Down pick like god (Hetfield of course)

[Niall Gannon]

I have always struggled with fast down picking and I am look for some help or useful techniques. When I play songs like Master or Creeping Death I just can’t keep up with down picking so I always revert to alt picking (sounds like a pile of crap when you do that), down picking just sounds more aggressive, cleaner and lets face it – pure Metal. So far what I learnt is choke down on the pick and try stay as relaxed as possible. I basically max out at 160 bpm right now, try any faster and my arm starts getting involved and I tense up. I love metal and will die a happy man if I can play Master from start to finish the correct way without breaking a sweat plus we all know it makes you a babe magnet (my wife disagrees )

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Pretty much all my chugging is downstrokes lol. Was definitely a bad habit of mine that I still find days I get back into.

 

[Ed Seith]

YMMV. A lot of amazing thrash downpickers swear by the endurance method – set your metronome for a pace you can comfortably keep downpicks on, and then just do it NONSTOP for 4-5 minutes, every day. Increase speed as it gets too “easy.”
I could never get that method to work for me, but I never got higher than 190bpm. The way I did that was working with a metronome and riffing a few parts of Metallica songs one right into the other for the same 5 minutes, increasing speed as needed, every week or so.
Right now I’ve got Creeping Death (I forget what part it is), Atlas Rise (Intro thru start of chorus), and Master of Puppets (intro through start of chorus).
But I have no real expectation of getting to MoP’s 210 bpm. I’d be happy with steadily maintaining 190 consistently and evenly.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

First of all, your wife is wrong. You are already a babe magnet. You play guitar. Period.
Now on to your question. This is a skill that has to be acquired over time and countless of hours of practicing and dedication. The biggest thing that you have to realize is that it all comes from the wrist and the relaxation of the muscles of the hand. The way the muscles work from the tips of your fingers all the way up to your shoulder and even your back on that side, all work in tandem and synchronicity with each other. They are prone to engage when one of the other ones are engaged. Your job is to mentally train yourself to recognize when ever your arm starts to tense up and really try to mentally focus just the Movement and motion coming from your wrist. I have even also seen some incredible down pickers get it mostly from a combination of their wrist and their finger motions. If I were you, watch these players that you idolize and even slow down the video on YouTube and hone in how their right hand looks. Watching Synyster Gates that way for me actually help me Realize why I couldn’t improve my sweeping technique. If I were you, go ahead and post up your progress videos with master of puppets. I would love to see you succeed at your dream song the way I did with hail to the king. That way we can all see what you are doing and make comments and suggestions to you

 

[Ed Seith]

Jak answering the important part of the question first!

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Haha @Ed!
Awesome, an area in which I can actually share some experience, lol.
I love downpicking to death and struggled with it like everybody at first. The easy answer of course is practice. But what I do that really helps me get up to speed is a good warm up jam. I start with a little Atlas! and continously jamming Now that We’re Dead is an awesome way to warm your downpicking hand up as well.
Then to gain speed I practice a couple of riffs as fast as I can until my hand gets tired (not hurting). I use Through the Never, Moth and Creep for that (sometimes a slow version of blackened). When my hand is tired I relax it some seconds and play something “easy” before I get back to the fast stuff. After like four to five times I am pretty much warmed up to play Master of Puppets or just practice some fast picking. Hoped that helped you a litte

 

[Niall Gannon]

Many thanks for the replies, as usual in this life if you want something you have to work bloody hard!!! I will work with the metronome and do the endurance method and try slowly build up the speed. Maybe in about a decade I will eventually get it, then I can tackle that pesky M.I.A solo
@jak – “You are already a babe magnet” – You been watching my riffs again I will put a video up of me struggling to down pick at speed and see if you virtuosos can help guide me in the right direction.