Hangar 18 Riff

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

It's about the same.

I personally find Damage Inc to be Metallica's hardest song, by far. I find TNP a little bit easier, same as Dyers Eve.

[mpigott]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

I agree.......damage Inc. is lunacy.......the riff before the solo has always beeen soo touhg for me.......alternate picking the rest is simple enough these days but im still no downstroker lol

[rapeandruin]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

the problem you are having seems like one that I ran into with the beginning of "Take No Prisoners." It is fast and a bunch of palm muting...Just practice and do the alt picking it is the easiest way and I'm sure the way Dave does when he plays.

[Chrisb]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

Its hard because your gut tells you to really dig in with the PM, but if you dig in too much you slow yourself down. Once you find that balance, it becomes easier. Then its just practicing to get the speed right. The most technically demanding palm muting I've attempted was Iced Earth. Schaffer is just a damn machine. Path I Choose, Angel's Holocaust, Dante's Inferno, pretty much anything off Night of the Stormrider will really give you a workout.

[Newc]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

Mustaine gave a Guitar School lesson years ago when Rust came out - he shows you how he holds the pick, and it's dead flat against the strings, so you get the same attack on the strings coming and going. I tilt the pick at an angle, and can't get the speed with flatpicking.

[Bob From Accounting]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

My problem is i'm very bad at alternate picking, i can trem pick and gallop very well but slow alternate picking like this riff and when more strings are involved doesn't work! i always cheat and do trem picking instead and that sounds bad

I must practise this and fast downs some more

[Chrisb]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

I gave up on alot of Iced Earth riffs because I simply couldn't alternate pick fast enough. I tried for a long while to get Travels in Stygian down but eventually I just threw in the towel. I think its like you said, my alternate picking is not very strong to begin with and when I am trying to focus on the PM correctly I lose speed with the alternate picking. viscious cycle. In theory I guess you are supposed to get it so that alternate picking is second nature.I think I will get there eventually but not anytime soon. And it hurts that I had stopped playing for about a year. Now I'm really trying to catch up. Playing guitar is not much like riding a bike. You don't forget but you totally lose alot of skill if you don't play for awhile. I'm struggling now with simple stuff I had down before. Might take me awhile to get back up there.

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

Travel in Stygian! THE Iced earth song for me. Took me a bitchin' long time to get that one down.

After that I could play any galloped riff [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[rapeandruin]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

[ QUOTE ]
Mustaine gave a Guitar School lesson years ago when Rust came out - he shows you how he holds the pick, and it's dead flat against the strings, so you get the same attack on the strings coming and going. I tilt the pick at an angle, and can't get the speed with flatpicking.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is it not normal to play wiht the pick flat cuz I think i've been playing with my pick flat since day 1...Maybe I'm just imagining things

[Chrisb]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

Depends on how you start out, I certainly didn't learn that way. But I started out on classical guitar. So I had to retrain myself at a certain point (in high school) to be able to play stuff like Metallica and Megadeth correctly.

[Newc]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

I started with a Mel Bay book and he shows you should flat pick.
But screw Mel Bay [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
[img]/images/graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

Anyhoo, back when I started I used the thinnest picks I could find - Dunlops that were a soft pink (to match the Salmon Pink Focus 1000 I had [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]) and picked flat like Mel said to do.
Once I got into Metallica (MOP) I tried to do the fast stuff with that pick but it sounded like a bicycle with a baseball card in the spokes going downhill [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

So I swapped over to heavier picks but also had to tilt the pick a bit to keep from popping strings (I was quite the hamfist - had to be in order to get any sound with those thinner picks [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img])
I kept flipping them over my thumb when I'd hit a chord.
Then I switched to Jazz IIIs once I realised that I was only holding the pick by the middle.

Regular-sized picks have a slight "shick" to them as they cross the strings at an angle, and Jazz III's didn't have that, so I stuck with them.

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

I always have my pick at an angle. Gets me into trouble sometimes with certain licks / progressions. I'll try the jazz III's.

[rapeandruin]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

Jazz 3s are nice...I use these ones that have the word "cool" on them. Little bit of sandpaper or something for grip...1.5mm heavy pick...rules for guitar

[Stelios]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

Ooooooooooooooooo I love Hangar 18. Actually, I love the whole album. I nearly always end up playing the intro to Tornado of Souls whenever I pick up a guitar. It's a great riff. It's not easy but it's not impossible either. A nice balance. Sounds great too.

Also, what do you guys mean by 'flat picking'?

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Hangar 18 Riff

flat picking: put your pick against the strings completely flat (no angle between the side of the pick and the string). And just keep it against the string, and alternate pick that way. A lot of control, but very unnatural and pretty much impossible for me.