# Alternate Picking gallops?



## Aerospace274 (Jan 30, 2011)

Does anyone have any advice for playing a gallop pattern with an unusual picking pattern? When i'm playing at high tempos I sometimes don't have time to do DUD DUD for gallops, but when i try DUD UDU the second gallop is always slower than it should be. It's really noticeable when i'm working with like 32nd 32nd 16th note values for gallops. Anyone else out there have this problem or know how to make alternate picking gallop sections feel more natural? Thanks!


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## groph (Jan 30, 2011)

Maybe try to get really really used to upstrokes. I do the same thing when doing fast triplets or playing riffs similar to Meshuggah's "Bleed." Going DUD DUD really wastes a lot of motion and causes some tension to build up pretty quickly so I try to economize as much as possible. So my completely non expert advice would be to go through some scales or something and upstroke every note so it becomes as natural as downstrokes. Then there's the obvious, keep on practicing what you're trying to do. As long as your techinique is good, you'll eventually get it down.


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## SirMyghin (Jan 30, 2011)

Sounds like you are getting under the string too much on your upstrokes and scooping it a bit? That is the only reason I could see it going any slower. Picking them DUD DUD is odd to me, and DUD UDU would be normal in my books.

Go to something like 2 minutes to midnight (Iron Maiden) and force yourself to strictly alternate pick (I play it with downpicking usually, but have done just that more than a few times). That should be good for getting some up stroke mechanics under your belt.


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## Aerospace274 (Jan 30, 2011)

groph, yes. Bleed is exactly the song in question, lol! The first rhythm is easy, DUD U DUD U but the others are brutal! I'll try my scales as upstrokes though! Can't hurt at least! If anything I can weird out my bandmates during the next jam session or something at warm up!
And SirMyghin, i'm not sure if that's the problem. I'm always alternate picking, but i'll damn sure give it a shot! Skipping an upstroke does feel unnatural to me, which is why i'm so concerned about this technique, lol! Playing fast songs like Raining Blood or Bleed's gallops sometimes mess up my rhythm hand like it's not used to it or something, but upstrokes are nothing new to me at all! It seems to just be on gallop style patterns.


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## Hollowway (Jan 30, 2011)

For modern syncopated stuff picking is definitely a challenge. I wish tabbers would tab the picking patterns, because I find that the hardest part! I know where you're coming from, because in many fast, tech death type tunes if you alternate pick, and you're doing both 16ths and 32nds, you have to either choose the fastest note (i.e. 32nd) and alternate pick those, and then just down pick all of the 16ths, 8ths, etc., or figure out each little bit. For me, on a fast tune, there's just no way I can down pick my way through the majority of it, waiting to alternate pick the really fast stuff. But I can't alternate pick everything, because there will be a time where I'll have to enter a measure on a U, and I want to always start with a D. So for yours, I'd say work on your alternating, but keep in mind there's just no way to avoid two back to back Ds at some points in the song.


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## Aerospace274 (Jan 30, 2011)

Hell yeah man. I actually took everyone's advice and I seem to instantly be able to do it a little bit better. I didn't think my upstroke was digging in but as it turns out, I was lol. I must've taught myself to alternate pick during this little "PICK HARD" phase I had like two years ago, lol. Thanks everyone! 
I'll make sure I keep it up with these exercises. I've already got a pretty tight rhythm hand band it was a little peeve of mine, lol.


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## haffner1 (Jan 30, 2011)

When I started playing, my first teacher was not a metal player, so he had me play everything in straight alternate all of the time, so that's how I learned the gallops. So I kind of had the opposite problem from you. I would always run into things that wouldn't work for straight alternate, so eventually I had to figure out how to do it both ways. For me, DUD UDU still comes more naturally than DUD DUD, but yes, sometimes it can be more work to get the timing evened out.


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## Overtone (Feb 1, 2011)

I don't think strict alternate picking is optimal for that kind of playing. With DUD DUD it should feel normal because there is a rest where the skipped upstroke is. Same goes for something like DUD D D DUD D D DUD DUD DUD. It's just like strumming chords on acoustic... it helps maintain a steady rhythm to keep moving during the rests and just not actually pick the string. I would slow things down a lot and concentrate on the following... start off picking straight sixteenth notes DUDU. Now (take - to be a sixteenth note rest) try this DU--DU-- but make sure you are counting the rests in your head. Now play DUD-DUD- by picking down, picking up, picking down, moving the pick back up but not picking the string, repeat. It just works...


