March 27, 2025 • 26 mins
Speed picking remains one of the most coveted guitar techniques, yet so many players approach it backward—focusing purely on velocity rather than developing the proper mechanical foundation that allows speed to emerge naturally.
This comprehensive lesson breaks down the often-overlooked fundamentals of efficient, clean guitar speed. We start with a simple three-note-per-string pattern, analyzing how proper picking technique creates a natural flow between strings using alternate picking. The crucial insight lies not in how fast you can move, but in how relaxed and efficient your movements become.
You'll discover how physical anchoring techniques dramatically impact your picking stability, why certain finger combinations (like 1-3-4) present unique challenges compared to others, and how to systematically build speed using both metronome work and the powerful "bursting" technique used by virtuosos like Yngwie Malmsteen.
What separates this approach from cookie-cutter speed exercises is the emphasis on self-awareness during practice. Rather than mindlessly racing up and down scales, you'll learn to identify your specific limitations, address them methodically, and accept that progress often comes in plateaus followed by breakthroughs. The honest truth? Sometimes you'll sit at the same tempo for weeks before making a leap forward—and that's completely normal.
Whether you're struggling with tension issues, inconsistent picking, or simply hitting a speed wall, these techniques provide both the physical framework and mental approach needed to transform your playing. Ready to discover what your hands are truly capable of?
Be sure to check out GuitarZoom's YouTube page to see the video, if you need to visualize some of this topic!
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
All right.
So let's dive into the actualpractice now.
What we're going to be doinghere and you could do this
anywhere I'm going to be headingup to the 12th fret on the
second string, but you could dothis anywhere you want to, okay.
So what's going to happen hereis I'm going to play 12, 13, and
15.
Three notes on a string andthen I'm going to connect to the
(00:21):
first string.
So that's the first thing isgetting used to again that
connection point of moving upand making that connection.
And, of course, as I do this,my picking hand is going to be
going down, up, down and then up.
And that's the big thing isgetting the up of the first
string there.
So I have down, up, down, up.
So if I put the whole thingtogether, I've got.
That's what it is, okay.
(00:45):
So what I want to do is I wantto get comfortable with how that
feels, starting with a down,ending with an up.
Okay, if the first three notesof the grouping on the second
string don't feel comfortable, Ineed to go back and start there
, right?
If these three fingers aren'tmoving properly, as I've been
talking about this whole time,you got to go back and you got
(01:06):
to fix that.
But we don't need to do thisfast.
We're just starting off withthat.
Okay, then we're going toconnect to the next string.
Okay, we just want to getcomfortable.
We just want to get comfortable.
What you do is you startthinking about how the down
(01:33):
feels and then ending with thatup, tick-a-da-dun, tick-a-da-dun
, tick-a-da-dun, tick-a-da-dun.
Right, and you might even makewider movements than you need to
to begin with, just to getcomfortable with the motion.
Okay, so don't worry about howfast it is, worry about how
clean it is, worry about howaccurate it is and, most
(01:55):
importantly, get used to how itfeels to play this thing Having
that down and then ending onthat up.
So you just practice this overand over and over, just getting
used to what it feels like.
The next thing we're going todo is we're going to take that
same idea and we're just goingto create a round robin with it.
(02:16):
So we're going up and comingback down.
So I'm going.
So it looks like this Okay,just getting used to starting on
(02:50):
a down, ending the sequence onan up, heading back to the down
again.
Just getting comfortable withthat, okay.
Okay, once you get comfortablewith that, you can start doing a
full continuous round, robin bystarting on that 12 each time
Da da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da
(03:11):
da da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da
da da da da six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two,
three, one, two, three.
I don't care how you count it,but it's two groups of three is
what you're doing.
So as you play, you're tryingto smooth that out as much as
(03:45):
possible.
So you're feeling theseconnection points Ba da da ba da
da ba da da ba da da ba da dada da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da, da, da,da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,da, da, da, da da.
You're doing that.
You're smoothing everything outin the process.
Do you need to take the pickand move back a little bit?
