# Should I fight fire with fire?



## All_¥our_Bass (Jun 2, 2006)

Anyone got advice on learning 'Fight Fire With Fire'. Especially on the topic of speed picking. Like how to get it faster-I just can't fit all of the open notes between the fretted ones.


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## distressed_romeo (Jun 2, 2006)

Hate to say it, but in my experience, whenever you try to force speed it's always counter-productive. Try learning it a little slower and getting it perfectly in time with a good tone. Once you've concentrated on the quality of each note in that way and've trained your hands to exectute it perfectly at a slightly slower speed, the fast tempo will come naturally.

Just out of interest, are you playing it with a pick or fingers?


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## eaeolian (Jun 2, 2006)

^ Yeah, what he said. It's a function of practice to get speed and accuracy.


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## Chris (Jun 2, 2006)

As with most old metallica, once you get those songs down, your picking hand chops will be fucking outstanding. So... Many... Downstrokes..


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## noodles (Jun 2, 2006)

Like others have said, practice will get you there. If there is a Guitar Pro or PowerTab version floating around, that would be perfect, since you can change the tempo. Otherwise, concentrate on memorizing the parts, and then slowly ratchet things up with a metronome over time.

Above all else, stay relaxed. Think of every fast picker you've ever seen, and they all have very relaxed looking right arms. You know when you're pushing things faster than you can go when your arm starts tensing up.


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## Naren (Jun 2, 2006)

I actually cover this song (lead vocals, rhythm guitar). I have no trouble with the speed (in fact, sometimes I play it faster than the actual original), but I do have a little bit of trouble with the timing for the rhythm guitar during the solo. Time signatures other than 4/4 can give me trouble. Took me a while to get Blackened down (dang song keeps changing signature from 4/4 to 6/4 to even 7/4 I think... might be wrong). 

My only advice I guess is don't just pick as fast as you can. If you do, you'll screw up and just get frustrated. I've noticed that depending on the kind of pick I use, it can be easier or harder to play this song. 

Ride The Lightning is my favorite Metallica album (Off that album, we cover Fight Fire With Fire, Ride The Lightning, and For Whom The Bell Tolls. We are planning on doing Creeping Death and we also screw around with The Call of Ktulu. I'd like to do Escape as well, since I really like that song) and Fight Fire With Fire is a dang fun song to play. Very fun to sing too. I've got Hetfield's vocals on this song pretty well down

Others have given good advice, as well. You'll get it as long as you don't give up.


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## abyssalservant (Jun 2, 2006)

I'm playing with a pick. More agressive tone plus it's easier to play faster.

Also to the otehr guy-Playing it faster than the original!? nuts: or ? ) I just about died when I saw this, not that this is the fastest thing ever but it's up there.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Jun 2, 2006)

oops. Above post is actually be me (All_¥our_Bass).
Abyssalservant came over a few days ago and loggfed himself in and never logged out. I forgot and assumed I was logged in under my name. Mods please make the above post mine. sorry about this.


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## tehk (Jun 2, 2006)

Use Water. Sheesh when will people learn .


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## Dive-Baum (Jun 2, 2006)

I learned to play on old Metallica. I think they are the best group to learn to play metal with. Just be patient and keep at it. Get your mechanics down and watch you pick angle. Keep it at an angle so as to provide as little resistance on the string as possible. Keep at it. I was never a big fan of fight fire with fire personally but it is wicked fast. Good luck.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Jun 2, 2006)

Chris said:


> ... So... Many... Downstrokes..



It's soo true though!!
A buddy of mine had some video of Kirk Hammet play various riffs from songs off of Master of Puppets. It was cool but I was rather perplexed to see him play the Puppetz intro  entirely downstroked... *attemps to play same thing same way* nope can't do it-alternate picking is my best friend.
 I'm not worthy!!



tehk said:


> Use Water. Sheesh when will people learn .


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## AdamantGuitarist (Jun 2, 2006)

All_¥our_Bass said:


> It's soo true though!!
> A buddy of mine had some video of Kirk Hammet play various riffs from songs off of Master of Puppets. It was cool but I was rather perplexed to see him play the Puppetz intro  entirely downstroked... *attemps to play same thing same way* nope can't do it-alternate picking is my best friend.
> I'm not worthy!!



Thats interesting. I can play the intro perfectly, and i find it to be much easier with downstrokes. I can't play it nearly as fast or accurate using alternate picking.


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## eaeolian (Jun 2, 2006)

AdamantGuitarist said:


> Thats interesting. I can play the intro perfectly, and i find it to be much easier with downstrokes. I can't play it nearly as fast or accurate using alternate picking.



I can play it either way, but it doesn't SOUND right unless it's downstrokes.


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## Kotex (Jun 2, 2006)

I play it with downstrokes too, and can actually go kinda' of a lot faster than the original like that. But I have always downpicked, I just now started to alternate. But even still, I always use downpick for the fast stuff. To be on topic, start off slow and the build up. I use the same thing for solos and stuff.


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## Naren (Jun 3, 2006)

eaeolian said:


> I can play it either way, but it doesn't SOUND right unless it's downstrokes.



Completely agree. There are some Metallica songs that can sound okay alternate-picked, but most of them don't sound right unless all downstrokes. 

I've always thought Master Of Puppets was one of the easier all downstrokes Metallica songs speed-wise. 

And, yeah, All Your Bass, sometimes I play "Fight Fire With Fire" faster than the original. Not like twice as fast or anything like that, but recognizably faster. I don't think it's so difficult to go faster than the original. It's not like the fastest song I've heard before (or played before). I had an original song in a band I used to be in that was faster.


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## Kotex (Jun 3, 2006)

Yeah, I never thought MOP was that fast either. I think FFWF is faster.


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## David (Jun 3, 2006)

Chris said:


> So... Many... Downstrokes..


nooo, don't tell the secret! But yes, the more downstrokes you do at a quicker and cleaner speed, the quicker your hand can move for alternate picking with ease.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Jun 4, 2006)

I was taught to alternate pick very early on and thus I came to use it all the time with a few exceptions. It's funny cause I do all sorts of ornimantations(trliplet hammer-ons/pull-offs, slides, bending into notes, etc.) with my left hand, but my right hand isn't really up to par with picking as it should be-and my buddy who I play with couldn't be any more opposite (Speed picking, high tempos, plam muting) but he doesn't add very much "decoration" to his playing.


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## distressed_romeo (Jun 5, 2006)

Everyone seems to do that. I started favouring my fretting hand early on as well, whereas I've seen other people following the other model you describe.


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