Fast down picking tips
- Thread starter Ben Thorpe
- Start date
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Jak Angelescu
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I can’t downpick that fast for very long. I personally think it’s an endurance thing. There’s an original song of mine that requires a lot of fast downpicking at 144BPMs at a sixlet count (I think). So that may not be fast for some but it was a nightmare for me in the beginning. I’ve gotten LOADS better and can actually do it now. I think what helped for me a lot is to really make sure the wrist is relaxed, the whole arm is relaxed, and make sure the motion is coming from your wrist and you’re not throwing your elbow and shoulder joint into it too. These are big joints moving big muscles, and it can easily fatigue and tire. Also, downpicking is associated with repetitive actions of the brain, so it may not be much of your wrist as much as it is your brain saying “Holy crap I’m fritzing out here, dude.” In this case, it’ll take some repetitive practice and time to allow your brain to separate from the reality of what your wrist is doing – a fancy way of saying “keep doing it until you don’t have to think about it anymore.”
I hope this helps
I hope this helps
Great advice from Jak, as always, and this is something I’m working on, too. I can play it at roughly 185BPM, so I’m got 25 BPM to go before I can play MoP at tempo.
In addition to relaxation as a critical factor, study your movements and work on ECONOMY OF MOTION. Limit how far you move the hand and wrist for each picking motion. Every tiny little bit of improvement helps.
Finally, as you’re getting to faster tempos, stop counting each hit in your head. Try every four. SERIOUSLY, this is VERY HARD to get your head locked into at first. It helps to slightly accent each note you count. Not enough that a listener can hear it, but you can.
ONE-two-three-four-TWO-two-three-four-THREE-two-three-four-FOUR-two-three-four.
Play all sixteen notes, but only count the ones in all caps. Just “know” that each number is a grouping of four. It’s hard to explain, but your brain can’t consciously count fast enough to play that fast. You have to leave that to your subconscious.
I was never a thrash guy, so I didn’t work on this when I was younger. Boy, do I regret it now, but I’m pushing through the old-man-sauce that replaced my blood and trying to get there. You’ll probably get there before I can. GOOD LUCK!
In addition to relaxation as a critical factor, study your movements and work on ECONOMY OF MOTION. Limit how far you move the hand and wrist for each picking motion. Every tiny little bit of improvement helps.
Finally, as you’re getting to faster tempos, stop counting each hit in your head. Try every four. SERIOUSLY, this is VERY HARD to get your head locked into at first. It helps to slightly accent each note you count. Not enough that a listener can hear it, but you can.
ONE-two-three-four-TWO-two-three-four-THREE-two-three-four-FOUR-two-three-four.
Play all sixteen notes, but only count the ones in all caps. Just “know” that each number is a grouping of four. It’s hard to explain, but your brain can’t consciously count fast enough to play that fast. You have to leave that to your subconscious.
I was never a thrash guy, so I didn’t work on this when I was younger. Boy, do I regret it now, but I’m pushing through the old-man-sauce that replaced my blood and trying to get there. You’ll probably get there before I can. GOOD LUCK!
@ed i think thats what i do. I only have this bad habit of alternate picking was because i thought this was the go to method for everything i misconstrued what zacky said about alternate picking in a interview. I think when you learn guitar the first thing you should learn is downstrokes, cause when you incorporate alternate picking you then naturally acquire economy picking.
Alright so! I have talked about it and downstroke is probably one of my favorite things! Playing master of puppets all downstroke is one hell of a challenge! I practiced a lot with backing tracks and starting slow at maybe 170bpm and making my up. when you start slow, it is important to acknowledge the moves youre making with your wrist and playing as relax as you can BUT heres the thing, its a very nervous song. Very fast, you cant have a sloppy picking. it must be tight, precise and hit hard too. Its gonna take time but yeah, to master downstroke picking, you have to practice with a metronome or some backing tracks. There is no other way because the key of nice fast downstroke is simply being tight. I guess that its all about working on muscle memory. You train your whole arm to know how to react so that way you wont have to think while playing. Another thing that goes into that is adrenaline. What i mean by that is that, the time where im playing master of puppets the best is when im really feeling the song. I just feel pissed off or something and then I just go bonkers and when it happens, im really tight. Nobody mentionned that but, well in my case, PLaying fast downstrokes also had to do with like really feeling the song and just being in synch emotionnaly! hope it helps and as someone who knows how to play it at 212bpm and knows the song pretty well rythmic wise, dont hesitate to ask if you have any other issue with it!
but learnig a lot of thrash riffs might work!
I would suggest, along with the above advice, take some time and work on your picking endurance. What I like to do is find my down picking limit, the speed just before I start to tense up, and spend a good 3 minutes or so just chugging away to the metronome. You can play power chords/riffs if you like but this is more about the right arm.
It will burn, push through it (stop if it becomes painful though, you don’t want to hurt yourself), over time SLOWLY push up the tempo as your down pick limit increases.
It will burn, push through it (stop if it becomes painful though, you don’t want to hurt yourself), over time SLOWLY push up the tempo as your down pick limit increases.
I downpick a LOT just cause I can.. it does get easier over time. It is a muscle issue for sure. Just as every other thing in guitar. if it starts to hurt, I usually give it a few minutes.. try a different song thats more slow tempo.. and then get back into it.. sometimes its like stretching.. you gotta stretch and release.. eventually you stretch further. I guess you can say the same about picking.
I’m having the same issue with the 210bpm in sixteenth notes riff in seek and destroy that is all downpicked! What is helping for me is slowing it down and really going step by step.
For example, i started at 160bpm in 16th notes and i go up 2bpm per day. In one week i am already going faster and cleaner than i was previously.
If on one day my playing isnt clean or my muscles start to hurt, i practice at the same bpm the next day and only go up once im 100% comfortable.
It may seem tedious since you will most likely start at a speed at which you are comfortable at but thats whats worked best for me so far after struggling for a long time on that riff!
For example, i started at 160bpm in 16th notes and i go up 2bpm per day. In one week i am already going faster and cleaner than i was previously.
If on one day my playing isnt clean or my muscles start to hurt, i practice at the same bpm the next day and only go up once im 100% comfortable.
It may seem tedious since you will most likely start at a speed at which you are comfortable at but thats whats worked best for me so far after struggling for a long time on that riff!
Downstrokes sound more aggressive, especially on breakdowns. I love it. I definitely do 180 no issue.. maybe not for a looong period of time, but definitely the duration in the songs I play. And I did have those pains at the beginning too. Like I said they tend to go away. Never hurts to take a break and play a softer melody and go back to the aggressiveness after. It’s probably better for the muscles anyways.
So I’m a Cellist as well as a guitarist and luckily I’ve always been good at downpicks but Cello might help us out.
In my orchestra there was a section with only “down” bows, which involved a large arm motion similar in function to the movement your wrist has to do for a down pick.
What we did to help us train up to this song is we practiced at a metronome starting at 50% speed and every time we could do it 3 times perfectly bumped it up 10 bpm
In my orchestra there was a section with only “down” bows, which involved a large arm motion similar in function to the movement your wrist has to do for a down pick.
What we did to help us train up to this song is we practiced at a metronome starting at 50% speed and every time we could do it 3 times perfectly bumped it up 10 bpm
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