Guitar Lesson - Sweeping Arpeggios and Gallop Progression with Michael “Padge” Paget of “Bullet for My Valentine”

By: John McCarthy, Creator of The Rock House Method

Michael Paget better known as just “Padge” plays a combination of catchy melodies and crafty lead riffs that helped propel his band from Wales “Bullet for My Valentine” up the charts and onto major worldwide concert tours. With the resurgence of lead guitar into many of today’s new Metal bands, it’s interesting to see where their influences come from and I would bet Padge has a few Metallica and Iron Maiden songs on his iPod.

Padge, as a rhythm player, can lay down some real cool chugging patterns and intricate single note riff rhythms that support the vocal melodies perfectly. One thing I was very impressed with is Padge’s use of harmonized melody guitar lines that give great dynamic explosion to his main lead sections.

Let’s take a look at a section inspired by the lead from the Bullet for my Valentine song “Eye of the Storm.” The chord progression in Ex. 1 is a classic Iron Maiden influenced gallop rhythm that is composed of an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes. This syncopated pattern has a bouncy feel like you’re riding a black steed into battle!

The lead in Ex. 2 is a great sample of creating an arpeggio to follow each chord of a progression. Padge uses a sweep pattern over the first three strings playing them in triplets over the gallop rhythm. An important part of playing these arpeggios smoothly is the picking pattern, be sure to follow the up – up –down – down – hammer – pull off sweep sequence. The arpeggios Padge uses are Em – D – C - B. Once you have the notes under your fingers, you can download and play with the bass and drum track for this lead section at RockHouseMethod.com

Happy shredding!

John McCarthy