummachine or a Metronome. You should most defently pick from the wrist.

 

[Ibsen]

I stand corrected... Well I never tried that for downpicking but that's what I used to do with fastpicking and it worked. I guess I lucked out. Anyway, I take it back.

 

[Ibsen]

I stand corrected... Well I never tried that for downpicking but that's what I used to do with fastpicking and it worked. I guess I lucked out. Anyway, I take it back. I don't think anyone would listen to a 15 year old anyway.

 

[Dead Winter]

Wow, glad to see I was headed in the right direction...I've been playing alot of MOP and AJFA by Metallica since there's a shitload of downpicking on both albums. I used Kill Em All to build up my alternate picking style, since that's mostly what early thrash albums played.

It's kinda odd, because I've found that alot of people have problems with the "dum-de-de dum" style...that's what I call it. It sounds like a horse galloping....such as Motorbreath or Battery. I haven't had very much trouble with that, actually. Of course, it's not as good as Hetfield's but I can keep the rhythm with it. It's that DAMN all downpicking that's giving me trouble lol. I've been working on Blackened and it's starting to come along.

I was told that the Guitar Grimoire is a good book to get if you want to really improve your playing by breaking everything down. Any suggestions? Thanks alot, guys.