Do you need to turn a littlebit right?
(04:08):
Where's your motion coming from?
Is it coming from your fingers?
Is it coming from your wrist?
Is it coming from the elbow?
And none of it is right orwrong.
You just have to start becomingaware of this.
You'll also notice, as I'm doingthis, I tend to set my pinky or
my third finger or somethingdown on the guitar as a brace or
an anchor when I do a lot ofsingle note picking.
Not everybody does that, soit's not mandatory, it's
(04:31):
figuring out what works for you.
So if you watch, if I go likethis, see how this finger's kind
of sitting there.
Now, if I was just hovering upin the air like this, that would
be really really hard for me todo.
It would sound terrible,because I'm trying to hold, I'm
(04:52):
stabilizing from my shoulderright and then stabilizing kind
of at my elbow and then tryingto move like this, like for me
touching the guitar with mypinky or my third finger, and
again, it's interchangeable forme.
But when I do that, all therest of this can relax and now I
can just move from here.
It's not the same for everybody.
(05:14):
It depends on what you like todo.
You know, if you, if you play alot, especially when you first
start learning how to playsingle notes, you know you might
have started with just, youknow, closing the hand and doing
this sort of thing, and as yougot better, you got used to kind
of hovering over the top rightwhen you play, when I play
faster it, you know whether it'smy third or my pinky, something
(05:36):
winds up stabilizing, which iswhy you see all the fingerprints
there, because that's what it'sdoing, is it's holding it still
.
So explore that a little bit.
Explore the guitar, pickthickness, like that kind of
thing.
Does it have a sharp point onit?
All the things that we talkedabout.
Don't be in a hurry to juststart trying to go fast.
Figure out all the details.
(05:56):
Okay, so here you are.
See, there's a little hook inthere.
(06:20):
When it goes up on the last one, duc up, down, up, and that's
what I get comfortable with.
Okay, now, eventually we couldhave conversations about economy
picking and all kinds ofdifferent things.
But I don't want to throw youoff right now, and it wouldn't
help with this situation anyway,because as soon as you play
down, up, down, up, you want togo back to the last string.
(06:43):
That's why it's nice to end onan upstroke, because it's
turning your pick toward theceiling to get ready for the
second string again.
Right, we're going secondstring down, up, down.
It pushes it toward that firststring and then I do an up and
it pushes it back toward thesecond string so I can start all
over again.
Okay, I don't want it to keeppushing it toward the floor and
(07:04):
then I got to jump over likethis to get back.
I'm looking for economy ofmotion is what I'm looking for
here?
Okay, I'm looking to try andorganize my thoughts, make this
clean, make it articulate.
I'm not worried about speed,but I'm trying to get kind of
both a bird's eye view of whatI'm trying to do and I'm trying
to get a magnified view of whatI'm trying to do as well and
(07:24):
work out all the bugs as I dothat.
That's a good time to starttrying to bring in the metronome
.
So once I've brought in themetronome.
The best way to practice in thebeginning is just think of this
as being groups of threetriplets.
So if I set the metronome, forinstance, at 120.
Down, up, down up.
(07:50):
So get your brain organized towhat you're hearing and what
you're going to play along with,and then start giving it a
chance here.
Okay, now, as you're practicingthis again, keep reminding
(08:20):
yourself.
It isn't.
How fast can you get themetronome going?
Is there comfort in what you'redoing?
Is there tension in what you'redoing?
You've got to start working allthat out.
So for me, when I entered thiswhole speed picking world when I
was a kid, the thing about allof this is efficiency.
It's about trying to be relaxedand be smooth.
That's what you're looking for.
(08:42):
It doesn't always work that wayand it's not like every day is
great or sometimes it takes somework to get into that space.
But that's the whole thingabout practicing this stuff is
you have to be ready to spendsome quality time with it.
You can't just do it for fiveminutes.
There's just no way.
You got to spend time, reallyget comfortable with what you're
trying to do here as you'replaying, think about how it
(09:04):
feels, think about how it sounds, really get cosmic on all of
those small details, the pickand the pick attack and all of
these things as you start tryingto do this.
