A Challenge! Are you this fast?

[6StringShredder]

Hi,

My goal is to do downpick 1/8th notes at 220bpm. In most metal songs, they seem to DP anything 1/8th notes or less. I am not up to that speed yet, but was wondering if anyone out there can do it. If you have audio samples, that would be great! Here is a simple riff to use:

220bpm:


A 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
E 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

pm---------------------------|

[The Bash]

Nope, but I'm all up for who can play the slowest duel

[CaptainCarma]

sorry bash,

but I´m the uncrowned champ in the competition of slowplaying.

[Anubis]

Anyone at this forum can play that fast with some practice.
It is just a matter if you are into that style or not.
If your goal is to play that fast all you need to do is to work on it over a period of time and you will soon get there.

[jov]

I'm on the same lines with Anubis.. I used to play lots of Slayer and Sepultura stuff and that kind of down picking speed is not very hard to come up with.. It probably takes few months of every day practise. Just watch out for injuries, you can hurt your picking hand when doing this kind of stuff. And this kind of down picking speed is quite difficult to maintain. You get sloppy quickly if not constantly practising playing fast..

Best regards
Jov

[CaptainCarma]

Originally posted by Anubis
Anyone at this forum can play that fast with some practice.
It is just a matter if you are into that style or not.
If your goal is to play that fast all you need to do is to work on it over a period of time and you will soon get there.

hey anubis,

you´re right. it´s just a matter of constant work.

[jov]

Hi 6String!

As I was writing that last post I tought that that was really quite boring answer and decided to record something anyways..

So here comes.. my all time favourite downpicking riff played at approx. 230 bpm (Hope you recognize it! )

Regards
jov

( The real reason for posting this is of course my over sized ego, that I just had to show that I can play 220 bmp, but don't tell that to anyone )

[flathead]

Oh yeah I recognize that.
It's uh 'Night Fever' by the Bee Gees. That sure kicks butt.

[Bizarro]

Jov, that's a cool example. I don't recognize it though, should I?

Have you thought about writing an article for iBreathe? It's obvious from your soundfiles and transcription abilities that you're quite accomplished!

[jov]

Hey, Bizarro. Thanks for the compliments, I feel honoured!!

I'm a bit surprised because I remember you saying something about being a relic from 80's (or was it you??) like me and not recognizing this ( from your tone I assume that you were serious )
Well, for anyone who doesn't know it's main riff from Metallica's Creeping Death from the time when they were still well respected band.. And that is how I like to remember them. James Hetfield was probably the guy who got me playing guitar in the first place so I'm kinda indepted to him..

Hmm, writing an article surely is interesting tought.. I just have no idea what I would write about but I keep that in mind.

BR
jov

[Bizarro]

Creeping Death... Doh! I should have known that! I was listening to that last week!

I'm definitely an 80's guy!

[6StringShredder]

Jov,

all I can say is WOWWWWWWWWWWW! That is awesome! My limit right now is about 190bpm (1/8th notes all downpick).

How can you hurt your hand doing this? Are there precautions I should take before starting? I would like to think I can get that fast but right now I feel like it won't happen

Thanks!

[jov]

Thanks 6String!

Main thing to keep in mind is to take a break when it starts to hurt (this goes with all physical practising.. and I guess you can apply this to theory too ) Of course it would be good to start little slower and build up to your maximum speed. Usually this happens anyway because you can pick faster after little warmup than straight away.

BR
Jov

[Shred Fan]

It odd that we're on the topic of fast downpicking and noone has mentioned perhaps the most famous excersise for downpicking.

Master of Puppets.

With a bit of work its not to difficult to downpick at that speed. I've been focusing on Alternate picking for so long my downpicking isn't as fast as it used to be, I can do that MOP excersise at about 1/8ths at 208bpm.

Be careful with fast downpicking though, as a lot of the guys said, if you overdo it its not good for your wrists.

[FredrikD]

I've actually tabbed one of my own songs just the other day and it contains 1/16th notes, muted downstokes at 110 bpm. But it's only 3 in a row so it doesn't count does it?

...it didn't go well for me with the downstroke only thing. But I reached 245 bpm using 1/16th notes with altenative picking muted and 300 bpm not muted (both me and my software started to fail here). Maybe I should start to play death metal instead.