# Improving down picking..how u



## vejichan (Jun 17, 2018)

master of puppets is hard downpicking ...any tips on improving my downpicking


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## Metropolis (Jun 17, 2018)

Slant the pick downwards, learn to use your picking hand's resting points effectively and what is the most efficient wrist movement style for you, and just pick hard enough. Maybe watch how John Browne plays


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## watson503 (Jun 17, 2018)

Time with your instrument practicing and playing and your right hand will get there, eventually. Take the song and play along with it slowed-down, if using YouTube, you can adjust the speed to .75, .50, and .25 I also used to end my practice with 3 minutes of straight alt picking and then 3 minutes of downpicking, just grind it out and over time you'll be downpicking to your satisfaction.


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## JustinRhoads1980 (Jun 17, 2018)

I think you need to do endurance exercises to built up the momentum for it. Also analyze your picking efficiency, picking radius, and pick angle.

Hope this is of some use


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## Mathemagician (Jun 18, 2018)

Practice. Just straight boring practice. For what it’s worth you don’t actually have to practice riffs, just down picking.

So pick a simple pattern say two notes on two different strings. And just down pick the pattern over and over to a click.

It’s the right hand that’s slow not the left. So just keep at it.

Source - I’m terrible at it but getting better. But when playing at speed or recording I alternate pick everything. One day.


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## Hollowway (Jun 18, 2018)

Or you can be like me, who played everything downpicked, couldn’t get faster, finally learned alternate picking, and now says, “Fuck it, I’m playing MoP with alternate picking.”


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## j3ps3 (Jun 27, 2018)

I tend to pick much faster when picking from my shoulder instead of my wrist. I can do MoP with my wrist but it feels more effortless when picking from the shoulder.


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## Mathemagician (Jun 27, 2018)

Hollowway said:


> Or you can be like me, who played everything downpicked, couldn’t get faster, finally learned alternate picking, and now says, “Fuck it, I’m playing MoP with alternate picking.”



Nothing like having to slow down the spider riff in the intro because alternate picking is way too fucking fast when playing along.


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## KnightBrolaire (Jun 27, 2018)

Hollowway said:


> Or you can be like me, who played everything downpicked, couldn’t get faster, finally learned alternate picking, and now says, “Fuck it, I’m playing MoP with alternate picking.”


try playing harvester of sorrow with alternate picking, that shit's hard


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## NateFalcon (Jun 27, 2018)

I’m constantly trying to downpick the usual up/down strokes. I also roll the pick and use the sides instead of the tip...Scott Ian got me going on speed downpicking when I was a teen -never looked back


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## Hollowway (Jun 28, 2018)

Are you guys saying that it’s possible to downpick faster than alternate pick? There’s just no way I can downpick faster than alternate, because I’m wasting the opportunity to hit a note on the upstroke. 
Though, I will say that economy picking is really what I’m talking about when I say alternate picking. There’s no way I’d try to alternate pick through a passage that would be easier to sweep. But I make zero effort to increase my down picking speed. I’m just trying to get my picking speed faster in general - I’ll take whatever I can get!


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## Hollowway (Jun 28, 2018)

Mathemagician said:


> Nothing like having to slow down the spider riff in the intro because alternate picking is way too fucking fast when playing along.


Well I'll be.... I just went downstairs and played in on my guitar, and I play that riff all down strokes. I can't play it any other way.  I still hate strict downpicking, though.


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## Mathemagician (Jun 29, 2018)

KnightBrolaire said:


> try playing harvester of sorrow with alternate picking, that shit's hard



Jokes on you! I can’t play Harvester of Sorrow at all!


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## NateFalcon (Jun 29, 2018)

Hollowway said:


> Are you guys saying that it’s possible to downpick faster than alternate pick? There’s just no way I can downpick faster than alternate, because I’m wasting the opportunity to hit a note on the upstroke.
> Though, I will say that economy picking is really what I’m talking about when I say alternate picking. There’s no way I’d try to alternate pick through a passage that would be easier to sweep. But I make zero effort to increase my down picking speed. I’m just trying to get my picking speed faster in general - I’ll take whatever I can get!


I sure as hell try lol, it definitely creates a punchier, more defined tone than alternate picking in fast parts. I’ll switch back and forth from down/down and up/down...it’s like drum blast beats but with downpicking, you can make it an art if you got the wrist for it


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## Yash94 (Jul 18, 2018)

Slow down master of puppets, play it faster, 5 bpm, slowly slowly. Play for half an hour. Leave. Play for another half an hour. Repeat next day. I think that's the only thing that worked for me. Just time. But, I still can't play the whole song all the way through. Need more stamina, and, learn the bridge part and Kirk's solo.


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## j3ps3 (Jul 20, 2018)

I really don't think that the repetition is the key with downstroke. It helps but if you don't pay any attention to how you play, it will not help you. You will eventually hit a wall with the speed.

Like I said, I tend to do the downstrokes mainly from my shoulder. It helps me to go faster and my wrist doesn't get tired so it helps with the endurance too.

Also, when I was practicing downstrokes, I used the same philosophy as one would in golf; keep your eye in the ball (your picking hand is the ball here). I noticed that after certain speed the movement of my picking hand gets kinda out of control. The jumps from string to string got too exaggerated so I really focused on getting the movement of the picking hand as small as possible. And I did that by actually just staring at my picking hand while playing and forcing myself to make the movement as tiny as possible.

Still feel like I have a long way to go, but I'm fairly happy with the results. This is still a little sloppy, but here's where I'm at:


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## Vyn (Jul 21, 2018)

Practice. I remember when I was learning puppets around 14 I took it to my then guitar teacher and he got me to just slow it down, play an hour of it a day minimum and then at the start of the new week crank it by 5bpm, but only if you're completely clean at the current tempo. I was on 175bpm for fucking months, then 180-200 only took a week each haha. 

It won't be linear progress, when you hit a wall it's going to suck, just keep pushing though and you'll get there!


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## Maniacal (Jul 30, 2018)

A good song to practice for straight forward downstrokes is the C in Eye of the Tiger. It is slightly faster than MOP and is relentless downstrokes for 4+ minutes. I have had a few students switch from MOP to Eye of the Tiger as a fun and straight forward workout.


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## Axe Cop (Aug 12, 2018)

The first 4 or 5 years I played guitar I only played rhythem. I don't think I even went passed the 9th fret or ever even tried alternate picking aside from gallop picking which I'm really good at. 20 years later I still prefer to play rhythems and don't like playing lead. With that said my alternate picking sucks but I'm a downpicking beast. 

Sorry if this didn't help but my advice is to just jam a bunch of rhythem guitar using only downpicking for a while.


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## gujukal (Aug 18, 2018)

Why not just get really good at alternate picking? If your technique is good enough and your upstrokes are strong it should be able to sound as good as only down picking i would assume.


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## Ralyks (Aug 18, 2018)

Know what I realized was good practice for downpicking? "The Mirror" by Dream. The intro itself is a lot of downpicking, and slight changes in rhythm to boot.


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