so those fast palm-muted power chords in punk bands are up/down strokes?

J

Jotosuds

New member
so what i'm wondering is if it's possible to play those fast chugga chugga palm muted power chords like in sum 41 etc. with up and down strokes. i thought they were just fast w/great stamina and played all downstrokes.
 
Jotosuds said:
so what i'm wondering is if it's possible to play those fast chugga chugga palm muted power chords like in sum 41 etc. with up and down strokes. i thought they were just fast w/great stamina and played all downstrokes.
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I do up and down when I am playing fast palm muting. It keeps me from getting fatigued when I play a lot of it. It's a different sound than playing all down, however.
 
Jotosuds said:
so what i'm wondering is if it's possible to play those fast chugga chugga palm muted power chords like in sum 41 etc. with up and down strokes. i thought they were just fast w/great stamina and played all downstrokes.
Click to expand...

It depends. But no one plays only down 100% of the time. There are spots, yes.
 
I play them up and down too. It's hard to play a 32nd note all in one direction. Plus for me, you can play them cleaner using alternate picking.
 
I prefer all down picking, but this is probably because my guitar teacher was utterly convinced that the sound was way better. There is a difference in sound, but if doing all down is gonna make you tired or sloppy, up/down won't hurt the sound too much, and a lot of guitarists do it anyway, so it's okay.
 
For playing a song thats already been done, if it sounds like all down strokes then I use that, but for the same kind of thing when I play my own stuff I'll just use up and down since I'm lazy.
 
in my experience pop punk stuff like that us usually played all down strokes. metal/hardcore "chug chug" riffs are up down. typically.
 
Jotosuds said:
so what i'm wondering is if it's possible to play those fast chugga chugga palm muted power chords like in sum 41 etc. with up and down strokes. i thought they were just fast w/great stamina and played all downstrokes.
Click to expand...

sometimes alot of people will play the full power chord on the first beat and then just do up/down picking on the main note (1 string) instead of all 3
 
I chunk in downstrokes as much as possible. Sounds more solid that way.

Similar to how drummers who use one foot to do semi-quick kick pedal work instead of using their double bass. It just sounds better.
 
it completely depends on the song. some songs are written up down, some are written just down. some things sound better one way.
 
ohh MAN no one ever talks enough about articulations...

just down can mean a few things, and tightening your up doooown can be pretty nice, esp. live I have to do it cause my stupid drummer loves to add about 22 beats to the minute...
 
There is definately a difference. It usually sounds like shit when somebody whimps out cause they can't keep the downstrokes going. As far as people ignoring the articulation aspect of playing guitar. I think it's overlooked by a lot of players.
 
I say live do whatever the hell you want no ones gonna be able to tell....recording id try to get them all down if you want that particular sound....i dont think either way makes a huge huge difference....do what u like!
 
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