How to develop good Thrash/Grind/Tech-Death rythm picking?

[Blazphemer]

Hi,

do any of you guys have any pointers/excercizes to help develop fast and tight metal/grindcore picking?

any pointers on hand position/technique, warm ups, excercizes, gereral pointers?
for example how do i develop a good tremolo, and sustain it for longer periods without tiring and straining my wrist?
any songs that are good for practicing various metal rythm playing?

im interested in being able to play stuff such as:
Complicated/early Megadeth
Annihilator
Terrorizer
Napalm Death
Cryptopsy
Psycroptic
Marduk
Cephalic Carnage

any help and suggestions are welcome

cheers!

[nsubulysses]

For tremolo picking make sure you stay loose in the right hand (if you're a right-handed player). The more tense you are when trying to rip through tremolo picking parts the more energy you will waste. After a while you will build up the endurance to do parts like that and not even be phased.

If I were you I would also try to develop as fast of a down pick as possible. That way you can pick certain parts down that might be hard to play even though they are played up down. I know a dude who can play the fast part at the end of the Metallica song "One" all downpicks........and it doesn't even look like he's trying. Of course I'm not saying you should pick everything down always, but if you have a super fast down pick you've got options.

And if you want to play Napalm Death I would work on the divebomb solos too!

[SlasZ]

Play some Iced Earth, can't find more fast rhythm riffs anywhere

[Endrik]

metal zmetal, play along with rhythm trakcs or real band (drums and bass) wich have a strong backbeat, do it all the time, get your timing perfect and be tight as anal sex with the drums and bass.... that goes for any style.... funk, punk, latin, metal etc. start slowly... if you nail your shit perfectly, only then you can start increasing the speed.

It would be great if you can record your stuff, play your riff over a backing track, record it and then start doing overdubs.... do 'em as many as possible... and remember they all have to me synchronized and lock tight... play until you got 'em all right

[Blazphemer]

thanks for the comments so far, keep them coming!

as for iced earth, i have never heard them. what songs are good for practicing fast rythm?

[SlasZ]

Travel in Stygian, Dante's Inferno, The Coming Curse ...
90% of their songs is fast, with a lot of triplets. Check out the compilation cds Days Of Purgatory for a good overview.

[Spivonious]

Iced Earth is what gave me fast picking.

The songs SlasZ listed are good ones - I'd add Pure Evil to the list. I would get Days of Purgatory and learn those and once they're comfortable, get Alive in Athens and learn the songs again but faster.

I used to play along with Alive in Athens for a good workout. I would be covered in sweat by the time the disc ended.

Also, if you're looking to improve downpicks, there's nothing better than Metallica. Start with Kill 'Em All and just learn the whole album. Play everything with downpicks. Next move on to Master of Puppets.

If you want to be able to play classic Megadeth (e.g. Peace Sells, RIP) I have found that you need more than just picking speed. The left hand is very important. To strengthen my left hand, I play Symphony X and Dream Theater. Petrucci really gets your fingers stretched and limber.

If there's a particular song that you just can't get, play it back at half speed and try to play everything exactly right. Once you've mastered something at 50%, move up to 60% and master it again. You'll be playing the song at full speed in no time and you're overall playing technique will improve.

Most important is to practice, practice, and practice. Metronomes can be great, but if you can't hear the clicking, or it annoys you, then try a simple drum beat instead. Always make sure you are playing things precisely on the beat before moving up in speed.

Check out Petrucci's Rock Discipline video for some great warmups and technique-building exercises.

If your wrist starts to hurt, stop playing. There is always later and you don't want to risk injuring yourself and not being able to play for weeks.

[mjl927]

metronome + tons of practice.
And then you could always try.....metronome + more practice
Another good idea would be.....use a metronome and practice.

Seriously....it's the absolute best way. Set a reasonable tempo and be critical of yourself. Bump up the speed when you're comfortable at the current speed. Track your progress on some sort of chart.

[Schnook]

Try
Children of Bodom- any song will get you going pretty good
Early Arch Enemy- Burning Bridges
Sinergy-More power metalish but nonetheless its amazing
NightRage- Great band
Iced Earth- insane as well
Nocturnal Rights- I'm working on this stuff right now and it's great for rythm

[demeyes]

Don't rush it. Nearly all the metal guitarists I know here tried to get fast without playing the stuff a bit slower first. They are all sloppy and out of time.
Practice with a metrenome and play along with that. Also playing along with songs is a good idea. You can slow them down if you use a computer. There is a thing on media player that does it. If its a tricky rythm and not just fast play it very slowly for a few minutes to get the thing correct before ripping away at full speed. Triplets are used everywhere so work on those.
Keep you hands and fingers relaxed, if you play tense its not that good for you. Work away and in a while you'll find you'll be flying through the stuff.

[Slashaxl]

Look at what I wrote in the Increase Speed thread and see if you figure that out. I play a lot of thrash myself, and it has helped me a lot.
Also as mentioned, Iced Earth is a grat way to gain speed and accuracy, same goes for Megadeth. I always warm up with a round of Holy Wars

[Schnook]

Both Slash and Demeyes are correct. If you're looking to increase speed and accuracy the metronome is your best ticket. It can seem boring and kinda repetitive but in the end it's only gonna make you better. As for practicing songs, I bought that tascam cd gt1 and I use it quite a bit for slowing things down without shifting pitch. So yea hopefully I was of some help so yea happy woodshedding!

[OzoMan]

+1 for Metronome! Consentrate on the muscles on your right hand and try to be as relaxed as possible.

[Mario8672]

Try not to think of it as a fast flurry of notes. Think of it in bars, try and nod your head after every bar, and check if you've played the right amount of notes. Example: if you're in 4/4 time and it's 16th notes, check to see that each bar has 16 notes; not 14,15,17 or whatever. That's what worked for me. Also, try learning some of the earlier Death songs. "Living Monstrosity" by Death is a GREAT exercise for the technique you're describing.

[RR05xx]

Here is my advice. Start with the basics - learn all of Reign in Blood by Slayer. Old school and cool, but not too fast. Once you can rip through all 28 minutes straight without getting tired or cramped, you are ready to move on. Just my thoughts (if you are alrady there, then you just need to play more).