Fast rhythm picking

digitalscream

Right, I've decided that I need to improve my rhythm playing for heavy-ish stuff a bit. Something that's always bugged me is that I can't do this (0:21):

Any ideas on how I'd go about getting up to that speed, other than "Do it a lot until you're fast enough"? I'm pretty sure that my problem is technique rather than pure speed. If it helps, I tend to either pivot my wrist laterally or twist my forearm when picking fast (depending on what the situation needs) rather than picking from the elbow Hetfield-style.

viz

But having a loose wrist is THE key to fast acurate rhythm imo. If Hetfield is locking his arm up and pivoting from the elbow then I'd say he can play quickly despite his technique not thanks to it. Check out Al di Meola's youtube lessons on strumming if you want to try it out. I think it's just a matter of time and technique together, like you say.

ElectroDan

^^^ This.

Relaxing the wrist and let it fly as you rotate it. You'll run out of gas in seconds otherwise.

guitarfishbay

Use the minimum necessary amount of pick tip. Any extra will be inefficient and slow you down.

guitarfishbay

I've only just found this so haven't seen all the content myself, but Josh Middleton (Sylosis) is an absolute rhythm machine.

BigLicks67

I'm not really that familiar with this style, but had a go at the Unbreakable video, seems to me if you concentrate on nailing down the accents in the rhythm then the speed will come with time. As already stated keep the wrist loose.

Have you ever tried playing funk, if not try some Chic stuff, it will get you to loosen the wrist up.

Maynehead

I'm not sure which Hetfield you're referring to but James Hetfield uses all wrist! His guitar is so low and his picking arm so straight he couldn't use his elbow if he tried.

He does have quite a unique way of holding the pick with 3 fingers though, so if you want a more conventional example try looking at how Kirk Hammett does it. Not quite as good as James but he's no slouch himself.

webrthomson

Practice a sub division with a metronome so 2/3/4/6 notes per beat - establish a baseline figure in BPM that you can play to the metronome for a length of time, say 10 seconds. Do that for a week then jump each BPM figure by 10 in week two for the same period of time - alternate between the two BPM figures as needed - repeat this adding 10 BPM each week. Keep a note of the speeds you are at for each subdivision and what your target is.

In terms of technique it's all in the wrist, you want the minimum movement and minimum pick contact - practice across all the strings and the hand position should remain the same for all six of the strings, just up or down one string.

Check out Gary Holt in this (21:12 is good for seeing what he's actually doing in terms of down picking and alt picking):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izqj1GwJMm8

bingefeller

Maybe you need to change the way you hold your pick entirely (assuming you hold it the standard way).

Check out this Ola Englund video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snW4VvayukE

I hold my pick similar to this and find it very efficient.

Cabicular

Quite a bit of it is damping at the correct time with the left hand too
Don't forget that.. 

Alnico

In the video in the OP, is that guitarist playing six beats (picks) for every two bangs on the snare drum?

It looks like he's picking away from the body on the down strokes too.

Some guys play like a drummer with their right hand. Maybe that's the key, tap out rhythms with your right hand all day every day, maybe using thumb and fingers so you roll your wrist to do it.

I heard the phrase recently "Familiarity breeds confidence" and i know that anything done fast, requires confidence even down to the most basic of actions.
If you have never been to London, you're not going to be very confident as you drive from Leytonstone to Putney (God what an awful journey that would be in daytime traffic !) whereas if you're a courier in London, you swill swear like hell about it but you'll do it so confidently that you will even have time to get pissed off at stuff etc. 
I was a London Courier 20 years ago and doing something like that, you quickly learn to get it right because you do it so often and so intensively. 

I reckon anything can be done with a guitar if you do it that many times until you could do it in your sleep.

*Disclaimer - If you get hit in the middle of the night for tapping out picking patterns in your sleep, i'm not responsible for any injury that may occur !

PolarityMan

That triplet thing is just something you get used to, i find if I'm not using a pick I like I can get messy at it but to me its a different feel than doing something like strict alternate picking very fast. A lot of it is also about correctly anticipating the string tension based on the note you're using and the amount of pressure you are using on your palm mute . We use it sparingly in quite a few songs in the band.