How To Train Yourself To Play Guitar With Amazing Alternate Picking Speed & Accuracy That Makes You Sound 100% Pro
Being able to play guitar with tons of speed isn’t a matter of simply being “naturally talented”. You become a fast and clean player by practicing the right things as efficiently as possible. This gets great results for your speed much quicker most guitarists, who have no clear plan for getting faster.
Use these tips to improve your alternate picking speed and pick with better accuracy than ever before:
Make Alternate Picking Speed More Consistent Using Upstroke Focus Training
Your overall picking attack becomes more balanced and consistent when you strengthen your upstrokes. This makes playing with faster alternate picking speed more easy. Although there are many ways to strengthen your upstrokes, practicing single string licks is one of the best and most effective ways to do it.
Practicing single string guitar licks forces you to pick very precisely, otherwise your hands fall out of sync (leading to sloppy notes). Your picking becomes much more accurate and articulate over time as you practice single string licks consistently.
Example: Practice the single string lick below using ONLY upstrokes for 2 minutes:
Immediately afterwards, practice for 30 seconds using alternate picking for speed and accuracy that feels much more effortless than before.
Repeat this exercise once more for a total of 5 minutes time spent. Investing 5 minutes into this each day provides shockingly great results for your overall alternate picking speed.
However, you aren’t limited to just this one approach.
…And By Using Downstroke Focus Too:
Isolating the downstroke picking motion is a great way to
warm up your picking hand and make alternate picking more easy as well.
Alternate your approach every other day to include one day of upstroke training and another of downstroke training. This not only strengthens your alternate picking technique, but gives you a much more balanced overall picking technique.
Result: Playing guitar with speed becomes easier than ever in all aspects of your playing.
Here are some ways to increase the value of upstroke/downstroke training so you get better even faster:
·
Pick with a lot of power to play notes that
sound more clear.
Watch this video to see an example of how much better your picking attack sounds when you use more power:
·
(This idea is discussed more in the final point
of this article…)
· Practice with different kinds of pick sizes to make yourself into a more versatile player to alternate pick with great speed and accuracy regardless of what you’re playing with.
Make Speed Picking Easier Using More Power In Your Pick Attack
Most guitar players do not pick with enough power in their picking attack. This leads to weak-sounding notes and makes picking fast more difficult. Picking with tons of power helps the pick cut through the notes quickly, making your technique more efficient – leading to effortless guitar speed.
Develop A Powerful Picking Attack By Doing This:
Practice some of your normal practice items at least a
little bit each session using heavy picking power. Then increase the amount you
do this over time until picking with tons of power becomes natural. This takes
your tone, speed and accuracy to a whole new level!
Add Tons Of Alternate Picking Speed Into Your Playing Instantly Using Tremolo Picking Practice
Practicing tremolo picking not only gives you a good idea of
where your speed is at, but it helps you increase your max picking speed when
practiced effectively.
Your tremolo picking technique is likely very inconsistent when you don’t practice it consistently. Fortunately, it only takes a little bit of time each day to improve it so you shred through notes at light speed.
One of the best ways to develop killer tremolo picking speed and accuracy is to practice with a sudden explosion of speed.
Here’s how to do it:
Step One – Choose either an open string or any fretted note.
Step Two – For 1 minute, tremolo pick the note at a slow speed that
gradually increases (you can stop and start several times within this span).
Step Three – Using a metronome set a moderate tempo (120 or so),
tremolo pick at your top speed for the entire duration of ONE beat. Then rest
for one beat.
Repeat this continually for 1
minute and rest for 1 minute.
Step Four – Repeat the previous step once more for 2 minutes.
After using this exercise for just 5 minutes per day, your
alternate picking speed shoots through the roof. It also becomes much easier to
pick with precision and accuracy in an instant, rather than needing to work up
to speed to get there.
The exercises on this page help you develop alternate
picking speed like never before. Don’t limit yourself to only an alternate
picking attack though… Use a variety of picking approaches to become a great
overall guitarist.
Learn how to pick with effortless speed using the approach discussed in this article about guitar picking technique.