Thank you so much for this video Simon. You really helped me out a lot. A whole lot actually. I've been playing for 3 years, but my trem technique was non existent. That's a pretty big handicap for a Black/Death metal fan. It's been 2 months since I tried the tips in this video, and I feel like I am a completely new guitar player. You have no idea how much this affects my mental health, in a very good way. I am so happy that I can finally play some songs from my favorite bands. Hell I even started recording some material of my own. It's all thanks to you. You've helped and inspired me so much. I cannot thank you enough. I am having so much fun. As soon as I finally get that 7-string Jackson I've been eyeballing, I'm definitely buying your guitar course. You've helped me so much, it's the least I can do. Thanks again. You're the best.
I'm a lousy, lazy and uninspired guitarist. Yet for some reason, one of the few tricks I have "mastered" is tremolo. For some reason, that part always came easy to me. So yes, if I can learn it: so can YOU!
Lol lazy and lousy, uninspired too. The fact that you managed to learn to play the guitar means that you have put in the work and trem picking also means practicing a lot to get a decent sounding riff. A lot of people stop learning guitar because it doesn't come easy in the beginning. So no guitar player is lazy or uninspired, and lousy we all are time to time. And say you can't do crazy solos but you have some tremolo picking techniques and riff skills unique to yourself, you rockstar !!!
@@devinrowe5537 It's not faster. I mean the picking hand in tremolo is faster than the speed picking. In speed pucking you hit every note once but in tremolo you can hit every not few times. So your right hand picks faster while playing tremolo. But in speed picking your left hand must be so quick.
This lesson is GOLD! As I'm a wannabe surf guitar player your tips are really working for me. Also using the amps drive a little is something I hadn't realized helps a lot too.
I'm learning tremolo picking for some months now and I can see that there's progress already so imo you definitely can learn it if you really work on it. And btw a big thanks to you Simon, your lessons helped me a lot 🤘😈
I just started playing about a month ago and been real into black metal for the last couple years and this is hands down the best channel for learning, so thank you
I've also been following your channel for some time and I've extracted what I consider really good tremolo picking exercises from your videos that I've applied to my own practice schedule. These are notably, the Satyricon mother north main riff, Enslaved vetrarnott riff, Darkthrone hans siste vinter riff, Emperor I am the black wizards riff, and a couple of other riffs from your string skipping exercise videos. Collectively I think they are wonderful riffs that cover all manner of tremolo picking and string skipping, and I've built it up to a consistent 150bpm so far by drilling them. I really appreciate all the invaluable content you've uploaded over the years! My main obstacle at this point is whenever the thickest string is briefly involved in a riff (mother north, vetrarnott), there's just something about it's tension and thickness that trips me up sometimes, specifically at the moment of returning to one of the thinner strings. Have you ever encountered this yourself? Also, I'm surprised you didn't go into detail about the type/shape of pick. Would you say it's not of primary importance? After practicing so long with dunlop flows and jazz III's, if I try to use a typical 351 type pick or even a flat tortex it just feels (and sounds) awful, and get's stuck in the strings more. Thanks again for supreme content.
this is really useful! After trying a bunch of different ways of holding I've found the most comfortable for me, now I'm working on fretting and keeping my picking arm relaxed.
Simon, thank you! I have a solid grasp on a lot of metal riffing structures, but I never really got into playing black metal. Because of this my Tremolo picking has always been pretty shoddy. I've been really into black metal the past few years though, and I've been enjoying trying to develop it. Lots of good info in here
I really appreciate the time you took to break this technique down. I've been struggling to develop stronger metal rhythm and lead technique after years of half hearted blues and rock noodling. Great tip on the pick mod as well. I had been super gluing small disks of 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper but this looks like an effective, cheaper, and more durable solution.
I found the Black Metal course in discount suddently and when i hit the button it changed into the full price but definitely looking forward to buy it as soon as possible cause every lesson i found here on YT and patreon was always really useful and well explained.
Thank you so much for this video, after trying countless techniques, you made me realise that I haven't been placing my forearm properly on my guitar. This really affected my tremolo picking accuracy and now I can do it so much more accurately!! Thank you once more!
I'm just a few weeks into guitar and feeling like i'm getting better super fast. Learned this today, pretty bad at it right now but i'm sure i just need to practice a bit. Thank you for your tutorials :))
I think you've unlocked something for me, even though I knew about all these different parameters I only tried changing on of them at a time. Thanks :)
Thanks for the exercise, I tried building up my speed by starting at 80 bpm 16th notes and gradually increasing it but I kept losing count at higher speeds and playing sloppy. Your exercise of playing 7 4th notes and 4 16th notes and increasing the amount of 16th notes made it way easier for me. It also helped me think of tremolo picking in groups of 4 which made counting way easier.
Best tutorial for this technique!! i just follow your approach and tried different positions and ways to hold the pick and guess what?? i don't know if this will work for everyone but i just changed the way i hold the pick, changed the index finger for the middle finger (the bad boy finger) like EVH used and for my surprise it worked absolutely perferct! Thanks so much for your teaching!
This helps me out with "Acrid Canon" by Archspire! I could get by with what I just naturally learned as tremolo picking, but for Acrid Canon I actually had to trouble shoot my technique. Thanks a lot!
when i first picked up classical guitar tremolo picking is one of the first things I picked up, anyone trying keep going! you can do it just gotta put in the practice and time :)
This is quite helpful. Before RU-vid, and getting zero advice, I decided to use the thinnest gauge pick to tremolo. A thin pick will not only help you learn the technique, but you can also graduate to thicker picks. …also, I tend to use one of the blunt ends of the pick. Just personal preference.
