So I did some research to find quality sources to get you started on your path to becoming the ultimate metal guitar shredder.
This first example illustrates several different types of picking techniques used to play metal and rock guitar at http://metalguitarlessons.net/lessons/speed-picking-mechanics/.
Understand that this is not the only approach to playing these particular scale patterns and I have had many students change and alter the basic advice given here to better suit their own styles. I encourage you to do the same.
Ascending Scales
There are pros and cons to every picking approach. The most common discussion I’ve seen is Alternate Picking vs. Economy Picking. While alternate picking offers nearly brain dead consistency (if one note is played with a downstroke, the next will be played with an upstroke) it can be tough to master because there is usually a lot of wasted movement in the actual execution. Sometimes a string must be passed and then doubled back on in order to hit it with the appropriate stroke. Play a downstroke on the Low E string and follow that up with an UPSTROKE on the A string. Notice you had to pass the A-string first before executing the upstroke.
For economy picking the problem is just the opposite. It offers what is argueably the most efficient way to pick across the strings, but it’s application requires some thought in order to maximize that efficiency (such as knowing whether or not to begin a string with an UP or a DOWN stroke!).
For me and a lot of other speedsters out there, the choice is economy picking:
Economy picking is just another form of ’sweep picking’. I tend to refer to the former when using the technique in a scalar context and the latter when executing arpeggios. Notice that string changes are done with CONSECUTIVE downstrokes. This saves time and energy since you don’t have to pass the string and double back.
This technique can take some getting use to. The picking hand will reach the next string way before the fretting hand does, so what you want to do is let the pick come to rest ON the next string and then push it through once the fretting hand catches up. It’s very easy to let the picking hand get ‘ahead’ and play the next string before the fretting hand has a chance to get ahold of it’s note. You will have to ‘hold back’ on the picking with this technique. However, thats the beauty of it: the picking hand isn’t strained in keeping up with the left hand.
Descending Scales
I take a much different approach when descending through the scale. First, I will show you the standard ‘economy picking version’ and then the ‘Dan Sorber version’:
Playing the scale is literally a reverse of the above approach: now strings are changed with consecutive UPSTROKES! Remember not to rush the picking hand. It will take some practice to synchronize the two hands, but the benefit is the ability to whip through your scale patterns with little effort.
As you can see the advantage of this approach over alternate picking is that there is no wasted movement: you carry the pickstroke across the strings whenever you can. This results in a very fluid sounding picking techinque. It also looks like you are barely moving your pickhand at all. It’s all about the efficency of movement when it comes to economy picking.
If you remember I told you this isn’t the way that *I* descend scales. I use an approach I picked up from Yngwie Malmsteen:
The pull-off buys the pick more than enough time to get into position on the next string. This can be tricky to pull off and in some cases actually alternate picking the lick or using consecutive upstrokes might be the better approach. When do I use a pull-off? In any situation where I find the pick to be moving in the opposite direction I need it to.
Whaaaa?
In other words… if I alternate pick this scale the last note on the string will be played with a DOWNSTROKE… which is moving the pick towards the floor. I need it to move towards the ceiling, or rather, toward the string I am actually going for. The whole efficency of movement thing just went down the toilet. In order to compensate and get the pick moving in the right direction you can do one of two things:
1.) Start the string on an upstroke and use consecutive upstrokes to perform the string changes.
2.) Or start the string with a downstroke and use a pull off just before changing strings
This approach has another advantage: The slight mixing of legato into what is otherwise a picking run will make the idea have depth and sound more complex. I call it multi-textural. Ever notice how different even Yngwie’s straightforward scale runs sound compared to other players? This is why.
In certain licks, such as when I have four notes per string, I will continue alternate picking instead. If the last pickstroke is an UPSTROKE before I change strings then there is no need for the pull off: I am already moving the pick in the direction it needs to go:
The above example illustrates my approach perfectly: when descending I need to use a pull off when there is an odd number of notes per string, but alternate picking is perfectly fine when I have an even number of notes per string.
