This month, I'd like to address an essential point of focus for every good metal player: how to best strengthen the pick-hand technique. The examples I'm going to show you cover a wide variety of pick-hand techniques, from using all downstrokes the alternate picking to economy picking and more, offering a systematic approach to building up these different techniques that will allow you to play with more expression, control and power.

With his monolithic chops and die-hard work ethic, Broderick has emerged as the scariest monster shredder on the planet. As he makes clear in the above quote, Broderick has a deep respect for both music and musical performance and has pushed himself relentlessly in the pursuit of technical proficiency and musical freedom. No less an authority than Dave Mustaine calls Broderick “the greatest guitar player Megadeth has ever had.”

One of my favorite things to do is take a classically flavored chord progression, like the one shown in FIGURE 1, and use it in a rock guitar context. This particular progression is based for the most part on what is known as the cycle of fourths, in that the root note of each of the first five chords is the interval of a fourth above the previous root note.