Metal rythm guitar

[Defender]

Hello everybody , is there anyone who has information (tab ) about metal rythms like the "gallop" and stuff , like a workout or something? I try to play with 1 mm pics but thes rythmns are very hard for me to play :( , I would love to learn how to play riffs like slayer and megadeth etc..
thx a lot :)

[Wicked_Dreams]

Ah, gallops drove me crazy as one point.

Trust me, NOTHING is as good a workout as doing gallops to a metronome REAL, REAL slow and feeling the accent.

Heck, even when you're all over the fretboard doing working out on crazy power-metal gallops, you should still slow the metronome every now and then and do it slow and powerful, REALLY improves your technique.

Whether or not you like the band, Iced Earth is interesting as far as technique goes, check out Coming Curse, the intro will be a great exercise, also check out their instrumental 1776.

Talking about 1776, note the part where it's just playing the low E string in certain gallops, take THAT idea and apply it to different riffs.

I tried doing it in power tabs but I didn't know how to, I'll try recording a short segment and posting it here.

[Defender]

Thx , I 'll check it out :-)

[Wicked_Dreams]

Here you go, first three are older recorded stuff, the last two I just recorded...

I couldn't really play the thing I had in mind (Different gallops on the low E), my shoulder is out, pain is actually setting in right now ^_^

Which also explains the timing mistakes (I think, gallops are tricky once you add or take away notes with a drum machine, I suggest using a metronome).

Other than, of course, me being horrible, I really need to practice ^_^

Basically, it's just really easy to practice these, It's 4:30 AM right now + bad shoulder so this is all I could do, but trust me, it's endless, you can practice it with power chords or have it all muted, you can do it chromatically or diatonically (Be sure to do it all over the neck because the pressure on the pick feels different), you can make it more melodic or more riff like, and simple adding or taking away notes will alter the whole thing so it's like a whole different exercise.

Ah, I just remembered, when doing the gallops, don't "alternate" pick, rather, brush against the string up and down, like, don't think to yourself "No I will pick down, now I will pick up", but rather, think of where you want your pick to end up, and just keep it REAL close to the string, sort of "falling" to the other side, but with a lot of control, sort of like sweep picking I guess.

So when you doing the cliche "down-stroke,gallop, downstroke, gallop", you go hard on the downstroke then brush the gallop.

On my 3rd MP3, on the 3rd repeat of the riff, you'll notice I "brushed" 4 notes instead of 3, which is wrong, I made the mistake of not downpicking hard enough, I lost myself in the riff so I brushed the whole thing, you'll **NEED** to have accents on the downstroke preceeding the gallop to know where you are and make it sound better, you'll also need to somewhat accent the first note of the gallop.

Sorry for the long posts, I'm just really really bored ^_^, hopefully someone will find some of this useful.

[phantom]

The gallop, as it turned out for me to be, is a short and small shaking with the wrist. down/up/down one after the other.

So it is not really a wrist-muscle-thing. They would be in the way for me... i'd tense up and end up stiff. It's more a reflex thing.. for me at least.


Have you tried Slayers "raining blood"? There's an neckbreaking gallop in there.
wwWWwwAAAaaAAhhHHhhh....

[Defender]

It's usefull for me :-) , you just got me the idea , to learn "understanding" these rythmns first tapping with my foot really slow and eventually speed things up and learning them more like when you study licks ,thx
:-)

[Defender]

Yeah I know raining blood , that gallop is FAST :-) not to mention the other riffs in that song :-)

[ggulyas]

If you are playin' galopp, always keep in mind, that it all comes from wrist. Move your wrist stark, and stay very very close to the tempo. First, try to play the song Whiplash from Metallica, and if it's ok, try to play the Four Horseman, Metallica again.
That's an easy way to learn the galopp thing.

[(((0)))]

Metal rhythm A>>>>
try this

e|-----------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------|
D|----------------------------7-7-7--------|
A|-------9-----10-----9-10-9--5-5-5--7-7-7-|
E|-7-7-7---7-7----7-7----------------5-5-5-|

[Death (Chuck)]

for gallop: Metallica - battery

( no gallop, but great rhythms )

1: for beginners Megadeth - kill the king

2. for advanced Annihilator - alison hell
Megadeth - Take No Prisoners

3. for metalheads Death - lack of comprehension

[Burnt Offerings]

Ive been a keen guitar player for 12 years but one thing i cannot do properly is the gallop. I started out with private lessons but only for a few years before my tutor moved away so took it on myself just by listening to songs from REM and Paul Weller etc, but soon learnt a few Metallica songs and Maiden.

Been a fan of Iced Earth for a while and damn those riffs are tight, tracks like Funeral, The Reckoning, Hold at all costs have got some of the best deffinitions of 'Galloping' ive ever heard, i thought Whiplash was hard to play...
I for some reason cannot get the rhythm right when trying to gallop, i either tense too much or the string/s i play vibrate too much and it all breaks the rhythm.

