Playing Master of Puppets fingerstyle...

[JoshXR]

Hey TBers!

I have no trouble playing fast finger style, but Master of Puppets is giving me a bit of trouble, specifically the "spider riff" that comes in right after the intro.

||-----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
||:----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
||-----2-----3-----|4-----3-----2-2-|----2-----3-----|4-----3-----2---|
||-0-1---0-1---0-1-|--0-1---0-1-----|0-1---0-1---0-1-|--0-1---0-1-----|

|-----------------|----------------|----------------|-----------------||
|-----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------:||
|-----2-----3-----|4-----3-----2-2-|----2-----3-----|-----------------||
|-0-1---0-1---0-1-|--0-1---0-1-----|0-1---0-1---0-1-|3\2-0-3\2-0-3\2--||

Playing it finger style, how would you pick it?

 

[Epitaph04]

Alternate.

 

[Sonic]

Trying throwing in your ring finger. I've been adding it to my repertoire recently and it really helps out for fast as hell metal stuff. Try:

i m r i m r i m r i m r i m r r

or some variation and see what you think. If it isn't for you..find some old newstead clips and pay attention

 

[JoshXR]

Trying throwing in your ring finger. I've been adding it to my repertoire recently and it really helps out for fast as hell metal stuff. Try:

i m r i m r i m r i m r i m r r

or some variation and see what you think. If it isn't for you..find some old newstead clips and pay attention

I was thinking about trying that. I mainly play with 2 fingers and throw in the ring for octaves and arpeggios, so I might need to break out the metronome and build up some ring finger dexterity/speed!

 

[Tupac]

Riffs like these are much simpler to rake. I remember I had this same problem when first starting out. Even made a thread about it like this too!

 

[tooley]

I play this finger style. I don't think and just trust my muscle memory to be right. At a guess I alternate the whole time. I think raking might lose the chuggy feel of metallica with all the down picking the guitars are doing. But i could be wrong. You could try
i i m i i m i i m i i m i i m i i m i
sort of thing, might be hard at first. But in the end you'll have a very even sounding riff

 

[lowfreq33]

Haven't played that one in a while, but I used to do i i m i im etc. It's not really proper technique, but for some reason it was easier for me.

 

[Sonic]

Actually, upon actually sitting down and playing the song I think using your middle for the note on the A string works better.

I R M I R M etc. etc.

Uses the natural length of the middle finger to reach down a little lower without moving your hand at all.

Just my 2 cents.

Trying throwing in your ring finger. I've been adding it to my repertoire recently and it really helps out for fast as hell metal stuff. Try:

i m r i m r i m r i m r i m r r

or some variation and see what you think. If it isn't for you..find some old newstead clips and pay attention

 

[Epitaph04]

mi m im i mi m im i mi mi

That's how I play it. It's funny because if you listen to the original Cliff Burton bass track, I don't actually think he plays it.

 

[Dantreige]

Well we know it can be done because Cliff was a finger picker. Start slow and work the speed up with a metronome.

Learn to walk before you run, grasshopper.

Good luck!

 

[Tupac]

mi m im i mi m im i mi mi

That's how I play it. It's funny because if you listen to the original Cliff Burton bass track, I don't actually think he plays it.

He doesn't. He just hits the open E for the most part. It's easily done on bass anyway, Guess he figured it gelled better like that.

 

[JoshXR]

Thanks for the replies! Appreciate it...been practicing a lot over the last few weeks with Muse/RHCP/Iron Maiden songs, trying to build up the hard rock chops. My fingers just aren't used to certain picking patterns yet, I guess!

 

[tooley]

just stick with it. in a few years you'll find it easy. check out iced earth too. they tend to have fast finger style bass player's. without the screaming vocals

 

[lowfreq33]

He doesn't. He just hits the open E for the most part. It's easily done on bass anyway, Guess he figured it gelled better like that.

That's true actually, he just pedals the open E. I do think it sounds better if you double the guitar though. He was pretty buried in the mix most of the time.

 

[Sonic]

That's true actually, he just pedals the open E. I do think it sounds better if you double the guitar though. He was pretty buried in the mix most of the time.

Metallic burying the bassist? Never!

 

[Corbeau]

Hard to tell exactly, but it sounds like Cliff played the spider riff live at least. This video isn't perfect but Cliff looks like he's following the guitar riff:

I would go for a i-m-r pattern too. Cliff didn't really use his thumb all that much, he tended to use a i-m-r pattern for most of his lines.

 

[CrazyCarl]

Not sure how he played it live, but in the studio it was mostly just the open E.

 

[João Bourgard]

I think the bass line is always E-F-B E-F-B
not E-F-B E-F-C E-F-C# like the guitar....
at least i think so...

 

[Herrick]

Going by the isolated bass track floating around on Youtube, Burton is playing E E F four times then he plays E F B B rather than the "spider riff".

I don't have much advice on how to play the "spider riff" on bass. I think I alternate

And yeah he was way buried in the mix on the last two albums he played on which is a real shame. Metal sounds sounds great with bass. Not sure why these bands always bury their bass players. Is it mostly because of bad bass amp settings or do these producers lack the know-how of getting an audible bass sound?

 

[deeptubes]

I remember when Guitar World first published the tab for that. I put my index on the E and middle on the A. I assign fingers to strings for quite a few songs. If it's giving you issues, maybe try hammering the F, but don't stop working those fingers.