So you know, if you feel thatsomething is kind of, you know,
stuck a little bit, you canalways work on some more legato
stuff or some picking exercisesor whatever it is you need to do
to keep trying to work that in.
(09:24):
Now I'm playing with acompletely dry tone right now.
There's no delay or reverb onthis thing, so it's brutally
honest right now.
(09:50):
And the other question that youhave to ask yourself is how fast
is fast enough?
Like how fast do you need to goto get to what you want?
So these are the things youwork on.
What I would strongly suggestis you start around a hundred
beats per minute.
If that's way too slow for you,go up to 110 or 120 or whatever
, but start getting used todoing groups of three.
Do the triplet, and you don'thave to go round, robin, you
(10:14):
might just start out by goinglike this you might just start
going toward the floor and youdon't have to do it sequentially
, you might just do it and stopRight.
Once you get kind ofcomfortable with that, go all
the way back down.
No, just one shot it and then,as you get more comfortable,
(10:49):
start working on.
You know that sort of thing.
So if that makes sense, you'llkeep dialing that in as you go,
with honesty.
So the next thing I want to dois I want to give you some
different finger combinations tostart thinking about.
So one, two, four the one we'redoing right now would be the
easier of the two that we reallywant to focus on.
The next one would be one,three, four.
(11:10):
One, three, four, right.
So I'm going to do exactly thesame thing, but instead of doing
one, 3, 4, right.
So I'm gonna do exactly thesame thing, but instead of doing
1, 2, 4, I'm doing 1, 3, 4.
Now, I'm not concerned withwhat scale I'm playing, I'm just
practicing some fingerexercises is essentially what
I'm doing here.
So I need to get used to thiscombination and oftentimes that
(11:32):
one's gonna be a little bitharder because this finger
combination most people strugglewith more.
So you need to be aware of that.
Again, more legato exercises,whatever it is that you need to
do.
So you set your metronome.
Let's go up a little bit.
Let's go up to maybe like 126.
So I have, okay, same idea.
(12:02):
Nothing about this hand ischanging, it's just the finger
combination that I'm doing.
So, as I've dialed in thecomfort, my bird's eye, my
zooming in, everything aboutthis is becoming automatic.
It's becoming natural becauseI'm getting comfortable with the
pick angle, the pick I'm using.
Everything about this isbecoming automatic.
It's becoming natural becauseI'm getting comfortable with the
pick angle, the pick I'm using,the attack that I'm using where
I'm moving from, whether it'sthe fingers or the wrist or the
(12:23):
elbow or whatever.
I'm dialing this inholistically.
So, no matter what happens withmy fretting hand, this thing's
just getting used to everything.
Okay, so now we've got a one,two, four.
We've got a one, three, four.
The next thing you could do isa larger round robin.
So what we could do is, insteadof playing one, two, four, one,
and then going backwards, we'regoing to go one, two, four.
(12:46):
One, two, four.
So we're going all the way up,which is a group of six.
Okay, so we're just going up,okay, working the bugs out as
(13:15):
needed.
So I'm just going up, juststarting all over again.
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da,over and over and over.
One, two, four.
Then I could do exactly thesame thing, doing one, three,
four, and again you mightstruggle with that one a little
bit and that one might take alittle bit more of your time.
This hand doesn't care, butthis hand does.
(13:37):
Then we can take both of thesepatterns and go up and back down
.
So now I could be doing this.
I'll do the first one, one, two, four.
So now I could be doing thisI'll do the first one, one, two,
four.
So now I've got let's thinkabout this.
So now I've got one, two, three,four, five, six, seven, eight,
(13:58):
nine, ten, eleven notes.
So it's not going to workanymore in groups of two or
three having eleven notes.
You see that.
But I can still use the clickof the metronome to line myself
up.
See what I mean.
(14:23):
But it's a little bit hardernow because we don't have enough
notes.
It doesn't make as much sense.
But if we were to do that andput a little hiccup in there,
like we've done before, we coulddo this.
