Hi guys, I’m a beginner guitarist that found out about this online guitar school and joined recently. Have been playing on and off for about 2 years, gave up for a while back due to frustration and am starting to get back into playing again. My main influences are old school thrash, death and black metal and am working to develop the techniques required to play in those styles. I’m recently working on my tremolo picking as those are very often used in black metal style playing and am wondering with regards to tremolo picking, do you actually count the number of notes that you pick? Because I’ve found it quite impossible to do so especially with regards to black metal where everything sounds dissonant and chaotic. Or do you actually just go by feel and the duration of how long the note is supposed to last instead of hitting a specific number of notes with regards to tremolo picking??
advice on tremolo picking
- Thread starter Chaal Bahl
- Start date
Adin’s got it right.Start out with a metronome at a slower pace. Pick 4 notes per beat. At first, you’ll need to count all four – 1, 2, 3, 4. Accent (pick slightly harder) the first of every grouping of 4.
As you gradually increase the tempo, you have to adjust your mind and your thinking. Get to where you’re only counting the accented note. Let your brain and muscle memory just do the other 3 notes.
That way, you’re actually PLAYING sixteen notes, but only counting four.
That’s how your brain keeps up with fast passages on the guitar. It’s called chunking, and it’s easier to get with tremolo picking than it is with some more note-happy passages, but getting it in your head will help with EVERYTHING as your speed increases.
Eventually, you get into psychotic 5-string sweeps with hammer-ons and pull-offs – each one may be 15 notes, but you’ll only be counting 1 or 2.
As you gradually increase the tempo, you have to adjust your mind and your thinking. Get to where you’re only counting the accented note. Let your brain and muscle memory just do the other 3 notes.
That way, you’re actually PLAYING sixteen notes, but only counting four.
That’s how your brain keeps up with fast passages on the guitar. It’s called chunking, and it’s easier to get with tremolo picking than it is with some more note-happy passages, but getting it in your head will help with EVERYTHING as your speed increases.
Eventually, you get into psychotic 5-string sweeps with hammer-ons and pull-offs – each one may be 15 notes, but you’ll only be counting 1 or 2.
Tremelo picking can either be an intentional number of notes in time with the music, or it can be playing notes as fast as you possibly can without caring about any details. Both are valid techniques, and I’m sure you’ve heard examples of both.
Black metal, death metal, extreme metal, that whole world of music has a lot of very skilled musicians. I hope you don’t go into this thinking that anything will be easy, because that kind of music is not easy.
Black metal, death metal, extreme metal, that whole world of music has a lot of very skilled musicians. I hope you don’t go into this thinking that anything will be easy, because that kind of music is not easy.
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