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"How To Improve Your Alternate Picking -- Master Speed Guitar, Avoid Awful Mistakes, Double Your Picking Speed Now!"

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Your right hand technique is 50% of your ability on guitar! Wondering how to improve your alternate picking? Look no further! Have you ever wanted to achieve speed guitar mastery? Learn how, with essential alternate picking methods sure to double your picking speed in half the time!

Rules For How To Improve Your Alternate Picking

Always start your alternate picking sequence with a downward picking motion. Look through your musical pattern that will use alternate picking. Look at the MUSIC NOTES, not the TABS. Are the smallest notes eighth notes? Are they quarter notes? Or are they sixteenth notes?

Getting this information now will determine how you use alternate picking techniques in a manner that will help you get the most out of your speed guitar picking riffs.

If you look ahead and find that the fastest types of notes are sixteenth notes, then you will DOWN pick all single eighth notes, and ALTERNATE pick sequences of sixteenth notes in a row, using a DOWN pick on the down beats and reserving the up pick motion for the "in between" beats.

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Alternate Picking Chart: Follow this for best right hand technique and good form

If the smallest rhythmic value is a quarter note, you don't need alternate picking at all!

If the smallest kinds of notes are eighth notes, use down picks on the numbered beats (1-2-3-4) and up picks on the "ands," BETWEEN the beats:

If the smallest kinds of notes in the phrase are sixteenths, then use down picks on the numbered beats AND the "ands," and use up picks on the "e's" AND the "a's."

The real key to learning how to improve your alternate picking and right hand technique is this: if you subtract any of the notes from the phrase, you still have to maintain the same down/up alternate picking pattern as if the notes were still there!

This is where the TRUE masters of alternate picking and speed guitar technique emerge! When a note is subtracted, you have to MISS the string and PRETEND to perform a picking motion. This resets your direction and maintains continuity throughout the phrase. DOWN where down should be, and UP where up should be.

The perfect way for us to learn this concept is with the galloping horsey riff, a la Metallica, in which the "e" -- the second sixteenth note out of every group of four sixteenth notes -- is removed. If you count sixteenth notes this way:

1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a...

...Then it is the e beats that we will remove and thereby MISS the stroke.

Like every rule in guitar, there is an exception to the rule. There is something called hybrid picking, but we will have a separate lesson for that technique as it falls out of the scope of this lesson. But for now, just know that there ARE cases in which you may forgo the strict alternate picking pattern in favor of other picking styles.

Moore Metal says:

"METAL is also the exception! You are a poser if you can't use ALL DOWNS on your eighth notes at AT LEAST 208 BPM! METALLICA uses ONLY DOWNS on songs like 'Master of Puppets' and 'Blackened!' The faster you can use ALL DOWNS, the MOORE METAL you are!"

How to improve your alternate picking using strict alternation on one string

Example 1 presents a basic alternate picking technique using eight notes per string. These types of lead guitar speed drills are great to practice before a performance. Loop the exercise until your fingers become exhausted!

Example 1:

Click tablature to enlarge:

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Alternate Picking On Adjacent Strings

When moving from string to string, a strict alternate picking pattern becomes trickier to maintain. Use the finger numbering and picking directions as indicated and you will gradually become more comfortable with awkward patterns involving string changes.

ARNOLD says:

"PERLHAPS NOWL WEOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO REVIEW MY THREE P'S: PRACTICE, PATIENCE, AND PERSEVERANCE! HOW DO YOU THINK YOU VIL AMOUNT TO ANYTHINN IF YOU DON'T HAVE THEM!"

Example 2:

Click tablature to enlarge:

How to improve your alternate picking using "String skipping"

Example 3 uses a phrase that forces you to work through random string skipping while adhering to a strict down/up pattern. This one is especially tricky!

Example 3:

Click tablature to enlarge:

Persistence is key when learning how to improve your alternate picking and master right hand technique. Just stick with these examples and drill them over again until you feel like you have worked through the awkward nature of the phrases. You'll get it!

Click up to Guitar Solo Techniques for more lead guitar technique tips!

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