Players like myself and Yngwie Malmsteen quite often start a new string with a downstroke and we aren’t afraid to mix in some legato to make that happen. The fact of the matter is that Yngwie’s entire picking approach is centered around downward sweeping and legato is used to set this up. Rarely are upward sweeps used in this mechanic.
Now here’s the downside of this approach. It obviously involves more thought than alternate picking to execute. When improvising changing strings doesn’t usually happen on a regular basis. Rather, this decending approach takes some practice. As you become familiar with playing different licks using this mechanic you will begin to ‘feel out’ the string changes. With practice you will know when to continue alternate picking or when the pull off needs to be in place.
The Avenger
The next example is from my band’s original song, “The Avenger” (Ferox Canorus). The main riff is played using mainly downward sweeps with a pull off thrown in to keep the picking consistent:
This should help you get your economy picking in order. Notice in the second measure there is an anomoly to the mechanic: I end up changing strings without the use of a sweep.
The whole reason of this was:
1.) If feels natural and that one string change isn’t enough to throw me off
2.) Consistency in the riff. The picking is set up in such a way to facilitate all the sweeping done in the first measure. If I change it up I risk ending the riff on a DOWNSTROKE which would cause it to begin on an UPSTROKE on the repeat and make the sweeps in the first measure impossible to execute.
3.)I’m not a frickin’ robot.
Feel free to experiment with your own approach for the second measure. However you decide to pick that last measure the whole riff MUST start on a downstroke to set you up for the sweeps.
Realize that this is just ONE facet of my approach to playing the guitar. I utilize specific patterns and specific techniques depending on the musical situation.
Also keep in mind that certain scale shapes facilitate certain techniques.
The CodaAs with many styles of popular guitar, metal playing carries with it a heavy amount of improvisation. Improv can be both an invigorating creative experience and a terrifying stage experience. It's truly your opportunity to lay it all down on the line.
As you can see this approach is not a “catch all”. No one technique is! As I stated before I have different mechanics in place for different musical situations. You will need to develop a more complete set of techniques than what is illustrated here in order to approach a wider variety of situations.
So, that being said, there are key elements to keep in mind when you take on an improvised solo in the metal arena. I found these tips to be especially interesting at http://metalguitarlessons.net/lessons/8-reasons-why-your-guitar-improvisation-does-not-sound-like-music/.
1. Overplaying
The first reason is probably the most common among guitarists (and drummers). Playing too many notes is the defining characteristic of “the obnoxious guitar player (TM)” that other musicians, not to mention the public, dread so much.
It is important to realize that the term “overplaying” has a relative meaning. Some songs may require a slow solo, while others will call for a solo with a lot of notes and fast runs. Not all fast guitarists are automatically guilty of overplaying. A shred solo DOES require lots of notes, and if the song is composed so that it sets up the solo properly then even the fastest solo can’t be considered overplaying. It is a matter of context and taste.
The solution here is ridiculously simple: just play fewer notes! Train yourself to improvise over a backing track using only 1-2 notes per bar. If the backing track is in 4/4, this means one note every 2-4 beats. It seems easy, but if you try it in practice you will discover that you have to resist the urge to speed up. Do not give up!
1. When overplaying the superfluous notes obscure the melody line. Actually some people play too many notes trying to hide the lack of melody in their solos!
2. It is not very important how fast you can play, but how much is the difference between the slowest and the fastest note you can play. If you can give a lot of contrast between slow and fast passages, the fast passages will seem faster.
3. It is generally a good idea to keep your fastest licks for the end of your solo/improvisation. If you play them too soon you will have nothing else to entertain the listener afterward.
2. Phrasing
Now that you have your foot firmly on the brake and not overplaying, you will start to notice that slow notes may not actually sound that good by themselves. If you feel the urge to play fast to hide this, resist it. The problem does not lie in the fact that you are playing slowly: the culprit is your lack of familiarity and training with long notes. Yes, you heard me correctly. Many of us spend lots of practice time in order to play faster (an endeavor that I applaud), but how many of us actually practice to play ONE good long note?