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## SirMyghin (Feb 1, 2011)

^

Gotta do what works for you, you are sacrificing economy of motion as you feel it is requisite to keeping good timing. If you can keep the timing regardless, why move more than you have to? I wil lsay that when playing very quickly, economy of motion is much more important though.


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## Overtone (Feb 1, 2011)

I think that is just how it's done... a thrash tradition if you will. Playing that way isn't just consistent rhythmically, but sonically as well. No matter HOW good your timing is, playing the gallops DUD UDU will not sound as consistent, just the same as how you are not going to get the same sound by playing alternate picking instead of all downstrokes for a song like Master of Puppets. If you have to sing and play it also makes things easier. It's counterintuitive if you're used to playing differently, but once you get the hang of it it's much less of a challenge to stay on point with what you're playing.


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## Stealthdjentstic (Feb 1, 2011)

If you're having that much trouble with galloping I would not start with Bleed


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## Aerospace274 (Feb 1, 2011)

No, I can perform gallops just fine, it just seems awkward to me to skip an upstroke, yet galloping UDU is awkward feeling too. It's not like Bleed is my first song or anything. I'm kind of stuck at the moment between it feeling awkward going DUD DUD and weird going UDU. :/


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## shogunate (Feb 1, 2011)

Try various rhythms that can or do utilize triplets, In Flames' F(r)iend comes to mind as a great song to practice, the main riff is just straight triplets, it gets your arm burning good after a minute or two 

Once comfortable with a pattern, I would play it backwards picking, for instance, if you do the Bleed/F(r)iend rhythm DUD, start it UDU and continue that way so your picking hand feels just as comfortable either way when you get going fast. It'll quickly become pretty natural. 

My last (and most useful, IMO) advice would be to get a metronome/drum machine whatever and set it to do triplets or triplets with unusual single or double notes in between, preferably at an unusual timing like 7/8, 13/8 etc and just chug along for as long as your stamina lets you. The unusual and fast timings will force your hand to adapt quickly and naturally it will start doing whatever feels most economical in the circumstance.  Maybe I'm just nuts but it worked for me


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## SirMyghin (Feb 1, 2011)

Overtone said:


> I think that is just how it's done... a thrash tradition if you will. Playing that way isn't just consistent rhythmically, but sonically as well. No matter HOW good your timing is, playing the gallops DUD UDU will not sound as consistent, just the same as how you are not going to get the same sound by playing alternate picking instead of all downstrokes for a song like Master of Puppets. If you have to sing and play it also makes things easier. It's counterintuitive if you're used to playing differently, but once you get the hang of it it's much less of a challenge to stay on point with what you're playing.



Your problem is not picking pattern, it is listening to metallica . I used to do bass and vox in a Rush tribute, it takes a lot to trip me. If it isn't consistent rhythmically, you just haven't practiced it enough.



> Once comfortable with a pattern, I would play it backwards picking, for instance, if you do the Bleed/F(r)iend rhythm DUD, start it UDU and continue that way so your picking hand feels just as comfortable either way when you get going fast. It'll quickly become pretty natural.



This is also very good, always practice riffs starting on EITHER stroke, don't favour one, or you develope a dependancy of sorts.


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## Aerospace274 (Feb 1, 2011)

Awesome advice! I'll start songs with an upstroke just for practice so it's all backwards the whole song!


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## shogunate (Feb 1, 2011)

> This is also very good, always practice riffs starting on EITHER stroke, don't favour one, or you develope a dependancy of sorts.



Very true, and the root of metal players in particular having more trouble picking up more economical picking. Efficiency isn't br00tal  RAAARRGH!!! 

I was the opposite for the longest time, when I started playing and heard about downpicking, I would read tablature and thought the "down" part was in relation to the tab, so I focused on my up picking thinking it was down


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## failshredder (Feb 2, 2011)

You should be able to downpick eighths and do sixteenth-sixteenth-eighth gallops DUD DUD beyond 200 on a single string. It just sounds better, and isn't really that hard with a bit of practice. DUD UDU gallops sound fucking weird. This is not just a 'hurr hurr Metallica' thing -- most of the great thrash guitarists (where death metal and every other super-aggressive subgenre come from) pick like this, because it _sounds better_.


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## Overtone (Feb 2, 2011)

THANK YOU!


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