This was great! A nice followup would be tips on tremolo picking up and down across various strings. It's by far what I struggle with the most(for example, playing Jesus Tod)
Thanks again. After working on technique, it seemed easier if I didn't look down at the strings. Even doing up to 3 strings. And relaxing into it, hands, shoulders, etc.
I adjusted my technique to be like in this vid, basically I'm "semi-anchoring" to stay at one height and use pickslanting and arm lever motions to change strings. Works amazing, and the wrist motion is easier to do when my hand is slightly angled isn't entirely glued to the bridge. My only problem is that my hands are p smol, so I have to stretch when playing low E. Guess tremolo picking just doesn't work any other way, this is pretty similar to eddie van halen's tremolo lol
Great lesson. Thank you! I’ll try to do it, my problem seems to be the angle of the pick and my forearm position. I try to change but my hand always goes back to the wrong position that makes it harder for me to play. Also the skin of my thumb touches the strings when I pick. I don’t seem to be able to fix that. I will also try thick plectrum because I heard that it helps to fix bad hand posture.
Ive found that "the fan" is usually better for playing single notes while "the fist" is better for chords. Im used to the fist and ive never ever had a problem tremolo picking chords, even 3 note chords where i have to strum 3 strings, just single notes. Ive also noticed that farvann does the fist more than the fan and he also does chords more often while you seem to be better at single notes and favor the fan. Ive always been fascinated by how you can tremolo pick single notes with such precision, even when you’re skipping strings, I’ll keep practicing, hopefully, i get better..
A riff that I think is a good learning tremelo riff is the tremelo riff at the end of mourning palace by dimmu. Sick riff and it's not too hard. It's mid paced and helps string swapping a bit. Back when I was learning, I'd play that riff over and over again.
I didn't really even learn tremolo picking, I just tried it and I could do it already. Of course I was only able to play like one string or maybe two at that time but my point is that it wasn't as hard as I tought.
Trem picking was one of the first things I learned. Not bragging just saying i got lucky i guess cause it came very easy to me with very little practice. Pinch harmonics were the same where i was doing them within minutes after learning the technique. Its all about how you hold the pick. This just came natural but after thinking about it the technique that he calls the circle with thumb on top and the bottom of the pick resting between your first two joints on your index finger is the way to go while resting your wrist on the bridge weather youre muting or not. Just tighten up on everything if that makes sense. i use this same set up for galloping. I began with "extreme" metal so I used this stuff A LOT Edit: tight circle, fan, wrist on bridge, slight tilt to the pick and no slant and tighten up on everything
i just kinda, did it when i first learned guitar? i dont know if im used to it because of something i did in life, or if it was just luck but it was much easier for me than for other people.
I can tremolo pick but on when I start on an up stroke 😂 not sure why but its more comfortable for me and I get some good high speeds and can string swap easily aswell
What about palm muted tremolo picking? That’s what I find the most difficult part of metal guitar; fast 16th notes consistent palm muted tremolo picking at 180 bpm & above
As someone once said, "when I first started playing, I thought there was no way I could ever play tremolo. After years and years of discipline and countless hours of practice, and dedication, I can finally say without a doubt, I was 100% correct!!"
Simon I have been following your work for a while and I find it really informative and an excellent channel,I have been playing guitar for a number of years and am what I say beginner/intermediate,I mostly play doom and tune very low so it never really is an issue,but I love to play Black metal thrash and death metal also,however one area I have always struggled with is tremelo picking notes on the thickest string,i have tried numerous pick thicknesses and exercises,i mainly use jazz 3s and the stubby pettruci 2.0 picks but I simply can't get it tight enough to consistently record anything worth while,do you have any tips or insight you could share on this particular issue?
I reckon you may be over thinking it. Try a lighter grip on your pick, set the metronome and just play the bottom string for ten minutes. Tremolo pick one bar then three bars not tremolo picked. Build up to two bars tremolo picked, then three, then all four...
@@SimonSmithGuitar i really appreciate the reply man,i can tremelo pretty tight an consistently on all other strings just that top string im really hit or miss with,ill try the tips in the video and your suggestions on pick grip,thanks again for the awesome content over the years.
do you think its normal that I have to alternate between fan and fist for different techniques? Like for downpicking I find fan the best, more chunk etc. For tighter picking i tend to make a fist to help with upstrokes. (ps I still suck at tremolo picking :( ) thanks for the guide
I will give these tips a try! Because they seem like good ideas NOT because you look like you’ll deliver a Stone Cold Stunner if I don’t agree with you
I was trying to piece together why I stink at tromolo, other than the fact that I have never done it before. realized it's because I never downstroke, just started practicing downstroking today and it's like learning from scratch, my brain is screeching.
My problem with tremolo picking if i try to go from a string to string i play 3 & 5 & 7''s not 4 & 6 & 8 ..i'm too used to this motion that i cannot do 4 & 2 ..how do i troubleshoot tht? ..i've been trying your old exercices but i'm so like shit on 85 bpm only!!!
My biggest issue with tremolo is alternating between the strings. No porblem trem picking on one, as soon as the next note is on a different one, the timing goes out the window and the note sounds like shit for the first to or three pick strums
Mate, just look up the history of the genre online. You'll find out, that many of the first bands where inspired by the Venom album "Black Metal" (which wasn't Black Metal itself, although it did include tremolo picking). It's quite a journey from there. I'm sure you'll find the first tremolo-picked this way and maybe some bands you don't know yet.
Tremolo picking has been around for a long time. In early Metal it's often found at the end of a song or gig where they kind of go wild. Black Metal didn't come up with it, it merely uses it all the time.