METAL TEKNIK

There are many techniques used in metal guitar playing, and a lot of them are confusing and/or difficult to pull of, so I will give you the best, and most detailed instructions I can.

Pinch Harmonics:

Pinch harmonics are one of the most useful skills to have in your arsenal of shredding techniques, and one of the simplest!!

do perform a pinch harmonic you must do two things
1. Pluck the note you want to do a pinch harmonic on
2. Make a scooping motion with your picking hand you so that your thumb barely touches the string that you just picked.

A few things you should know about pinch harmonics
1. It is are easiest to do them on your bridge pickup (that's the one in back, if you don't know) but may possible on your other pickups, depending on your guitar.
2. you need a lot of gain/drive or they wont work right
3. there are "nodes" on your strings, located around your pickups and harmonics will only work if you hit the string with your pick in on of these, it may take some time to find them.
4. pinch harmonics are easier on the thinner strings, but possible on all of them.

Economy Picking:

Economy picking is easier to use than alternate picking, but harder to learn.
It is very similar to alternate picking except when you are changing to a different string, then you "sweep" up or down to the next string rather than jump over it before you pluck it, let me give you an example. D will represent a downstroke and U will represent an upstroke

economy
e|------------------------------D-U-D-U-------------------------------|
B|------------------------D-U-D---------U-D-U-------------------------|
G|------------------D-U-D---------------------U-D-U-------------------|
D|------------D-U-D---------------------------------U-D-U-------------|
A|------D-U-D---------------------------------------------U-D-U-------|
E|D-U-D---------------------------------------------------------U-D-U-|

Alternate

e|------------------------------U-D-U--------------------------------|
B|------------------------D-U-D--------D-U-D-------------------------|
G|------------------U-D-U--------------------U-D-U-------------------|
D|------------D-U-D--------------------------------D-U-D-------------|
A|------U-D-U--------------------------------------------U-D-U-------|
E|D-U-D--------------------------------------------------------D-U-D-|


see how with alternate picking you have to jump over the string every time you move up or down? Economy picking saves a lot of right hand motion and lets you really maximize your picking speed when moving up and down the strings.

Here is an exercise for you to practice.

e|-------------------------6-7-8-9--------------------------------------|
B|--------------------5-6-7-------8-9-10--------------------------------|
G|---------------4-5-6------------------9-10-11-------------------------|
D|----------3-4-5------------------------------10-11-12-----------------|
A|-----2-3-4-------------------------------------------11-12-13---------|
E|1-2-3--------------------------------------------------------12-13-14-|


remember to use the SAME stroke every third note to carry to the next string, in other words "sweep" up and down

Sweep Picking:

Sweep picking is used when you want to move between many different strings in a very rapid fashion, say if you only wanted to play one or two notes per string. you don't pick individual strings with sweet picking, rather you make a strumming motion over the strings you want to play.

It is important to only have fingers on one string at a time though, because when you are sweeping you want all of the strings except the one you are currently playing on to be silent, so each note sounds individually rather than just strumming a chord. generally you play two notes on the top string and bottom string of your sweep, in order to change direction without breaking the flow.

Here is an example of a sweep picking lick

(originally I wrote this is D standard but it should sound fine in E if you don't want to retune)D will mean downstroke and U will mean upstroke

d|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|------D15-U17-------------D17-U18-------------D18-U17-------------D17-U15|
F|----D14-----U14---------D14-----U14---------D14-----U14---------D14------|
C|--D15---------U15-----D15---------U15-----D15---------U15-----D15--------|
G|D17-------------U17-D17-------------U17-D17-------------U17-D17----------|
D|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|


Sometimes a lick will require you to play a note on the same fret, one string higher. when this happens you need to "roll" your finger (from the tip to the ball of your finger, almost like you were going to bar the fret) up or down depending on the direction you are moving in.

I hope this helps someone!