Do you play all single-note riffs with alternate riffing?


Please help me out.. i'm very confused..


I've always played riffs with only downstrokes except if they where played with tremlo picking or if they were composed by chords.
I'm trying now to play with alternate picking and i feel like i'm playing guitar for the first time and i've been playing for about 6 years.


Do you play all the riffs with alternate picking or only when you want to get fast?
What about riffs that almost each note is in a different key. Is it possible that some part of the riffs are played with downstrokes and others with alternate picking when they are all in the same string.


please help me out.. im confused

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i'll usually do alt. picking for everything except if i want some chunk in my low e, or if i'm tremoloing chords (thats all downstrokes)

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Alternate enables you to go faster, and move more fluidly around the fretboard.

I would practice doing that because it helps a lot. I've only been playing for 4 years, but for the past year i've really picked up on alternate picking and it's helped me become much better.

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i do basically what weijia said but somtime ill take fast songs and try and downpickthe whole thing for endurance and shit pluse the faster you can play just downpicking meens you can go twice as fast alternate picking

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Wow! 6 years and no alternative picking! I can't imagine how you could have played. Yes alternative picking enables you to play much much faster. Theres a part in the Cephalic Carnage song "Blackmetal Sabbath" that goes

|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|-9--9--8--9--10--10--8--8---|
|--77-77-77-77--77--77-66-66-|
|----------------------------|
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

(Gtr 1)
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|-9--9--8--9--10--10--8--8---|
|--77-77-77-77--77--77-66-66-|
|----------------------------|
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

And you cannot play that without alternative picking. Listen to the song and try it out, its actually a great exercise. Death also aternative picks alot.

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Or try the rhythem to Technical Difficulties

|---------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------
|-------4------5------4----4h5-----4-------5-------4~~~-------------
|--3-3---3-3----3-3----3--------3-----3-3----3-3-------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------


|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|-------0---------10------9------10------9----9h10----10-------9------10-------9~~~-----
|----------7-9-------7-7----7-7-----7-7----7--------7------7-7----7-7------7-7---------
|-7-8----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

alternate pick that as fast as you can...
Work slow and speed will come in time.

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well.. i've been maneging all pretty well with downstrokes picking and tremlo picking, I guess what i coulnd't donwstroke i would tremlo pick :P

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All guitarist (espicially those in metal) should know how to alternative and be able to do it well. It also really helps with creating technical riffage.

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I don't doubt that alternate picking is important but i don't see how it is use for most of the riffage in metal unless you are counting tremlo picking as alternate picking.
I guess that alternate picking is mostly used in solos but i'm not sure. I can be wrong

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That also depends on what you listen to.

Have you ever heard any Martyr? How about Cryptopsy?? There's tons of alternate picking in their stuff.


But then again, if you listen to stuff like machine head where they basically only use the 5th and 6th string, then you don't need alternate picking.

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i don't know if this has been ans. already, (i'm rarely here)
but, when you alternate pick, or tremolo, is your forearm
resting on the guitar. i find that mine is. and when i cross
strings, i find it easier to start upstroke rather than down,
because the circular motion makes it easier. for ex:
upstroke, downstroke, for high e to low e
downstroke, upstroke for low e to high e.

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Martry rules memnoch! Great technical stuff. Death, Dying Fetus, Decapitated, Cephalic, pretty much all metal has it. Espically live because bands always speed up the songs live.

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Fucking right man. Already one of my top 5 fav bands.

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but do you usually play any singler-note riff with only downstrokes?

I understand that some difficult riffs requeires alternate picking but do you laways play alternate picking or only when you wnat to play fast? It seems to me taht the sound is differentand i don't know what i want exacly

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Downstrokes do have a different sound than upstrokes...they basically sound a little heavier or chunkier.

Doing alternate picking is good because it doesn't put a huge strain on your hand, especially if you're doing a gig live and you're forcing your hand to play all downstrokes for about 30 minutes.

I usually only use downstrokes when i'm doing a heavy riff, which means palm muted notes on my E string. If i do anything else i try my best to use alternate picking because it's much easier, i can play twice as fast and the whole motion is much more fluid.

It's totally up to you how you want to play, but if you want to improve skill and play more varied stuff, try alternate picking.

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Canadian Martyr? If so, they fucking rock. Warp Zone is one of my favourite albums.

Back on topic, yes. Listen to Decapitated and Cephalic.