Learn How To Play Guitar With Fast Speed Using Machine Gun Burst Tremolo Picking & Expressive Bends

Tired of simply wishing you could learn how to play guitar fast while sitting at slow speeds and struggling?

Tremolo picking is a quick way to turn your hand into a machine gun that fires out notes super-fast. It doesn’t have to take you years to get to this point either. Plus combining this with bends gives your playing a very expressive sound.

There are actually various ways to practice for killer tremolo picking/bends that many guitarists have never heard of (most just try to pick as fast as possible).

Ready to learn them?

I knew you would be!

Let’s begin now:

 

Key Point: How To Make Your Bends More Musically Expressive

Work on bending strings + applying vibrato on top of a bent note.

This makes them sound incredibly dramatic and expressive, adding tons of passion into every guitar phrase.

Set aside some time in your practicing (10-15 minutes per day) to work on these two techniques.

Here is what to do:

First practice simply bending the string up into tune with no vibrato.

Make sure you can do this consistently well on half step and whole step bends. Then practice applying vibrato SLOWLY on top of the bend.

Note: Make sure that you return the bent string to its original pitch so that the note does not start sounding out of tune.

 

How To Combine Fast Alternate Picking With Expressive Bends

Once you have mastered the basics of alternate picking and bending, it’s time to get creative and play some killer guitar licks! Combine these ideas together to make your lead guitar playing more expressive and intense:

Idea #1: Use A Variety Of Bending Approaches

Your lead guitar playing becomes more expressive when you use variety in your bending technique instead of always bending the same way. Here are a few ideas for how bending can be performed for different expressive effects:

·         Strike the string, then bend immediately

·         Strike the string, then slowly bend up

·         Strike the string, let the note ring for a moment, then bend

·         Pre-bend to the target note, strike the string and release the bend

·         Pre-bend to the target note, strike the string, let it ring for a moment and release the bend

Practice each of these bend approaches for a few minutes and observe how each one feels. Notice how letting the note ring for a moment before bending adds extra intensity and suspense to the note.

Idea #2: Use Varying Speed In Your Alternate Picking Attack

Speed picking on guitar as fast as you can sounds awesome. However, you build tension and intensity even more by tremolo picking at a slower speed and gradually getting faster. This sounds badass when combined with the bending variations you just practiced.

Practicing with any/all of the bend variations from idea #1, apply a gradually increasing alternate picking attack.

Watch as the bend becomes extremely intense. Using this approach in a solo adds TONS of drama and musical expression to your playing!

Bring Alternate Picking And Bending Technique Together Using This Exercise

Train yourself to integrate alternate picking speed and bending technique together until it feels like a natural part of your playing using this exercise:

Step One: Create a short guitar lick of only 5 notes maximum.

Step Two: For 1 minute, create as many variations of the lick as possible using bending technique.

Step Three: For 1 minute, create as many variations of the lick as possible using alternate picking technique.

Step Four: For 2 minutes, create as many variations of the lick as possible using both alternate picking and bending together.

Using this exercise for only 5 minutes a day quickly develops your skills with both techniques and helps you easily improvise killer guitar licks that contain speed and expression.

 

Now understand the keys to playing with excellent bending technique:

Playing with expressive and pro bending technique requires keeping the bend in tune.

This means bending the string to the exact target pitch (such as a half step or whole step away) or releasing the bend to the exact target pitch.

Letting a bend go too early or bending slightly too much makes your playing sound out of control and ruins the expressive effect of the bend.

Working on this exercise for just a few minutes per day has a massively positive effect for your bending and vibrato technique.

Take this a step further by first bending the string and THEN picking it (playing the exact target pitch in the process). This takes time to get used to, but helps you develop the feeling of what a perfect bend feels like without needing to hear the pitch first.

 

How To Make Bends Easier With A Simple Posture Shift

 

For your fretting hand, keep fingers that aren’t being used close to the strings when playing.

 

To make this easier for yourself, keep your thumb behind the neck of the guitar, roughly behind the middle finger and below the middle of the neck or so.

 

This helps you to play faster and cleaner and will give you better leverage for stretches.

Make Your Guitar Licks Memorable By Resolving The Tension You Created With Vibrato

Using vibrato adds life to the notes you play and sustains the pitch longer. It also serves to resolve all the tension created after bending a note. This creates a powerful, expressive effect that sounds awesome and demands people’s attention.

Now you have several powerful tools to use to make your guitar playing sound intense and expressive at any time. However, this is just the beginning! Learn how to express yourself freely through guitar using the other ideas in this resource about how to add fire and emotion to any guitar lick.