Try This Gary Moore-Inspired Riff by Doug Aldrich
The quick lick above—played by Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake—was inspired by the late Gary Moore.
It begins with a steady, machine-gun barrage of alternate-picked, palm-muted 16th notes and ends with a wild two-step "over-bend" on the low E string, punctuated by a squealing pinch harmonic.
From Aldrich:
"I play through this lick using strict alternate picking (down-up-down-up) to ensure my rhythms are dead-on accurate. The best way to practice this style of picking is simply to start out slow, paying close attention to your pick stroke's direction.
"When performing the two-step bend on the low G note (low E string, third fret) in bar 4, I'm using both my index and middle fingers to pull the string in toward my palm. The extra finger muscle is all but required to perform this monster bend, as otherwise there's a good chance the string would slip out from under my middle finger."
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!

Want to play Master of Puppets the right way? Here's how to get faster at downpicking so you can chug like James Hetfield

“A few poorly intonated sustained bends in a solo can make the guitar's most emotive technique sound bad”: Learning how to bend strings correctly is one of the quickest ways to make your playing sound better