Hey there!

I was wondering how long it usually takes to be able to gallop. Will it just be able to do it after a while just like that or do I need to do special exercises? I have played about one and a half month and I frustrated cuz I cant master some of the difficulty 3 lessons only cuz of the gallops

Hi Murloc

Galloping, like any other technique needs to be practiced. And just like any other technique you have to start slow. Just keep doing it slow, carry the guitar arround with you, it doesn´t need to be anything musical, just practice the "ta tarara tarara taraa" on the low E string and gradually increase the speed as you feel comfortable. Eventually you´l be able to do fast short bursts, and with time you can gallop all the way to china Your muscles just need time to remember the movement and it will become second nature when that happens

yes my Friend!! very good!!!

Focused practice is more efficient than non-focused practice (playing while watching TV ect). As it said in an article somebody posted here recently. As DaniHel explained you want to really pay attention to the picking here as the most difficult part is mixing the first longer note with the three short notes. Just make sure you're efficiently playing it slow, at first, then gradually getting faster as you progress. There's no need to rush it.

Check out this article on practicing: Practicing and Current Brain Research

As I recall the first month of playing back in 1990 it was mostly about trying to play Smoke on the water without stopping to watch the strings all the time, some pentatonic scale practice with lots of errors, trying to understand why the B string was "half a note off".
Galloping came much later since it involved an uneven pattern which was hard to master at first.

At least it was for me, I played all downstrokes the first time, then some random alternate picking before I practiced the alternate picking hard to get it relearned right. Then there was palm muting which came pretty naturally for me.

- Power chords
- String muting, palm muting
- Alternate picking

konwing these might be a good foundation for you before you hit galopping

One thing that you should pay attention when doing gallop
is picking movements, it's not Alternate Picking
cause you would put accents on "wrong" notes
or even lose accents in total.
Instead of Alternate go for down, down-up-down, down-up-down, down-up-down etc.
Bold downstrokes will come on each beat and those are like 8th notes,
rest of the notes and 16th are they are located in 2nd half of each beat.
8th note + 2 x 16th notes = quarter note.

Yeah, thats the most important thing, pay attention to your picking and play to a metronome.

Thanks for all the replies!
So I will never learn to gallop if I just continue trying to learn lesson, practice with the metrone etc? I have to do special gallop training?

If Kristofer Dahl was here now he would scold you big time

Blasphemy

Hmmm.. ok, please count a 5/8 in 163 bpm and record it for me lol only using your head and vocal chords

Some drummers are as accurate or!! even more accurate than a metronome. Just depends on how strongly the sense of rhythm was growth in the persons early years of life. Still for most people metronome is a very helpful device.

DaniHel - what's the point of 5/8 in 163 bpm? He will be able to play 5/8 in any speed after he gets in the groove, but that most probably won't be a metronome groove, but a groove that the drummer/bass player or both produce.

He he I cant remember when i mastered the gallop, but i remember doing some slow kind of gallop and creating my own melodies with them(maybe because i didnt have the ability to play what i wanted )

But one of the first songs i ever got really good were Iron Maiden songs, so maybe trying too learn some maiden related stuff will help, as it has alot of galloping.

You could also check out Iced Earths song "something wicked this way comes" man I was a proud boy when I got that riff down

Other than that i guess you just have to be patient and practise, practise, and practise

I would play few Maiden albums and knock myself along the tracks.

fortunately, I am a big maiden fan

Not really THAT difficult, if you ask me. Once you know the groove of 5/8, you can, if you know your tempos as well...get withing 5 bpms of that, my geuss would be.

Or check out
Motorbreath intro by Metallica from "Kill'em all" album

You can tap your foot to something like 147.34 bpm...? No previous reference like actually hearing that tempo

There you go.

Definitely! You have to do special training for every technique that you do if you want to play it comfortably, and this special training involves taking a metronome and practicing slowly and precisely. Just be patient it will come in time.

I remember trying to gallop like it was yesterday (1986). All I wanted to do was learn to gallop when I got my first guitar. I was nuts over Iron Maiden songs like Trooper, Run to the Hills, Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner - all good galloping songs. I was so frustrated about not being able to gallop, I spent at least a month trying to get it. With the help offered here and some patience, it will soon come.

You may don't need a metronome, but you should not assume that all the other people(exp. beginner) would not need one either.

That was not what I said.. I said getting within 5 bpm of that - from 142 to 152 then. I'm pretty sure I could hit that.

Just take it slowly and play it against a metronome.You should be able to get in the groove and get it up the speed with some focused practice. Also Iron Maiden songs are great choice for practicing this technique.