Its so fucking hard, I don't know how he does it. Every time I try to sing and play at the same time I either sound like a dumbass or my guitar parts are all over the place.
He used to alternate pick a lot then. Just look at the intro to Disposable Heroes from that same concert. If you want a real down picking test try playing to the 1986 Toronto show because he down picks faster than humanly possible there.
That's true. But disposable heros picking pattern kinda requires alternate picking because of the switching from singles to triples and back again. I can pretty much play anything hetfield does the same way he does, but sometimes that section of creeping death just needs to be alt picked so you can guarantee keeping time till the chorus where you finally get a little break.
I think James just got better from playing hundreds of shows in such a short time span in the 80s. Its only natural. He may not have downpicked everything back then, but the experience he gained after Kill em All up to Master no doubt made him 10x the guitar player he was before.
Exactly what it was. Flemming would talk about how he downtuned the guitars then sped them up on the live albums because they couldn't play the songs as fast as what was intended. Then he said the next time he would see James, he could downpick the songs even faster than the album
@@rocafella142interesting i read/heard fleming increasing the bpm slightly on downtuned guitars to make it tighter, not about the speed necessarily. I think he mentioned they used that technique on studio albums not the live albums. To the earlier point, i think james had an insane talent though as well and was extremely consistent live. Some of his live performances on the master of puppets tour are scary 😟. My wrist hurts just watching it.
Well to be fair James didn't start working on his down picking until the Master of Puppets era and I think Hammerfest was in 85 (so 1 year before MoP). If you watch Creeping Death in Seattle 89 he down picks it flawlessly and INCREDIBLY fucking fast lol
I'm 46 years old and when I was a kid I thought I was the world's biggest Metallica fan. When ...and justice for all was released,I sat in my room for weeks until I could play every single song exactly the way it was played on the album all with downstrokes. For a very long time I held the crown in my town as being the guy who could downstroke pic faster than anybody else that was in my circle of friends which was pretty large.when I got a bit older my musical tastes changed and I veered away from playing metal as much so I kind of lost that ability to downstroke so fast. But I can still play things off of Master of puppets and some of the stuff from Justice
@@TheArtofGuitar way back in the day it made me feel very important but now I'm more enamored with soaking as much feeling out of as few notes as possible....
I'm Now 65 And When I'm 14 I Got A Guitar And When I'm 20 I Though I Thought I Was The Best Metal Fan Ever! I Picked With 563 Tempo And A Lot Of Power In My Hands But Unfortunately... I Broke My Pick But... I Have 12 More Picks!
Did that with Iron Maiden's "The Trooper". Speed up, then slow down. That was the only way to make our band's mandolin player happy about the song. (Yes, mandolin, really).
Down picking is the main staple for all my playing and writing .. love your down picking videos man..you are a machine. I appreciated your tenacity and accuracy...nice job!
Yep, in the beginning just go for it as fast as you can just to get the "feeling" of playing it at that speed, don't worry about how it sounds, then slow it down and clean it up.
Something my guitar teacher taught me was that sticking those three fingers out when Down picking actually tenses up your wrist more, and if you just keep all your fingers in you can more comfortable downpick for longer
The important thing IS to relax your hand as much as possible. Let you arm hang by your side, completely relax it, you should likely notice your fingers naturally curl up, this is their most relaxed state, and what they should be kept in. However, if you keep them exactly like this you'll also notice the spacing between them, and when picking they can sort of flop all over the place, so you want to bring them in a bit, so they aren't completely relaxed, but the feel improves. I also find it takes more effort to keep your fingers extended and together than to keep them curled and together. Anyway, either can be made to work, whichever one you choose you can be sure to find high level players that use them as well
I was the opposite, I started with my fingers like a fist, be then when I saw Het sticking his out, I did it to emulate him. But it became so natural for me I can't go back to a closed first system, and I've seen him use both styles which makes me mad 😂
I was thinking that Kerry and Jeff from Slayer used mostly alternate picking, yes? I can't imagine them down-picking on a song like "Chemical Warfare". Hetfield is a down-picking beast for sure.
You don’t imagine Slayer down picking? Dave Mustaine said Kerry was the best rhythm player he’d ever played with. Chemical Warfare isn’t that hard.... set your standards higher.
@@mrroams5812 Never been sure why people talk about Disposable as one of the more difficult ones. Out of the faster tracks on Puppets (Battery, Puppets, Disposable, Damage) I've always found it to be the easiest by far.
Puppets really isn't that bad either, tbh. There's a lot more quick breaks than people realize and it allows you enough of a breather every few seconds that it's not that hard to maintain. Creep is definitely more taxing, especially at live tempo.
