Drop D arpeggios — gallop pattern in E 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 E grid (E5d, G5d, A5d), 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 — E
Bar 1
E5d
i
Bar 2
E5d
i
Bar 3
G5d
III
Bar 4
E5d
i
Bar 5
A5d
iv
Bar 6
A5d
iv
Bar 7
E5d
i
Bar 8
E5d
i
Chords
Related sheets
- Drop D riff — energy in A (Level 4)
- Metal in E — alternating bass fingerstyle (Level 4)
- String-skip zigzag riff — F minor (Level 4)