Drop D arpeggios — gallop pattern in B (fast pedal) New
On a power chord (root-fifth, no third), 'arpeggiating' doesn't mean plucking a full chord finger by finger like on an open chord: it means picking each note of the power chord (root, fifth, octave) individually, one after another with a pick — the 'gallop' technique so central to metal riffing. On the B pedal that keeps returning to the root (B5d, B5d, E5d, B5d, B5d, B5d, E5d, E5d), at a fast tempo, this note-by-note breakdown creates the genre's most recognisable gallop pattern.
Tips
The classic gallop is played eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth (long-short-short) on each power chord: count it out loud before you play it.
Chord progression — B
Bar 1
B5d
i
Bar 2
B5d
i
Bar 3
E5d
iv
Bar 4
B5d
i
Bar 5
B5d
i
Bar 6
B5d
i
Bar 7
E5d
iv
Bar 8
E5d
iv