This made sense..the first song I ever learned was light to flies by trivium...it took me a long time and a lot of hours daily , but it paid off because by the time I had learned to play along to the whole song I had picked up a hell of a lot of techniques and it made learning a lot of other songs quite easy I was self taught and played each part repeatedly and then joined them together, i just thought I've got few months to myself , hardly left the house and with in 6 months I was able to play master of puppets and one along to the cd.. Built up stamina, speed and quieting down the noise of other strings etc. After that I moved onto sweep picking then practicing alternate picking, sometimes 12 hour in a day , sometimes more and being injured off work made me able to dedicate every waking minute to playing.. it was an unusual method of doing it but it really worked well...after a few years Of being in love with guitar I got hurt again, I work as a tree surgeon, and having hand arm vibration syndrome i lost months of playing, sore slow fingers plus a new career to concentrate on meant years passed with out playing again.. sold my guitars and thinking now...its sad. But your videos are convincing me to start again ..thank you 😊
Great video man, Creeping Death live has always been a nightmare to play-along for me, they used to play it so fast it's crazy. However, people don't talk about Death Magnetic that often, but have you tried to play the verse of "The End Of The Line" (the "Need, more and more, tainted misery" part) only with down-picking? Man, that's harddd!
Death Magnetic isn't one of Metallica's better albums, but there are some high points there if you look. In addition to Creeping Death, I really liked Cyanide. My personal fave on that album.
It just goes to show that James really is the riff King! When you played the Creeping Death Riff with Down Picking only and then played it with alternating picking, you can definitely hear the difference in quality of the song. Now I understand why James prefers down picking even though it’s physically brutal on your wrist and forearm. I really enjoyed this video and found it super informative and entertaining! I also have to say that I really like your drum tutorial videos since I’m an amateur drummer who’s trying to build up my skills. Thank you for sharing and I’m going to make sure I check out your new content as it drops! Take care!🤘🏻
Bro ... Love UR channel !!! I've been playing music for 40+ years and I'm always learning new stuff from ya ... really miss my drummer, he recently overdosed. We were like the blues Brothers lol Rock on man !!! 😜
For years I only ever down picked. I taught myself to play, before RU-vid days, and pretty much all I did was look up tabs and sat for hours trying to play them. Years down the road and I learned about alternate picking. Took me awhile to get it down but it has improved my playing a lot and it allowed me to starting playing leads but this is ancient history now, like 15 years ago, but still to this day the songs that I learned only down picking still feel more natural than when I try to alternate pick them
He likely just didn’t have his endurance built up back then. There’s a concert on RU-vid from 1986 in Quebec where you can see him playing that same riff at a faster tempo (I think) with all downstrokes. I mean, it is a bit hard to tell because the camera isn’t as close and the lighting doesn’t exactly help either, but from what I can tell, he is doing downstrokes.
James is way too unmentioned in non-guitarist written lists of greatest guitarists, he is such a beast. Metallica is just such a huge entity I think he often goes unnoticed as an individual Nice video, very handy trick for building speed
That helps out so much because I'm just dead half way through and praying for another chorus to come up again to recoup lol. I just kept pushing on trying to get as fast as JH and honestly I was getting a little discouraged because this is my favorite riff, I've played/warmed up with it thousands of times and I was not getting any faster.
You're nailing it with great content at a high output, lately! I know big names get the views to help keep you in business, but can I kindly (if not, cheekily) request a bit of Type O Negative or The Smiths content? My two music loves right there. Anyway, keep up the awesome content. Cheers from Wales!
The whole time you are telling me to go faster than the target I was thinking Petrucci from “Rock Discipline”. I remember him doing this chromatic exercise, overshooting his goal to purposely fail, then dropping back down and nailing it. Great video! If I am playing album I am all downstrokes. If I am playing concert speed, it depends on the era of the show and if I get lazy.
This technique absolutely works for me when trying to build speed. I also stopped using a metronome for that because I would focus too much on gaining another BPM. Now I just play as fast as I feel comfortable with and by doing that I somehow gain speed more easily.
Hetfield was the reason I started playing. Now I consider myself to be a fast and accurate downpicker, but when you watch old videos of him it really is crazy impressive. His stamina is unbelievable. I think a part of the reason for his style though is because he plays and sings simultaneously. I do the same (I'm not even in the same galaxy as him 😂) and can speak from my own experience how downpicking kind of keeps you playing rhythmically so you can focus on singing. I can pick up and down as well, but I definitely feel more confident downpicking at a steady pace during vocal parts. Speaking of cool picking techniques, watch Dave Mustaine do sweep picking while he sings. It's actually mindblowing to watch him perform. Anyway, great video bud. Thanks for entertaining us 👍
I've been playing guitar "Mainly Thrash" for over 30 years, I find, If i can't get a faster song down, i play it slow for hours, I do that to get the feel of where my finger need to be, i do it for a week or 2, i then leave the song be, I go to a different song or something i've come up with myself and play it til i can do it in my sleep, then after all that, I go back to the fast song i wanted to learn and go thru it slow, then pick up the pace, then i usually have it down... It works for me... War Ensemble was a PITA to get down! Timing is everything, Patients is a must... Thanks for putting these vids out!