If you practice with only one note at your disposal you will soon discover that the rules of the game are different. It’s not anymore only WHAT you play, but also HOW you play it (i.e. your PHRASING). The two most common problems that guitarists encounter in this respect are 1) bends not in tune and 2) bad vibrato (too fast, too narrow, not regular). If you are doing the exercise I suggested above, i.e. improvising just with few long notes, you may start to notice these issues. If so, that is GREAT! Only if you hear the problems in your playing you can fix them. I will not expand too much on the topic of bends and vibrato here, since it is a topic that requires a lot of space and there are already good articles on the web about that. What I will say here is: set aside some time in your daily practice routine to practice exclusively single notes with bends and vibrato. A good vibrato is the signature of any good player.
3. Not targeting chord notes
Of course, even if HOW you play it is very important, WHAT you play still retains a certain importance (random notes are not everyone’s favorite melody). Even if you are playing in the right key with good phrasing, sometimes your improvisation fails to “glue” to the chord progression in the backing track. This happens because at any given moment in music some notes are more “right” than others. The short story is: the “right” notes are the ones that are included in the chord that is playing in that moment (the so-called “chord tones”). If this last statement is not clear to you, I am going to clarify it in a minute. In the meantime, let me state an important fact: in general you are NOT restricted to play only “right” notes. In fact, you can play literally whatever you want as long as you stop on a “right” note (this last statement has a lot of exceptions but it’s a good starting point). This is the meaning of the often cited quote “there are no wrong notes, only wrong resolutions” attributed to at least 20 different Jazz musicians.
Now, let’s clarify this concept: chords are composed by at least three notes. For instance the C major chord is made by the notes C, E, G. So, if the backing track is playing a C major chord on a certain moment, I have to finish my phrases on a C note, or an E note or a G note. If the chord changes, my “target notes” change too. At the beginning this seems hopelessly difficult to manage (after all you have to 1. know what chord is playing right now; 2. remember the notes of this chord; 3. find them on the fretboard; and 4. play them, all at the same time!). With a bit of structured training this becomes very easy. All good players have practiced targeting chord notes until it became second nature. The key to understand it is to use some visual guide, like the following diagrams that show the chord notes for Am and C in the Am pentatonic scale.
4. Not playing with other musicians
As I am fond of saying, music is a team sport. While you can certainly have some fun by yourself, it is not even close to the fun you can have playing with other people (or FOR other people, as we will see below). With this I do not mean that you have to play only with other guitarists, but also with bass players, drummers, singers, keyboard players, in fact any kind of musicians you can find.
I know what many of you are thinking right now: “But I am still not good enough to play with other people / have a band”. Well, let me be blunt here: if you do not go out and play with other people, you may NEVER become good enough! You can’t learn how to swim if you do not enter in the water. If you want to learn how to play basketball you can’t do it alone. You may not be good enough to enter the NBA yet, but you can surely find someone in your neighborhood that will play with you. The same goes for music.
You will discover very soon that when you are playing with other musicians, the dynamics of your playing is completely different. You have to adapt to what other people are doing, react to their music, and give your own interpretation. Lots of good players have honed their skills by playing in bands, and you should do the same. By the way, this is also one (but not the only) reason to have a good teacher: you will be playing regularly with someone better than you.
5. Not listening
One corollary of “music is a team sport” is that when you are playing with other musicians you have to LISTEN (and in general pay attention) to what and how they are playing. How can you tell if you are paying attention to the other musician (or the backing track)?
1. You find yourself looking at your fretboard all the time and not at the other musicians, you are not paying enough attention. Good musicians look at each other all the time.
2. If you start improvising as soon as the backing track/band starts, you are not listening. Good musicians let few bars pass before improvising to absorb the feel, the tempo and the chord changes of the song.
3. If you are just waiting “for your turn to play”, you are not listening.
A good way to learn how to listen is called “to trade fours”. You need another guitarist to do this. While playing together, for 4 bars you will be playing the rhythm and he will be soloing, for the next 4 bars you will invert the roles and so on. Your task is to play something in context with what he just played, ideally making it seems like there is only one soloist and not two.
