Develop Insane Guitar Speed And Accuracy With Killer Picking Hand Articulation

What common guitar playing mistake makes guitar speed less accurate? Answer: Playing with poor articulation. This means picking notes with a lot of power so they sound clearly.

Most guitarists never think about playing notes with power or articulation because the distortion already makes the notes loud. Don’t make this same mistake…

Using excellent articulation has big benefits for fast guitar speed:

  • Picking notes with articulation not only makes the sound better, but it improves your guitar picking technique as a whole. This helps you keep both hands in better sync (=cleaner playing), leading to fast guitar playing that feels free and easy!

  • Using articulation also helps you master difficult licks by giving you laser-focus on specific notes to perfect them.

  • You also make less mistakes due to a weak picking attack. This is because the pick spends less time in contact with the string, reducing the possibility of unwanted string noise.

Use these creative exercises to improve your guitar speed and accuracy by playing with better articulation:

Exercise #1: Play A Guitar Scale Run By Accenting Different Notes

Emphasizing specific notes in a scale with heavier articulation trains you to focus closely on what you are playing. This raises the quality of the note you are paying attention to. Using this approach one-at-a-time on every note in a scale helps you quickly master it with excellent picking technique.

Play this short guitar lick normally at first to get used to it:

Guitar-Speed-Exercise-With-Accent

Once you have the pattern memorized, start accenting the highlighted notes using heavy picking articulation.

As you do this, you find that it takes a little extra concentration. This forces you to pick more accurately and think faster, improving your guitar picking technique in the process.

Repeat this process continually, except by accented different notes in the lick. Do this until you’ve played through every note in this manner. Then apply this practice approach to other guitar licks and patterns you want to master.

Exercise #2: Pick Smaller Arpeggios With More Power On Certain Notes

Using more picking power to emphasize notes is great for playing sweep picking arpeggios with cleaner speed as well. Articulating the notes of smaller arpeggio patterns first helps you master the movements needed to play larger, more-complex patterns more easily.

Play through the arpeggio below while accented the highlighted note as indicated:

Guitar-Speed-Arpeggios-With-Accent

As this becomes easy for you, expand to larger arpeggio patterns while applying the same principle.

Exercise #3: Double Pick With A Heavy Accent, Then Double Picking Normal

Keeping your hands together in sync is key for accurate guitar speed. Using powerful picking articulation combined with a double picking technique locks your hands together in no time.

The tab below uses double picking guitar technique to play the first half of the lick from exercise #1:

Guitar-Speed-Exercises-With-Accent-At-End

Play it using heavy articulation, the play it with normal articulation (repeat several times). Then go back and play the lick from exercise one in its entirety and see how much easier it feels!

Exercise #4: Alternate Pick Every Note With Heavy Articulation To Find Mistakes

It’s easy to sometimes allow your mind to go into “auto-pilot mode” while playing guitar. Meaning: you play without thinking about what your hands are doing or focusing on playing as effectively and efficiently as possible.

This is how sloppy playing sneaks in through the back door…

Picking with very heavy articulation on EVERY note in a given exercise forces you to pay close attention to what you are playing. This is because it brings out inconsistencies in your technique that you might not notice while using an average amount of picking power.

Apply this to any guitar practice item for 15-25% of its scheduled time and you will get better results!

The exercises on this page give you insane results in terms of guitar speed and accuracy when you practice them consistently. Just try it out for one week and watch your guitar playing make tons of progress.

No matter what guitar lick or solo you want to play better, applying these concepts helps you do it. However, there are more factors when it comes to playing guitar without sloppiness or mistakes… Find out how to play guitar perfectly and reliably.