“It will take time to build up the accuracy that the riff demands”: Welcome to Mike Stringer’s downpicking bootcamp

Mike Stringer wear a black hoodie and stands in a field of straw-colored long grass with trees in the background. He is holding an Aristides seven-string guitar.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new Guitar World instructional column. In this series of lessons, I will be sharing and demonstrating some of my approaches to playing seven-string guitar and the various ways I use the instrument to craft the riffs that I write for my band, Spiritbox.

I’d like to kick things off with a look at some of the technical and musical elements I employ in our song Jaded, which we recorded for our 2023 EP, The Fear of Fear.