I've come to the understanding that some metal guitarists seem to dislike alternate picking as if it was the plague. The keep saying you gotta down pick it all, don't cheat, don't sell out, loooooser, faggot, whatever. Why? I mean, what are the actual advantages of downpicking that they mention. I can only see disadvantages. So, enlighten me!

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there are to types of people that may say that
1)beginners who dont know wat shredding is or are to shit to be able to shred
2) those who want to accentuate pick attack or play old school thrash

anyway i dont think there are advantages for doing just downpicking!! other than its different

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WHEN I LEARNED MASTER OF PUPPETS (THE PART IN THE INTRO BEFORE THE VERSE)
I WAS DOING IT ALTERNATE PICKING
AFTER READING AN INTERVIEW WITH JAMES HETFIELD IN A MAGAZINE HE SAYS HE DOES IT DOWNPICKING. I TRIED LIKE HE SAYS. AT FIRST I THOUGHT IT WAS HARDER AND USELESS BUT THEN I REALIZE THAT IT JUST DOESN'T SOUND THE SAME.
IT'S TRUE THAT YOU LOSE SPEED A LITTLE BIT BUT TO ME THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DOWNPICKING/ALTENATE PICKING

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Downpicking has its own specific sound so I would say its only adavntage would be if you want the "downpicking" sound. For instance, play the intro to master of puppets using all down picks and then play it again but, this time alternate pick some parts, you will see the difference.

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and for chords, you want to downpick them all, upstrokes just sound gay

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you will always get a deeper sound if you downpick chords, coming up does sound bad with most chords, but i spose it depends on what sorts of sounds you want, i dont think it sounds too bad with simple 2 finger power chords, but its allways good to alternate your style of playing rather than doing the same thing all the time.

First of all, what guitarist calls alternative pickers faggots? I'd like to know. Anywho, most metal cannot be played with all downpicks, alternative picking is extremely common more technical bands. (Suffocation, Decapitated, Hate Eternal, Cephalic Carnage, Deeds of Flesh, ect..).

But alot of bands use downpicking for more "Sludgier" parts; a chunkiness. And stroking chords up dosent sound gay, it depends on the key, chord, ect.

sorry, i meant power chords sounded horrible upstroked,

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I like to upstroke all the chords I play...it gives the upper end, and when I do it, all the higher notes aren't left out, and the volume of all the notes is the same. I can't really explain perfectly, so just try it yourself.

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I've been playing for 10 months now and I find that the more versatile you
are, the better. You've got to practice both ways. You never know when you're
gonna need it. All around skill is so much better to have when learning new
stuff. I'm still having difficulty upstroking power chords when I alternate but
one of these days it'll be natural for me.

Higher end when upstroking makes sense.

And for those idiots who say it's gay to upstroke: is that the way you stroke? Only one way? Must be tough to get off...

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Playing a downstroke gives you a different sound when you pick an upstroke. You can get a better "chunk" out of playing downstrokes. Theres times to pick downstrokes just as theres times to pick alternate.

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I can't hear any difference in my sound. I do however have a quite symmetrical (hope you get my point) picking. But thanks for the explanation, it seems reasonable that not everyone picks symmetrically.

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Eh...I didnt know, that is possible to argue about wich picking is better Of course its about what you like...and I use both...playing downstrokes all the way, but here and there I put some alternative picking...Its perfect when its coordinated with drums. (listen to some older Testament or Fear Factory)

@G_urr_A: I pick symetrically, but it still sounds different. this is'n a big surprise, picking first the lower string and then the higher will get a different sound to picking first the higher and then the lower

(sorry, my english is fucked up)

Slaughthammer: Yeah, if you're doing chords of any sort, it will be much more difficult to make it sound the same. I was talking about single note stuff. But it should be possible to alternate pick chords and make it sound the same. I mean, when I down pick chords, my hand goes so fast you can't hear which string got hit first (up to 3 string shords that is), so doing it upwards with the same speed and the same strength of hit on the strings should do it. That's pretty difficult, though, I would think.

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See I learned it downpicking, and then after a guitarist i was jaming with was showing off playing the intro three time faster then it was play by alternate picking i did it just to shove it up his ass.

