So the stringed instruments in the original score are actually bowing 32nd notes, a feat requiring virtuosic technique at that tempo! I tried to emulate that technique and subtle effect by double picking, but with the guitar’s different tuning, all the string crossing and skipping involved and my limited chops, it was just too arduous for me to do, so I streamlined the line to straight 16th notes and, in so doing, decided to jack up the tempo slightly, to around 100 beats per minute, which felt like a better groove, or “pocket.”Īs you can see, my adaptation of the theme incorporates the use of both picked notes and legato phasing (hammer-ons and pull-offs), with only the notes on the outer strings being picked, using “outside the strings” picking, meaning a downstroke on the lowest string used, which is accented every time, creating a syncopated rhythmic motif within the unbroken 16th-note stream, and an upstroke on the highest string. This is analogous to what we call “double picking,” for which each melody note is repeated using down-up alternate picking.

Who wrote the walking dead theme song