Meshuggah - Bleed (Mayshuggah 2025 5/5)

At last. This may be the first dual guitar cover for Bleed on Youtube. I thought this would be extremely difficult, but it turned out to be incredibly straight forward. I had to switch my picking technique in order to be able to pick this. Theres a bandaid on my pinky on the solo because I ironically bled all over the fretboard in the prior take, you can still see bloodstains on the board. For those interested, below is my Bleed "tutorial".

The Pattern
We're going to call this the "3-pattern". This is a gallop consisting of 4 notes. Two 32nds and two 16ths. If you think about the rhythm in 16ths, you're playing three 16ths, hence the "3-pattern", referring to three 16ths. Its alternate picked. Down Up Down Up (DUDU). The way I think about it, I "summarize" the pattern into 2 major motions. A down motion that includes the first 3 notes and represents the DUD (triplet feel) followed by an up motion which includes the last U. So, first motion (DUD) and second motion (U). Phonetically, trum-tum (DUD-U). Trum-tum, trum-tum, trum-tum, trum-tum, etc. Once you can get this pattern up to speed and at least have the stamina to last the first 52 seconds, you're done. The rest becomes very manageable.

Intro (0:00 - 0:17)
This section has a combination of open notes on the 6th string and bent notes on the 7th string. If we use the template 6string reps/7string reps, meaning repetitions of open notes on the 6th and repetitions of the bent notes on the 7th, the pattern for the intro is 6/6, 5/6, 4/6 and 5/6.

Verse 1 (0:17 - 0:50)
This section follows this template: 15/6, 16/4. Meaning the open 6th string 15 times followed by the bent 7th string 6 times, then open 6th string 16 times followed by the bent 7th string 4 times. Hoping this makes sense.
Then you go into the ascending/descending run which starts on the 8th string and is pretty self-explanatory.

Verse 2 (0:50 - 1:24)
The pattern here switches to the "5-pattern". This is a gallop consisting of 6 notes. Two 32nds and 4 16ths, summing 5 16ths aka "5-pattern". Its also alternate picked. Down Up Down Up Down Up (DUDUDU). The pattern follows this template: 10/3, 10/3. So 10 times the open 6th, 3 times the bent 7th, repeat. Then the 8th string ascending/descending run. Its then followed by the "5-pattern" five times.

The Switch (1:24 - 1:41)
You return to the 3-pattern and repeat it 45 times. If you're like me and don't like to count, you repeat until Jens' vocals start.

The Chords (1:41 - 2:31)
There is an underlying pattern which is repeated 6 times. The pattern spans from 1:41 to 1:50. This pattern is repeated twice and then there's a dotted 8th pause, then its repeated twice and there is a transition where that dotted 8th space is picked and then it repeats 2 more times and ends with a dotted 8th pause again.

Interlude (2:31 - 3:21)
A new pattern appears. The "7-pattern". This is a gallop consisting of 8 notes. Two 32nds and six 16ths, summing 7 16ths aka "7-pattern". Its, again, alternate picked. Down Up Down Up Down Up Down Up (DUDUDUDU). This section uses all the of our patterns (3-pattern, 5-pattern and 7-pattern) in the following template: 77535. This means the 7-pattern twice, the 5-pattern, 3-pattern, 5-pattern and repeat. This is repeated 5 times and halfway through the fifth rep at about 2:48, you switch from the 3rd fret on the 6th string to the 11th fret. The switch on the 3-pattern. It then repeats 9 times.

Chorus (3:21 - 3:38)
This pattern is pretty straight forward.

Break (3:28 - 4:11)
This pattern is comprised of six 16ths followed by twelve 16ths. The template starts 6/12 once, and then becomes 6/12/6/12/12 and repeats six times abruptly ending into the clean sequence.

Clean (4:11 - 4:45)

Solo (4:45 - 5:54)

Interlude v2 (5:54 - 6:26)
Here you play the 77535 but its all open notes on the 6th string. The template is 7535, followed by 77535.

Intro v2 (6:26 - 6:45)
Switch back to the 3-pattern and play the intro but this time this is the template: 6/6, 5/6, 4/6, 5/4.

0-1-2 (6:45 - 7:02)
This part is wrong in all the tabs I've seen. In all tabs its notated as is the pitch changes on each click of the 4/4 beat. I think this is incorrect. In my opinion, there are 2 components to this part. There is a harmonic and a rhythmic component. The harmonic component is simple, you play the 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, etc on the 6ths string. The rhythmic component is also simple. Its the 3-pattern repeated following this template: 3/3/2. If you apply this, it would look like this: 0 (3-pattern x3), 1 (3-pattern x3), 2 (3-pattern x2), 1 (3-pattern x3), 0 (3-pattern x3), 1 (3-pattern x2), etc.

Outro (7:02 - end)
Back to 3-pattern. Don't choke the octave at the end.

Thanks for watching!

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Gear used:
Ibanez M8M
Ibanez FTM33
Caparison Applehorn 8
Fortin Meshuggah
Fortin 33
Neural DSP Nameless
Dingwall NG3
Neural DSP Parallax