6. Not training with backing tracks
Even if you wanted to, you can’t play with other musicians all the time. Every good athlete trains with his team but also on his own, and we musicians should do the same. Backing tracks offer a non-interactive simulation of a band that can help you train a quantity of different things. You can play them as many times as you want: they will never be tired of repeating the same thing. On the other hand, backing tracks are less inspirational and less fun than playing with a real band. For that reason backing tracks are not a substitute of playing with other people, yet they can still be useful.
Training with backing tracks should be part of your daily routine, but you should not just blindly improvise over the backing track. You should have in mind a technique or a concept that you want to implement in your playing, such as: “Just few notes with a good vibrato” or “let’s try to implement this lick I just learned”. Personally, I think backing tracks are incredible for learning the “right” notes to play, as explained above. The problem is that you should know the chord progression of the backing track beforehand to be able to target the chord tones.
7. Not playing with a public
As strange as it may seem, this is one of the main factors in making your improvisations sound like music. If you are just playing for yourself you have nobody to communicate with, so your music does not sound genuine. If you are playing to impress other musicians, as often happens in a jam session, your music will sound artificial. But if you are playing in front of a public, then more often than not you are playing to tell them something, to establish a connection. You can gauge your improvisation by observing the reaction of the public, so the communication is two-way.
I know some players (and I am among them) whose improvisations are mildly boring when they are alone (for instance, while they are recording in their studio), but when in front of a real public they become able to deliver good solos. This is because they are focusing on communicating with the public rather than being self-centered on their technical ability.
Now, before you think “I will never be able to step on a stage”, let me specify that with “public” I do not necessarily mean 10.000 paying people in a stadium. Two or three of your friends is enough public to get this started: ask them and they will be happy to listen to you. Again, do not wait to be good to do this otherwise you may never become good.
8. Not having something to express
This is probably the more “esoteric” point I am making here, but it is the definite factor that makes your improvisation jump from “very good” to “mind-blowing awesome”. This is, if you think about it, the whole reason why we are playing an instrument. Just stop for a moment now and think to the last song you listened today before reading this (or the song you are listening to right now). Does this song have a meaning or an underlying emotion? Of course it has one. What is the meaning of that song? I am sure that it is not difficult for you to answer this question, after all we all listen to music because it give us emotions or it tells us stories.
It is essential that your playing should tell something, or have an underlying feeling or emotion to it, yet very few people actually practice this. Wait a moment, did I just say you should PRACTICE emotions? Yes, I did utter such a blasphemy. And here is how we are going to do it.
Take your guitar, and using only three notes, try to express the deepest sadness you can. What notes are you using? How are you playing them? You have only three notes, you better choose and play them well! Now, do the same trying to express a calm serenity. Then try to express anger. Then express regret. Joy. Trepidation. Impatience. Boredom. Wittiness. Tiredness. Humor. Amusement. All of them using only three notes.
Make a list of other emotions you want to express. If you can’t find a word for that emotion, describe a situation that gives you this emotion (“Summer afternoon reading a book under the shadow of a tree”, “driving a fast car”, “running the last mile of a marathon”, etc), then try to express it using only 3 notes. Notice that there is not one right answer, rather there are many. With all the answers you collect from a single emotion, you can compose a solo.There is a practice method called Double Picking that is known to build accuracy for metal guitar players. Accuracy plays a vital role in guitar shredding since you can hit any number of notes really fast, but if they are the wrong ones people are going to notice. Here is a tip to building that accuracy at http://metalguitarlessons.net/most-popular/double-picking-to-improve-accuracy-and-hand-synchronization/.
As a player starts to work on building speed, right and left hand synchronization is important to keep everything sounding clean. When the pick hand and fret hand get out of sync, sometimes notes don’t get picked at all and others sometimes get picked twice (known as double picking). An effective exercise for building coordination between the hands is to double pick on purpose.
You can do this with just about any scale, pattern, arpeggio or exercise you already use. Like any other speed or coordination building exercise, the key is to start slow and clean—if you aren’t able to play it cleanly, you need to slow it down. One of the most helpful things about this exercise is that is will sound really bad if you try to play it faster than you are able to cleanly—so hopefully it will motivate you to take it slow and keep it clean.
