# Weird picking patterns help! (IE Bleed)



## Blazerok (Sep 15, 2011)

Hi i am currently having troubles with picking patterns that are too fast to assign downstrokes to downbeats and upstrokes to upbeats exclusively.
For example The first riff in Bleed would go d-u-d-d-d-u-d-d..., but its so damn fast its about impossible to play up to speed and sustain for more than 5 seconds.
The other way to do it would be to play all in alternate picking but doubling speed for the 32nd notes. But for some reason i can't do it?
Can anyone give me advices about how to approach/practise it?
Thanks!


----------



## penguin_316 (Sep 15, 2011)

It is all alt picking and you can't do it because it's quite unconventional. 

PS-Of course you can't run that marathon today, it takes time to build up to it. Practice slow and stay relaxed, you will never get through that song with a tense arm/wrist/shoulder/etc.


----------



## Blazerok (Sep 15, 2011)

i'll be working on it then. I wasn't sure how it was meant to be played, and if anyone else had issues with it. Thank you!


----------



## edsped (Sep 15, 2011)

Yeah, it's all alternate picking like he said and it's definitely tricky to play.


----------



## nojyeloot (Sep 15, 2011)

Actually the picking pattern is:

D-U-D--U--D-U-D--U

Your pattern is WAY harder.


----------



## Blazerok (Sep 16, 2011)

nojyeloot said:


> Actually the picking pattern is:
> 
> D-U-D--U--D-U-D--U
> 
> Your pattern is WAY harder.


Yeah, so its more like the second alternative. Thanks for the video! i saw it some month ago but totally forgot about it!


----------



## johnthefreeman1 (Sep 16, 2011)

When I play "Bleed", I use a little technique (not really a technique, though) that has been extremely helpful. 

You still play the pattern like so:
D-U-D--U--D-U-D--U
However, I do not try to do the upstroke. I simply do downstrokes and let the upstroke happen naturally. 
Try this: use your hands to drum on your desk, the downstroke of the beat on the left hand and the upstroke with the right hand. Now play this using only the left hand. This is how is should sound. Now go back to your guitar and force only downstrokes and let the upstrokes come naturally.


----------



## TelosHedge (Sep 16, 2011)

thank you for finally pointing out the CORRECT way to pick that meshuggah song. i've seen wayyy to many videos of people trying to play it the 'standard horse trot' kinda way and butchering it.

to the OP, if you want a classic example of a song that is written with your picking pattern (DUDDDUDD) listen to megadeth's 'she wolf' or 'barracuda' by whoever the fuck wrote that song


----------



## Adari (Sep 16, 2011)

I'm pretty sure Ola Englund said that Dick Lovgren told him that he plays it D-U-D--D--D-U-D--D, though he didn't say how Marten and Fredrik play it. Bear in mind that it took all three of them (and Tomas) several months to build up the stamina to play the song fluently.


----------



## concertjunkie (Sep 18, 2011)

I found it very easy to play when I broke it up and played it slower

I looked at it as a "triplet+1" so D U D + U as it has been said. The last up actually makes sense since it prepares you for the next downstroke

a good exercise that got me to finally get this down (and not to mention good for stamina) is to do that picking pattern for a minute, at a slow termpo, make sure to get the rhythm of it

then increase speed or increase time played
I got it to a minute first, then did it 2, then 3 minutes
then increased speed and repeated the cycle at a lower time, building up
Afterwards it isnt such a challenge to play it for extended periods of time
feel the burrrrrrrn!!!


----------



## TelosHedge (Sep 18, 2011)

concertjunkie said:


> I looked at it as a "triplet+1" so D U D + U as it has been said. The last up actually makes sense since it prepares you for the next downstroke.



i like this way of thinking. i'll go even one further and say that the most 'odd' thing to me about this riff is the notion of alternate picking out of rhythmic context. we all kind of fall into our own rhythmic dictations about what our picking/strumming hand should do depending on the rhythms we're actually playing. 

for example, if you have to play a reggae or ska type chord progression i find most people playing the quick upbeat-type chords in a purely U U U U strum pattern. this is easy for our brains to decypher since we're matching 'ups' - up strokes with up beats. ever try to play that same progression with a true alternating strum pattern? i'm sure we can all do it, but it might not 'feel' the same - at least not to me!

i've been experimenting lately with breaking out of this box, with some positive results. the downside to this approach is you lose that natural 'feel' for your picking. there is something special and soulful to accenting the right musical ideas with their correlating body motions. anyway, purely alternate picking regardless of rhythm is much more systematic and, at times, easier... though it doesn't necessarily make it the best way all the time.

just my two cents..


----------



## fatfzcody (Sep 23, 2011)

and just to chime in, when you get up to speeds in excess of 220 bpm, it really helps to alternate triplets starting with upstrokes and downstrokes. for example, two triplets where you'd normally start both with downstrokes:
D-U-D _ D-U-D
when you get to about 260, this becomes very strenuous. try starting each second grouping with an upstroke as follows:
D-U-D _ U-D-U _ D-U-D _ U-D-U

this is extremely hard and almost seemingly useless at first, but i promise, practice this technique and you'll be flying in no time.


----------