The trick of playing it at a faster tempo and then slower works in sports and weight lifting too. It’s called the “over warm up.” If you want to lift sets of 200, you warm up with 50, then 100, then 150, then 200, then 250, then drop back to 200 for your sets. It tunes in the central nervous system.
That was a great idea...never thought about it, to play faster than the real thing, and then go backwards to the point...even for bass, or singing.I dare say! Thanks a lot Mike!
If you ever want to play master of puppets at full speed down picked, practice the picking part just before the 3rd verse. If you can play that part flawless, you can start playing the entire song with ease.
Cool video. I wrote a book on this subject years ago. The funny thing is to learn to play a song well you have to learn it well slow first, so you are not practicing mistakes. However if you are just learning to play faster whatever exercise you choose has to be played fast to build that strength and coordination-sloppy is okay here. Those two goals are completely different and require different approaches. Unfortunately, I see so many times musicians trying to learn a song and trying to do so at speed. So, they are practicing mistakes. Practice make permanent not perfect. Again, great video. I subbed. Looking forward to more.
thanks for the tip on the tempo changes to get up to speed. It's probably something I've done in the past subconsciously, but it's nice to be aware of it and utilize it, rather than stumble into it.
I usually start around 240 tempo to warm up down picking, then to 260 down picking mixed with up-down picking... then down below 240 so I don’t cramp while continuously playing, always good to stretch the fingers and bottom side of the wrist before playing
There are a lot of alternate-picking on Kill 'em All and Ride The Lightning. I don't remember where I read it, but James talked about how he realized that down-picking sounds heavier sometime after the release of RTL and embraced the whole down-picking technique more on the albums that followed. Also, if you listen to the original recording of Creeping Death you can clearly hear that the intro and the riff you talk about are played in alternate-picking.
I'm glad somebody mentioned the difference in sound. I saw Judas Priest last year, first time with RF. He's great, but he played one of the classics with alternate picking instead of downpicking like on the recording, and it sounded so wrong that I wanted to crawl out of my skin. On Creeping Death, I actually like the alternate picking better, though. Don't know why.
Definitely gonna keep this technique in mind. Getting my downpicking speed is one of the main things i wanna do when i start playing guitar, Hopefully can start this week depending on when i get the Guitar from my Dad's place, he's also gonna give me some tidbits along the way as well since he's been playing for decades . I'm mainly a drummer but I've been wanting to see how far my guitar skills can get up to for quite some time now. Curious to see how i do
Back in the day, they were still learning, still new, some of the pioneers of fast metal, over time they’ve just mastered their trade and gotten better.
I learned from metallica songs and developed the james down pick only technique and it actually made learning other artists much harder when i had to alternate pick multiple strings
Wow this is crazy. I just got interested and started learning this song and it's crazy insane downpicking pace about 3 days ago...and this video pops up! I got the idea to try it by watching 'music is win's video of the solo hahah amd now this! This is awesome!
My hand simply cannot down pick fast. Just can't do it. 30 years of playing guitar and I've accepted that whatever it is about my arm wrist and hand, I'll never be able to down pick fast.
I learned this trick from a Shawn Lane video probably 10-15 years ago and it significantly helped me with both speed and control. Shawn said something to the effect of “if you keep bumping up the bpm by 5 you’ll eventually hit a wall. And to break through that wall you need to go up by 20 bpm or so and just try your best. When you get back to the original bpm it will feel easy by comparison.” This practice technique works in spades (or at the very least did for me)
This is how I’ve gotten my down picking to the point where where I can play Master of Puppets perfectly with no issues and can even play Blackened at 215 bpm and just being able to hold on to stay on beat. Just a strategy I kinda figured out did on my own but it totally works
I heard Neil Peart talk once of being in concert shape. This was right after a 4-year hiatus Neils daughter dying in a car accident and his wife dying of cancer 10 months later. Once he decided he was going to play again, it took him months to get into the proper shape to record and then tour. I'm sure Hetfield needs to do something similar, but also, it wouldn't take long during a tour to get your arm worked up to what he does based on how many years he's been doing it. BTW - I appreciate your content. Website and Patreon subscriber here.
I use this very same technique with video games. Start with a super-high sensitivity then move down - that way high sensitivity seems lower. Happens if you play your first Fifa game as a 2 star then play as Real Madrid or something. Same technique back in the day on Guitar Hero too. Great video this.
When I was 15 and started playing I used to do down picking most of the time, I got pretty good at it, but when I started getting lessons from an actual instructor I realized how much character alternate picking adds to songs. Looking back made me realize, how the f@ck was I downpicking so fast, I can no longer do it lol