And how would that look?
Well, now we would go.
So we're actually reiteratingthat bump in the center.
(14:44):
So we're going all the way upbackwards.
But right there, I'm going backto the first string, back to
the second string.
So I'm doubling up the motionof this hand.
Watch, see that.
(15:10):
And now I've got a pattern thatwould work with my tempo, okay.
And again, you can move theseto a very large tempo jump as
(15:33):
you keep practicing on thesethings.
So I've got 1, 2, 4, small upor round robin.
I've got 1, 3, 4, small up,round robin, du-ka-da-da-da
Right or du-ka-da-da-da-da-da-daor
du-ka-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-daright, or using the two
combinations.
Then I can go all the way upand just start all over, like
(15:55):
that One, two, four, one, three,four.
I could do round robin, but theround robin is going to have an
awkward amount of notes.
But if I put that bump in thecenter then it evens it out and
that's okay.
I mean, that's how you makepatterns ultimately on the
guitar anyway.
That's how this stuff works.
And then the last thing I wantyou to start trying to focus on
is working on 1-2-4 and 1-3-4together.
(16:17):
Okay, so, for instance, I wouldplay 1-2-4 on this string and
1-3-4 on this string, like Iwould if I was in the key of E
minor or G major, for instance.
So I'm doing 1, 2, 4 and then 1, 3, 4, all in the same sequence
.
My brain wants to go fasterthan the metronome, as I got to
(16:49):
keep slowing down here and findthat metronome okay, and I'm
also focusing on keeping theother strings clean as best I
can, all of those other thingsthat are happening as I get
comfortable with this.
Okay, so that's how youpractice with a metronome trying
(17:12):
to build speed.
Now you keep going until you getto a place where Maybe things
start falling apart a little bit.
Let's go up a bit more.
Let let's go up a little more.
Let's say we're at 160.
So now I've got.
(17:36):
Now, at that point I can feelthat I've got to start relaxing
a little bit to get this speed alittle bit more.
Okay, so let me explain to youwhat's happening right there.
So, as I try and move into thisspeed, it feels a little
awkward because I was playing atthe other speed.
So I've got to stabilize myselfAgain, relax, start thinking
(17:58):
about what it's supposed tosound like, what does it feel
like, and find my place.
Okay.
So there's this technique that Italk about, called bursting,
and what bursting is is, insteadof always starting from the low
side and trying to go to thetop side, sometimes you try and
start from the top side and youwork your way down.
Okay.
So you might start now withbursting.
(18:20):
Things can get really ugly andmessy at first, especially if
you've got finger limitationsyou know with in terms of speed
and you know dexterity and allthat kind of stuff.
So again, you want to keepworking on all your legato stuff
.
But with bursting what happensis I'm starting topside, not
worrying about the metronome.
I'm going to start and develophow fast I can actually play it
(18:49):
as best I can.
Again, I can only go as fast asmy slowest hand.
At the end of the day, that'sall I can do.
I can't go any faster.
If these two fingers arefailing on me, I can't go any
faster than that.
Okay.
So in doing what I'm doing rightnow, my pick could go faster
than this hand is going.
But because it doesn't make anysense in my brain, it's not
going to happen.
My hands won't let that happen.
(19:09):
So I'm just going to keeppracticing this bursting thing
and they're going to keepfinding each other.
Okay.
So if it's kind of an off day,my picking hand might need to
back off a little bit to find myfretting hand or whatever may
need to happen there.
But I'm practicing with thiswithout a metronome, just trying
to find where I am and findwhat the problems are and then
(19:32):
try and fix those and continuegoing.
You see what I'm saying, so Ican practice with the metronome.
I know I'm at 126 or 142 orwhatever it is you're at and
that's where you're.
You know, always remember again, when you start for the fresh
for the day, you might need tostart a little bit lower on that
metronome.
Don't expect to just start thenext day at the top speed you
(19:52):
left off on yesterday.
Right, sometimes you got towork into that speed.
You got to work into that topspeed and then see where you are
.
