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My trainer is attempting to teach me the galloping strum ala "Run to the hills" style. He shows it to me, and it looks easy... but I attempt it and it literally looks like I've never played guitar before in my life. It's making me feel like a bit of a buffoon but I just can't wrap my head around how he's doing it. If I slow it down to 1.... 2.... 3.... 4.... I can do it, but at normal or even slightly less than normal speed I look like otter smashing a clam on it's stomach. my hand goes all wonky and all form of timing or control seems to go out the window. Then he shows me again, and I swear his hand is made of magic because I just can't get it.

Anyone had any advice for getting the "gallop" down? Or was I just not meant to shred?

Practise, practise, practise etc. Do it slowly to a click, etc etc.

The first time you (by which I mean any of us, not just YOU, you cack-handed imbecile) do anything, it's not natural and it's awkward. Try playing along to a track that has the pattern in it, or better yet, get a recording of your trainer doing it at a manageable pace with just a few chord changes.

practice practice practice like doog said and don't force yourself in speed, start slow, start at a tempo where you don't have trouble then speed it up bit by bit.
i've been lucky or just made the right choice to start on bass or whatever but never had problems with rythm or tempo on bass and after the first lesson of the cure's a forest he let me play number of the beast and other maiden but on guitar i'm really lazy, rythm comes first, so for instance if i can't do the 'complete' chords in the tempo i want, i adjust the chords not the tempo, make it more simple for my right hand (left hand in your case), to me personally it's not about the amount of notes or 'full' chords but the feel for rythms really so try to focus on that, not playing a perfect copy but 'cheating' a bit to make the rythm work better. maybe not good advice but just thought i'd share it.

count - one and a two and a three and a four and a

picking pattern - down, down, up.

a lot of it is down to muscle memory, so it just takes practice

i just realized that this is almost how i naturally strum when i play strumming from my wrist instead of playing from the elbow.

just practice practice practice. when you think maybe you've been practicing to much, have a PBR and then practice more.

i just listened to the song and its really hard for me to hear the guitars through my awful laptop speakers. Metal rhythms are very tricky for those of us not used to chugging along on the lower strings. I'll see if i can get it down tomorrow and offer some pointers.

huh, you made me realise that i had no idea what this was and i'd never really tried it before.

can't give you much help though. i just did it and it sort of happened. i guess learning all that maiden when i first started out did help.

i'll just echo chisa's advice. one and a two and a three and a four.
try out different picking patterns though. i can only do down up down, if i try any others i can't follow the rhythm at all. that might be your problem.

Like the others said practice with a click track or recording. Or get a metronome and start slow, say 60 bpm and work it up in intervals of 10 bpm. Another trick is to just practice for a small chunk of time on this, say 10 minutes, but in that time give it 100% focus. Then move on to something else. This will mean that you won't get fatigued by it and you ca have more positive thoughts leaving it than if you go on to long and start messing up. Good luck with it Ends

Hey well i just checked out the song, finally taking a break from my quest to learn every van halen tune. It's a tricky little number. The galloping rhythm is pretty cool. For this i suggest you look at a sheet music version of the song. If i still had the program on my computer, i could quickly put the rhythm for you. Try starting off slow to get the basic feel down, then jump up to a speed that you can't do. After that, just work on cleaning it up. It's the Shawn Lane approach, and it seemed to work for him.

heres my advice.


make a fucking F chord and just CHUGA THAT SHIT.


dont stop. just CHUG THE FUCK OUT OF F

seriously rob is right.
this kinda shit is just done, not learned.
i have no idea what pattern i use, and that's the point. i just did it.
you're thinking way too much.
i think it's the same with your picking the 'wrong' strings.

yeah, part of picking the "right strings" is just not caring so much about picking the "right strings". the other part is muscle memory. and that is gained simply by putting the time in. the time can be spent just fucking around, but you gotta put it in one way or another.

some of these things are kind of difficult to get when you're starting out but later after you've built up the muscle memory it's easy to make little adjustments here and there to play in different ways. like gabe said, I don't know how the hell I strum. or I don't know what it's called. but I can easily make a few adjustments to emulate whatever strumming pattern I need. I remember when I was starting out though, and how it was nearly impossible.

It's easy you just chuggitah chuggitah chuggitah wanh wanh chuggitah chuggitah chuggitah chuggitah, chuggitah chuggitah wanh wanh, chuggitah chuggitah chuggitah chuggitah

I'm assuming you probably don't need help anymore, but i took some time to learn their songs and would be more than happy to show you. If you need help with any of the riffs/solos i would also be glad to offer some help. This goes for all songs and all shortscalers!