The Super Simple Secrets To Improving Alternate Picking Speed
Want to pick lightning-fast like a shred guitar god?
Believe it or not…
Getting fast alternate picking speed like this doesn’t take years.
It takes much less time when you practice correctly and identify the inconsistencies that are holding you back from achieving top-tier picking skill.
Use these secrets to pick faster than ever before:Secret #1: Faster picking speed is not about how fast you move your hands…
Big mistake: trying to move your hands as fast as possible to pick faster.
This may seem like common sense, but it’s not.
This is how sloppy technique develops.
What do you do instead?
Focus on picking more efficiently.
How do you do it?
By making the distance of each pick stroke smaller.
This video shows demonstrates how to develop excellent picking efficiency for faster alternate picking speed:How To Use This Information:
Getting more efficient and faster picking technique only takes a matter of minutes each day/practice session.
Turn on your metronome and pick 4 notes per beat (16th notes) at a fast tempo for one minute.
Use the advice in the video and focus on picking with as little excess motion as possible for each stroke.
Then pick freely by gradually picking faster and faster until you are at full speed, then slow down until you are picking very slowly.
Doing this for just a few minutes per day massively transforms your picking attack and efficiency to give you accurate and faster guitar speed in no time.Secret #2: You don’t have to sacrifice power to pick faster…
Trying to alternate pick with speed using a weak picking attack slows you down!
Why?
It keeps the pick in contact with the strings longer due to the pick sliding through the string instead of cutting right through it.
Better approach:
Pick with tons of power (and use a heavier pick).
This has the added benefit of making the notes clearer in addition to speeding up your pick attack without making radical changes to the way you already pick.
Watch this video to see the night and day difference between speed picking with power versus speed picking without power:
How To Use This Information:
Invest a good amount of time into picking with tons of power during any guitar exercise or lick you play.
You don’t have to do this every time you play, but the more you do it, the easier and more second nature it becomes.
Before you know it, everything you play will sound tighter,
crisper and more powerful as you pick with insane amounts of speed!
Secret #3: Alternate picking fast in isolation is just the beginning…
Like any guitar technique, you need to apply alternate picking into a musical context to get the most benefit from your speed.
Why?
Think about it.
Picking a single string as fast as you can is cool, but
using fast and efficient picking technique provides more expressive options
than this isolated skill.
How To Use This Information:
Practice integrating speed picking into everything you play by:
·
Playing notes in scales, arpeggios and other
licks using tremolo picking
·
Tremolo picking on the very first note of a lick
without warming up by playing other fast notes
·
Adding tremolo picking in the middle of fast
guitar runs
·
Mastering other forms of guitar picking
technique for even more speed.
· Look for ways to use fast alternate picked runs to add tension to your guitar solos
Check out this video to see a detailed discussion of how to use a different picking technique to play scales faster than alternate picking ever could:Now you know a few simple secrets for faster alternate picking speed. It’s time to go apply them into your playing!
Regardless of what you practice, keep these ideas in mind.
After just a few practice sessions (or less) you will see results and picking faster will become easier than it has ever been before.
Now, go forth and shred!