Greetings,
In this lesson we are going to look at honing our alternate picking technique, this technique is the bread and butter of guitar technique, practising these ideas in today’s lesson is going to help your overall playing tenfold. By being able to accurately use a pick you will sound smoother, it will take less effort and you will be able to play what YOU want to play.
In this lesson we go through a few exercises that shall help your picking, in this write up I would like to point out a few points that you should remember when picking! There are of course many different approaches to picking, but if you follow these fundamental ideas, you shall build a strong base for your technique to expand.
– Keep your wrist, elbow and shoulder relaxed, don’t grip the pick to hard between your fingers.
– Practising ideas slowly to a metronome will ensure your timing is perfect, and also that your technique is accurate. The slower the tempo, the harder it is to stay exactly in time, this is a great game to play with yourself if you want to improve your timing, try setting a low tempo of around 60 bpm, and hit a note per beat exactly on the top of the “blip!”
– The less pick protruding from the thumb, the less surface area that has to cut through the string, try angling the pick 45 degrees down in order to “slice” through the string with ease. Keep an eye on this as you practice slowly, the more pick you use the louder the note, the more effort that is required to cut through the string, the less pick, the quicker you cut through, the faster you get.
– Remember to keep relaxed, no technique should feel like your breaking your back, so keep in mind that if its hurting, take a break, come back to it and start slow, build it up. In no time at all you shall be blazing around the fretboard!
Thanks for reading guys