Glass Fjord (hard) · level 3 · goal 160 bpm

Glass Fjord is an eight-bar melodic riff in standard tuning: Melodic death, F# minor, melody then heavy riff, syncopated. This is level 3 of 3, played at 160 bpm; the three levels of the riff run from 110 to 160 bpm. It works on gallop picking, palm muting, open chords, hammer-ons and pull-offs, slides, vibrato. The player loops the riff with drums and bass, starts at 70% speed and steps up 5% after every clean pass until you play it at full tempo.

Keep a constant sixteenth motion in the picking hand and let the legato notes ride on it. In the riff, barre the three-note chords, and lift the palm mute only on the accented stabs.

The three levels

1. Level 1 · 110 bpm · Melodic death, F# minor, melody then heavy riff, syncopated. Let each melody note ring into the next, and hit the accented off-beats a little harder.
2. Level 2 · 140 bpm · Melodic death, F# minor, melody then heavy riff, syncopated. Alternate picking on the melody, then switch to gallops on the low F# (down-up-down, palm-muted).
3. Level 3 · 160 bpm · Melodic death, F# minor, melody then heavy riff, syncopated. Keep a constant sixteenth motion in the picking hand and let the legato notes ride on it.