# Improving downpicking? Suggestions?



## vejichan (Mar 4, 2017)

Working on master of puppets and downpicking is hard...any tips on how I can get a good at downpicking like Ola England and James ?


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## watson503 (Mar 4, 2017)

It's just practice and time spent. One thing I used to do was to add three minutes of straight downpicking during each practice session and bumping the metronome up accordingly as improvements came. As far as Master of Puppets, you can practice by playing along to one of the guitar tracks or song videos on YT at regular speed to push yourself and then go at it again,but decrease the speed to 50% on said video - if that's too slow, there are also tracks slowed to 200, 190, 150 bpms, etc.


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## vejichan (Mar 4, 2017)

watson503 said:


> It's just practice and time spent. One thing I used to do was to add three minutes of straight downpicking during each practice session and bumping the metronome up accordingly as improvements came. As far as Master of Puppets, you can practice by playing along to one of the guitar tracks or song videos on YT at regular speed to push yourself and then go at it again,but decrease the speed to 50% on said video - if that's too slow, there are also tracks slowed to 200, 190, 150 bpms, etc.



Thanks, I think I'm doing it wrong....because my right hand is tired after 3 minutes of down picking


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## gnoll (Mar 5, 2017)

vejichan said:


> Thanks, I think I'm doing it wrong....because my right hand is tired after 3 minutes of down picking



Well how much downpicking have you done before? And for some perspective, do you know how many shows Metallica have done playing Master of Puppets, Battery, Creeping Death, Blackened and all those songs?

Like watson said, it's just about practise. The more time you put into it (and the more efficient your practise routine is) the better you will get.


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## USMarine75 (Mar 5, 2017)

Hahaha saw thread and clicked on it to post that you should practice by playing some old school Metallica. Nevermind lol.

Interestingly, there was a Paul Gilbert video somewhere about learning how to downpick and alt pick. He was self taught and originally didn't know that you could down pick, so all he did was up pick every note. So he had to learn how to down and alt pick later on and he passed on tips.


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## vejichan (Mar 5, 2017)

Interesting. For the first year ofplaying guitar...I didn't know you could alt pick. So I downpicked every note. I was playing solos all downpicked...yeayngwiemalmsteen...and wondered how he picked so fast.


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## Eptaceros (Mar 12, 2017)

vejichan said:


> Thanks, I think I'm doing it wrong....because my right hand is tired after 3 minutes of down picking



that sounds about right. I've been playing for 13 years and I still get tired from downpicking haha

My band plays a tune at 215 bpm with a downpicked section at 8th notes...on chords that span 3 strings. That will never not be a workout. 

Downpicking = struggling 4ever



vejichan said:


> Interesting. For the first year ofplaying guitar...I didn't know you could alt pick. So I downpicked every note. I was playing solos all downpicked...yeayngwiemalmsteen...and wondered how he picked so fast.



Same here. I remember learning Cowboys From Hell and thinking how impossible it was. Until I realized that not everything needs to be downpicked


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## metalheadblues (Mar 17, 2017)

Maybe its a personal thing but that Meshuggah Bleed riff although simple is really challenging but it really builds picking strength , after mastering/playing that riff for a few minutes down picking and just general alternative picking and down strokes are no longer an issue. That riff is like deadlifts for picking


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## j3ps3 (Mar 19, 2017)

For me the hardest part with downstrokes is not the actual downstroke as much as the movement of the pick back to the starting point. That's the part where I lose time, I think, so I practice by playing upstrokes, but keeping the angle of the pick the same I would when playing downstrokes.


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## Nomad (Apr 17, 2017)

j3ps3 said:


> For me the hardest part with downstrokes is not the actual downstroke as much as the movement of the pick back to the starting point. That's the part where I lose time, I think, so I practice by playing upstrokes, but keeping the angle of the pick the same I would when playing downstrokes.



 voted for best response in thread.


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## Rizzo (Apr 18, 2017)

Just play some thrash and slow it down until you can nail it, then bump it up gradually.
It's all about stamina and muscle reflex really.


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