If you want to be a master of metal soloing, you need to work hard at your picking technique. Legato and tapping are of course great, but when you want to dig in and add real impact to your solos, only super-tight picking can deliver.
Think of players like Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse, Al Di Meola, Gary Moore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Gambale, John McLaughlin, and so many others in many and various styles and genres.
Today we have Greek metal star Gus G to help you fine-tune your picking skills. A supremely gifted player who can most definitely be added to that illustrious list, Gus has years of playing experience with his band Firewind, alongside Ozzy Osbourne, and many others.
Gus uses a mix of alternate picking and economy picking in a wide variety of metal soloing styles, but these techniques really come to the fore in his high-tempo thrash licks, as we are about to see.
We’re going to look at three examples here – just a small selection from Gus’s JTC Guitar package, Speed Picking Concepts.
For the video licks, Gus is tuned down a whole tone (D-G-C-F-A-D). If you want to stay in standard tuning, just play everything two frets lower.
Of course, feel free to play these licks at much slower speeds to begin with, and then gradually build up to tempo against your metronome, increasing it day by day until you can play these ideas cleanly and accurately.
Example 1
We start things gently with this triplet-based lick. It’s all C minor pentatonic (C-Eb-F-G-Bb), although we’re at the 10th fret because of the tuning (it’s the 8th fret if you’re in standard tuning). This is mostly a repeating pattern, except for the changing top note. Start with a downstroke and use strict alternate picking throughout.
Example 2
This example is in E minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D). The trickiest aspect of alternate picking is moving from string to string in a strict fashion, starting a new string with either a downstroke or an upstroke.
Practise slowly with the picking suggestions shown and then later switch to start with an upstroke (developing a flexible technique).
Example 3
For certain note combinations, Gus switches to economy picking, minimising the movement in his picking hand. This sequence-based line in E minor pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D) is a good example. Instead of four separate pickstrokes for each group, (eg, down-up-down-up, Zakk Wylde style) he just plays two small sweeps.
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