Let’s start out working the technique on just one string. Playing on one string helps build the synchronization between the two hands without having to worry about moving across the fretboard with both hands. Start with either an upstroke or a downstroke (it’s good to work through it both ways) and alternate pick from there.
Double picking each note forces you to concentrate on making the left hand finger transition from note to note quick and efficient while at the same time keeping each note in place long enough to pick it twice. Anything less than perfect transition between notes and holding each note for the duration of two picks with the right hand and you’ll hear it right away.
Here is the same type of pattern using two strings:
And a three note per string scale pattern using the A natural minor (Aeolian) scale:
You can take almost any pattern, scale, arpeggio, lick or exercise and turn it in a double pick workout.
The keys to remember are:Double picking is a great exercise to build accuracy in both hands, but you may also be experiencing difficulty on the fretboard. Here is a short tip to building speed on the fretboard at http://metalguitarlessons.net/lessons/building-left-hand-speed-getting-it-smooth/ .
Start slow and pay attention to the details. After a few practice sessions using double picking, you should notice that most everything you play is cleaner and more in sync. This is one exercise that has a positive effect that will spill over into all areas of your guitar-playing technique.
- Keep an even tempo with the pick hand.
- Quick and smooth transitions from note to note with the left hand.
- Don’t allow the notes to get cut off short with the left hand—make sure the change from note to note is in perfect synchronization with the pick hand tempo.
- Double pick exercises sound really bad if you try to play at a faster tempo than you are able to cleanly.
As guitar players start developing some speed in their playing, they sometimes forget (or are not aware) that their notes are getting “choppy”. By this, I mean that the notes they are playing are not being held for their full duration— 8th or 16th and so on. The notes get cut short on the back end, often unevenly. Their playing may still be “in time” with the notes beginning on the correct beat or beat division, but the notes tend to get cut off short and have an uneven, “staccato” type of sound. At higher speeds, it becomes even more apparent when a recording of them is slowed down. This is primarily a left hand issue for the player and is caused usually by a combination of tension and underdeveloped coordination in transitioning from note to note in the left hand.
A good example of the type of sound we are trying to achieve here can be heard in the playing of someone like Vinnie Moore. If you listen to some of his older material, he tends to pick every note in scale sequence type licks, but there is a distinctive overall smoothness and evenness in the sound. There are techniques that can be practiced and developed to achieve this smoothness in your own guitar playing.
First, the player needs to become accustomed to holding notes for their full duration at slower speeds. Start with a fairly slow speed like quarter notes at 70 bpm (one note per click), for example. Play a C major scale using a three note per string pattern starting at the 8th fret on the low E string. Play the scale at one note per beat. As you move from note to note with the left hand, you want the timing of the notes to have no break in between—the C at the 8th fret is held exactly up until the D at the 10th fret is played. This requires relaxed, precise timing between the left hand fingers involved in playing the notes. As the index finger is coming off the C, the middle finger is moving to the play the D–all in one smooth motion.
If your playing has been “choppy” sounding, it may take some time to get used to the motion. Play scales and simple patterns at a slow rate initially until your fingers become accustomed to the motions involved. Remember, when beginning a new technique, you are trying to build muscle memory, not speed. The speed comes as a result of the hands acquiring the correct muscle memory and motions.
Record yourself playing along with the metronome. Listen for the notes “meeting” each other at that quarter note speed. There should not be any gaps or “false rests” in between them. When one note ends, the next one starts—it’s all one motion between the two fingers involved. Slow, relaxed and precise motions are the key.
As your technique improves at the slower speed, try playing eighth notes at the 70 bpm rate, then 8th note triplets and so on. If you have trouble keeping your playing clean and precise, back the speed down. Remember, this is all about building muscle memory—not speed.These are just a few tips to becoming an accomplished guitar shredder. Be sure to come back for more guitar playing tips.
Have fun and stay tuned.
Mike
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