Does having the guitar placed higher or lower on the body help/hinder the style im looking for?

[BigBagBill]

Yea, its not really hard to do once you have it down, i just started to do it one day pretty much perfect. It just takes time for you to build up the twitch. As usual just start off slow and take it from there, make sure your relaxed and it comes from the wrist. As far as notation goes, a gallop usually contains an eighth note and 2 16th notes (if you didn't already know).




Some other bands you can listen to that has alot of the Gallop to them is
Lamb of God - 11th hour has alot of galloping to it
Himsa - A Girl In Glass
As I Lay Dying - Confined and Through Struggle are GREAT examples
All that Remains - Definately have to check these guys out, they're great Regret Not, This Calling, Whispers, pretty much anything
Darkest Hour - Sound The Surrender sticks out most in my head, but anything by these guys rocks..
Trivium - Rain

If you don't mind Screaming all these bands rock. So check them out, definately wont regret it

[Defender]

I make a lot of use of powertab for these rythmns , I insert the metronome at the beginning of a riff and slow the whole thing down untill I've got the thing down with all the accents etc... and then speeding up ;)

At first sometimes at ridiculous slow speed , very relaxed but I get better and better each day :D
I guess the trick is playing with thick picks and "very" relaxed , finding the accents and tapping with your foot.
As Troy stetina said , one hand has got to do the thing without help from the other :)

Good songs for beginners (like me )
Bleed for me ( BLS )
Whiplash ( Metallica ) just slow the whole thing down with powertab and you've got a hell of a workout )
Slayer songs etc...

[zog]

For the classic gallop sound don't forget about Iron Maiden they have a lot of songs that use that.

[DracWell]

For the classic gallop sound don't forget about Iron Maiden they have a lot of songs that use that.
alot??
I can't name one tune that doesn't contain them :P
That's probobly why I don't like them.

[Defender]

Recently I am practicing on Slayer's Die by the sword
It's not to difficult so maybe a good song for other "beginners" like me :p
The main riff has also other powerchords in it than the usual ones and maybe it get's you thinking for trying something else in your improvisations ;)

It helped me , just sharing the information :D

[Defender]

hey , lately I am practicing on motorhead songs , ok it's not like annihilator or anything but practicing songs like this really helps me out with the right hand "control" thing. I find it much more easier to play the "gallop stuff" and speed metal riffs after I ve played some of these songs , I guess you really have to go all te way from the beginning if you want to get good on the guitar:)

[Wesley]

Hey man,

Try using a a lighter gauge pick. I find that helped my rhythm a LOT. 1mm picks are great... if you are going to shred all damn day. Try and find a happy medium.

[mmchoppers]

Like someone mentioned earlier, Trivium. I recently saw them, and they have gotten pretty good! Both Matt and Corey have a really tight picking technique, and their gallops are awesome..

[Obivion]

Try some Maiden, Run to the Hills is always great fun (and you can brush on your harmony while you're at it).

[Disrupted]

For me, back in the day, there was no better gallop practice than Iron Maiden. They were the kings of the gallop at the time and it helped me a lot. Even try to play Maiden's bass gallops on the guitar... that, I'm sure, will springboard you into gallop-mastery. lol... if that's even a word. :)

[Defender]

Yeah I like many maiden songs :) , A few months ago I ve bought stetinas trash method and since then I am learning how to practice al these rythmn things with a metronome and tapping your foot, but it seems like a neverending story ...

But i 'll keep bugging you guys with these questions untill I ve mastered it :p

[Wieler]

Does anyone do gallops starting with an upstroke, or do you always do down-up-down, down-up-down

[Padawan]

Does anyone do gallops starting with an upstroke, or do you always do down-up-down, down-up-down

Why playing the guitar with your penis when you can use your hands? ;)

[capitate]

finally, I found something on the net about guitar gallop technique. after reading through this I thought I'd make a music file and upload it. I want to know if what I'm doing is right? :confused: and if I should keep practicing just like that? I havent been playin guitar for long but might as well start working on this technique since it sounds amzing:cool:

thanks

[Spidervenom]

I love this thread already.

Mainly because gallops came naturally to me, and I can do them far better than anything else on guitar. It's gotten to the point I'm making a concerted effort not to use them whatsoever; I've developed a tendency to massively abuse them in rhythm playing. Furthermore, it makes the rest of my playing a joke. I struggled with Creeping Death but could hold a conversation while playing Travel in Stygian. It's ridiculous.

capitate: What you're playing is galloping, although it's not solely galloping. You're essentially playing eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth-eighth-eighth. Cut out the first and last note of that figure, so you're left with sixteenth-sixteenth-eighth, and repeat that. Kind of da-da-dun, da-da-dun, da-da-dun. You're playing dun, da-da-dun, dun, [repeat] so to speak.