Death Metal Picking Style

[Ricky.C]

Hi guys...im pretty new to this forum and site and id just like to say
that i think what u people are doing is awesome ...ive learnt an amazing amount of stuff from here.
anyway...my question is regarding death metal picking...i.e bands like deicide,nile...or even slayer.
i just wonderd if these guys are picking from the wrist or the elbow.
because some of the stuff is just really...erm silly lol.
if its from the wrist then i guess i better get practicing...i just didnt wanna spend months practicing from the wrist and then find its some other technique.
examples of riffs....slayers angel of death...which i hear has 14 picked open e strings a second ...or stuff like the riffs from deicides when satan rules his world or once upon the cross.
any insight would be much apreciated.
peace out

[Ricky.C]

Another nasty one that confuses me would be dittohead by slayer. lol

[phantom]

well.. what those guys are doing is really a workout. and yes, you better get practicing.

as i saw in slayers case they use the wrist, how it is done by others may differ and is a individual thing. in general picking from the elbow is not recommended.. but what the hell.. so is smoking.

[Vilesilencer]

The odds are 99.5% they are picking from the wrist. Id not only be incredibly suprised to see anyone reach even half of Slayer's speed while picking from their arm, but I'd laugh incredibly loud when their arm fell off. The only players Ive ever seen pick from the arm are punk/ska guitarists, and even then it's in the context of strumming, not picking.

Picking from the arm is, IMHO, a very foolish idea. You have to generate the motion starting at your elbow, and move your entire forearm. Now, your arm will move slightly when picking from the wrist, but it will be a much quicker and much shorter movement. It's like Kung Fu, everything should be as quick and direct as possible.. economy of motion.

But.. Ive been wrong before..
________
Laurita live

[metalprep6969]

The odds are 99.5% they are picking from the wrist. Id not only be incredibly suprised to see anyone reach even half of Slayer's speed while picking from their arm, but I'd laugh incredibly loud when their arm fell off. The only players Ive ever seen pick from the arm are punk/ska guitarists, and even then it's in the context of strumming, not picking.

Picking from the arm is, IMHO, a very foolish idea. You have to generate the motion starting at your elbow, and move your entire forearm. Now, your arm will move slightly when picking from the wrist, but it will be a much quicker and much shorter movement. It's like Kung Fu, everything should be as quick and direct as possible.. economy of motion.

But.. Ive been wrong before..

I agree that wrist picking is ideal, but there are a lot of good elbow pickers out there. I've seen several great jazz players pick that way, as well as Vinnie Moore (who's speed and finesse is freaking undeniable) and Kirk Hammett (you may not like him or his style, but he is pretty fast you have to admit, not Petrucci, but fast). My guitar teacher picked from his elbow for quite a long time and got good with it, but recently (in the past year) started the switch to wrist picking. If you just can't get the hang of wrist picking, it's not the WORST thing in the world to use ur elbow, but I wouldn't recommend it. Either way, you're still going to have to practice to get good death metal speed.

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