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How to be great at the guitar part 3 - Tremolo Picking

Rating: 0 user(s) have rated this lesson Posted by: ZixRyder, on Oct 22,2011, in category Guitar Techniques Views: this lesson has been read 685 times
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Tremolo picking in fact is really simple compared for example to tapping, because tremolo picking is just fast alternative picking. To make your tremolo picking smooth try not to hold you pick parallel to the sting. Try to make a 30-40 degree angle between the sting and the pick.

If you make a too little angle, you can tremolo pick fast, if you make a too big angle the sound will be awful. Let's see a simple example. Try to make 16th notes and start slow first.

e|----------------------------------|
B|----------------------------------|
G|-77777777777777775555555555555555-|
D|----------------------------------|
A|----------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------|
 |-DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU-|

That's a pretty simple tremolo picking exercise, but it can be harder. Let's look at a real "exercise", the verse part of Avenged Sevenfold's Bat County. The song is in Drop D tuning. 16th notes again, with a 140 bpm tempo.

e|----------------------------------|\
B|----------------------------------| \
G|----------------------------------| \
D|----------------------------------| |2 times for the 1st vers
A|-55555555-------------------------| |4 times for the 2nd vers
D|---------666666660000000000000000-| /
                   ................-| /
 |-DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUD-|/

e|------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|-55555555----------------444444445555555577777777-----------------|
E|---------6666666655555555------------------------3333333322222222-|
 |-DUDUDUDUUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU-|


This riff includes some palm muting, if you don't know what it is don't mind it i will cover it in the next lesson.

Basically that's what tremolo picking is all about. These two songs contains tremolo picking: Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare, System of a Down - Chop Suey!

That's it for this lesson, next time i will talk about palm muting.
ZixRyder.

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