Drop D arpeggios — gallop pattern in D 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 D grid (D5d, G5d, E5d), this note-by-note breakdown creates the very recognisable metal 'gallop' pattern, quite different from a simple strummed chord.
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 — D
Bar 1
D5d
Bar 2
G5d
Bar 3
D5d
Bar 4
E5d
Bar 5
G5d
Bar 6
D5d
Bar 7
E5d
Bar 8
D5d
Chords
Related sheets
- call and response power riff — E (Level 4)
- Wide exploration riff — G minor (Level 4)
- Rock in E minor — syncopated muted strums (Level 4)