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Fucking great

Anyways, I down pick a lot, but alternate picking is crucial. Not just alternate picking up and down and shit but adding style. For example, I use a lot of triplets and shit, there's no way you can play a good triplet with out alternate picking.

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i'm playing now for at least an year and a half, but i'm self learned, so i'm oblivious to a lot of stuff (names)...but i have to ask, is downpicking strumming the strings (muted) from the 6th E string to the 5th A string and up? and what is meant with alternative picking? i know i'm probably lazy, because any good search engine would probably give me a site or two (or thousand) about this, but i might as well ask it in a thread a lot of people are discussing in, and all seem to know about...

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downpick...pick the string down...
...I hope you can guess what uppicking is...
and alternate picking...hmmmm, maybe, just maybe, it might mean alternating between upstroke and downstroke....

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ktnx, could've guessed it i think, but if you're learning to play by yourself and use methods in two different languages, its not easy to know how everything is called

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I Despise this lol.

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In his column in Guitar World (September 2002), Slayer's guitarist Kerry King mentioned that downpicking is better than alternate picking since it gives a chunkier sound and shows more attitude, especially if using P.M. But he states that it's not always the case because sometimes the tempo imposes the usage of alternate picking... As for me, I tend to use both picking techniques, not one in particular...

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This is the stupidest post ive read in a while.


"attitude?" That statement from KK shows lack of knowledge. What a douche. But what ever. I wont argue...

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I am a new guitar player, and I am currently in the process of getting a guitar of my own. I have been recently playing a friend of mine's guitar and I don't have anyone to teach me, and basically been winging it...only untill i get a guitar of my own.

Well i have been only downpicking and found it a little tough to hit just the right strings needed....probably just because im a noob. Anyways I am going to try up picking and alternate picking to see what results i get.

Anyways, i recently saw this video Yngwie Malmsteen made and I pretty much crapped my pants. It pretty much inspired me more on top of what i was to play guitar. I hope I can atleast be as half of good that he is.

Anyways enuff noob talk.

I dont like Yngwie... arrogant cunt... although, if i could play like him, i'd flaunt it too...

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yes he shows off alot. i caught that when he pulled the guitar up to his face and kept playing without missing a note or messing up...lol...in my mind i was thinking *SHOW OFF!!* lol...

but hey, if i could do it, damn right i will be showing it off.

What haters

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Downstroke simply accentuate the lower note of the chord, then backs it up with a higher not, whereas upstrokes doo the exact opposite, so of course in metaal you are going to want to downstroke to give it a deeper, heavier sound

Alternate pickking effects the sound in no way other then making you able to play faster, enless you just do it wrong

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I am just a beginner and I have started to learn Master oF PUppets. For the intro do you palm pute the part where it works its way down the fretboard. Also how can I get my downpicking faster. Should I rest my hand on the guitar or keep it off etc?

For the intro, you PM all the 0 and 1's on the 6th string. Everything else should sound out as normal.

I don't think you'd need to rest your hand on the guitar, unless you're doing palm muting of course. If you want to build up your down picking speed just remember three words... practise, practise, practise. The more you practise them, the more your stamina will build and then the faster you'll be able to downpick.

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Yeah, that guy really loves himself. But I bet a lot of people, if they played during 30 years, 15h a day, would get as good as him. Plus, he doesn't even really create any music, he pretty much steals everything that has been done during the last centuries and adapts it shred-style. What a bragging fagget. A lot of people are really good musicians, and they don't feel the need to show off like that.

And I know it has nothing to do with his guitar playing, but he wears jewels.

how can you not know the advantages of downpicking? it does make a difference. it sounds heavier. and it doesn't mean that you play like shit, you only use alternate for solos.

So how would you play, for example, Chapter For Transforming Into A Snake by Nile with all downstrokes? It can't be done, my friend.

There are times where just using downstrokes can be advantageous in achieving a more aggressive feel but when a riff requires some turbo paying alternate picking is the only way to go. For example take the outro to Black Seeds Of Vengeance (also by Nile). It has the fast single note, alternate picking part in 16ths but then it slows to fast downpicking of chords in 8ths. There's no way the whole outro could be downpicked.

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