Hi Mike,
I hope you don't mind me jumping in here and trying to help.
I found the gallop rhthym quite tricky too. However, the time I really got better at it was when I stopped over analyzing it and just felt the groove.
One thing that helps is if you can play constant 16th notes at the speed that the gallop riff is at. You don't have to be able to do it constantly for hours and have stamina of iron, but being able to play a constant 16th note alternating motion is the foundation for being able to do the gallop pattern.
Look at the pick itself. One thing that helped me increase my speed and efficiency of motion was to visualise the pick staying as close as possible to the string when I was playing. The faster we go and the more effort we put in, the pick tends to travel in a bigger motion. It's our job to counteract this but reigning it in and keeping the motion tight and focused on the string.
As for the gallop riff itself, one thing that helps me is by focusing my mental attention and my pick energy on the (I think they're called..) quarter notes. The 1, 2, 3 & 4 that makes up a bar. If you're playing it right, then these beats should always occur during a downstroke. By concentrating your focus on these bits, you can stay in time easier and the alternating notes in between can occur with less effort. You may find that by concentrating on certain beats, you're able to sustain your picking for longer because you have a reference point. You can go beyond what you thought your speed limit was by doing this
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This post has been edited by Ben Higgins: Feb 14 2012, 10:41 AM
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Mike RR24 Gallop Picking Feb 14 2012, 01:16 AM
