Owen Vickers

A Picking Exercise a-la Nuno

I decided the other day, after successfully tracking down a copy of one of my favourite CD’s of the very late 80’s (Extreme – Extreme), to re-learn the intro to Mutha Don’t Wanna Go To School Today.

It turns out it’s harder than I remember, despite the abundance of 4 year olds on YouTube that can play it one-handed whilst asleep [superemotions file=”icon_lol.gif” title=”Laughing Out Loud”]

The part that I’m really trying to focus on at the moment is a “simple” repeating pattern, three notes per string, that comes in at about 0:32 on the track.  It’s a pattern that is used a lot by Zakk Wylde, and many other shred dudes.

Here’s a sample of the pattern, thanks to tinylick.com:

The actual pattern is a little different, but as a picking exercise I find that what’s tabbed here is pretty good.

Picking pattern is down-up-down-up-ad infinitum, although unless I really concentrate, it turns into a mess of downs, ups, hammers, pulls and who knows what else 😉

So, give it a go, play it so slow that you put yourself to sleep and marvel one day when you can play it as fast as Nuno [superemotions file=”icon_cool.gif” title=”Cool”]