Hi there!

Just a quick question my downpicking practice:

At the moment I'm practicing downpicking with the song "Creeping Death" from Metallica. Now I have got two ways of doing that: Should I practice let's say 5 minutes without resting or 2,5 minutes, a little break, and again 2,5 minutes? It's because I can get faster when I only play 2,5 minutes without resting, but would it be better for the stamina to play the whole thing at once?

Thanks in advance!

Whole thing at once in a loop with master of puppets. It's the best possible stamina workout

I would say it's better to start with short sessions, like 2,5 minutes, then do a pause.. and gradually increase the lenght of each session.

Well you should start slowly , bpm vise and length wise...You should gradually increase both...Since you are practicing with a song I would suggest starting from shorter sessions and gradually building up...Stamina will come with the practice..You should stop when your hands feel tired, pause a bit and than start again..It won't take much time until you have the strength to play the whole song throughout.

This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Nov 16 2008, 11:50 PM

Slow always is good and practice each section of the song to get a perfect practice.
But here is something else: If you watch the Petrucci clinic he says that sometimes is good to play it even faster than the normal speed of the musical piece to get your hand used to something even harder. That way helps you to achive a neat and relaxed practice before, but be carefull with that kind of practice, you don't want to pull something, so do that when you already are warmed-up

Yeah,and eventually add some more stuff to your practicing routine.
I would keep it slow at the beginning (to track thing nicely)
but as long as possible,5min,10min,15min etc.

At first, thanks for all the great advices!

I think I'll keep Creeping Death and add Master Of Puppets. Though I think playing MOP 15 minutes in a loop is quite boring, isn't it? Is it better to just repeat one riff or going through almost the whole song?

I would say on faster tempos it is always good to make mini breaks. This is because fingers get tired, and you can't really bang away no stop fast. Other technique is to use bursts, for example from eight note triplets to sixtien note triplets. But be sure you play everything cleanly - you should be comfortable on both note rhythm values.