And also, please remember thatsome of these speeds you'll sit
there for days, weeks, months,fighting with these same tempos.
Sometimes you're going to makebig strides, sometimes you're
going to get stuck and it takesa long time.
(20:13):
Otherwise, every guitar playeron the planet that's been doing
this for a long time would be at600 beats per minute.
You know what I mean Justimpossible speeds.
That's not going to happen.
So there's going to belimitations in there.
And then you keep fightingthrough those limitations.
Is it a psychologicallimitation, limitations in there
?
And then you keep fightingthrough those limitations.
Is it a psychologicallimitation?
Is it a physical limitation?
Is there some small discussionthat we're having right now that
(20:33):
could fix that and make it evenbetter?
So that's what I love aboutpracticing from both sides is,
if you practice from the slowend, working your way up, you
start by warming up and you findwhere you need to be and you
connect with that metronome andall that kind of stuff.
When you start from the topside, you're starting with kind
of a mess and then you keepdialing that in and then you can
(20:54):
set your metronome and go well,what speed am I actually doing
here?
Because when we practice likethis, what you're going to start
recognizing is there's a,there's a speed in the metronome
, there's a tempo in themetronome.
That's your struggle.
You can play up to here fromthis end and you can play down
to here from this end, butthere's going to be a spot in
the center.
That's where Murphy's Law saysmost of your songs are going to
(21:16):
exist in that trouble spot rightthere.
But see, this is why we work onthis and we use songs right.
If we're learning a song thathas a particular thing that
we're trying to work on, that'sgreat.
Then we can do this.
I've always thought of guys likeYngwie Malmsteen as being very
bursting.
That's why I called it bursting, because when he plays it's
like he's going as fast as hecan but still making all the
(21:37):
connections.
So what he's not as concernedabout is whether or not
everything is fitting exactlywith the metronome all the time.
Of course he does some of thetime when some players connect
with the metronome all the time.
Of course he does some of thetime where some players connect
with the metronome all of thetime, or at least most of the
time, right.
So if you thought of, like aPaul Gilbert or something like
that, he's probably trying tomake more of that rhythmic
connection on a regular basis.
(21:58):
Where Yngwie is okay with thisflourish of playing that isn't
necessarily directly connectedto the tempo and the subdivision
.
Now, those are generalizations,but they're true.
Again, I'm not saying thatYngwie can't play with a
metronome and I'm not sayingthat Paul Gilbert can't play
freeform.
Of course they can do all thesethings.
(22:19):
I'm just saying this is astylistic characteristic, so you
want to get used to that.
When you're playing you might doforward round robin, you can do
other groups of strings.
(22:39):
There's all kinds of differentthings that you can do here, but
the point is developing thiscore element of three notes per
string using one, two, four andone, three, four.
That's what I want you to tryand focus on Get comfortable
before you start trying to dostuff, because if you just start
failing right away and you go,I can't do this, like that's the
worst thing you can say Ofcourse you can do it, but where
(23:01):
are your trouble spots?
If you're not aware of yourtrouble spots, it's because
you're not really thinking aboutit.
You're not even trying right.
You can't just try and play.
You got to think about it.
Where are the problems?
What do I got to deal with?
Do I got to optimize?
It's like a race car, I suppose.
If there's some component ofthe race car that is failing,
the rest of it is going to fail.
(23:22):
Right.
You've got to optimize all ofthe pieces for it to be a high
performance element, all of thepieces for it to be, you know, a
high performance element, whichis what this is.
So start by just, without usingthe metronome, dial things in,
start working with the metronomeand, honestly, if you were a
private student of mine and wewere working on this, you would
(23:44):
know exactly what tempos.
You wouldn't have to thinkabout it or get a notebook, or
something.
If I said so, how fast are youdoing this?
You'd know exactly what thetempo is, or something.
If I said so, how fast are youdoing this?
You'd know exactly what thetempo is.
I can do it at 142.
And if I move to 144, it failson me, you'd know.
You'd know where your crackpoint is right.
And then you've got yourbursting and you've got your
regular stuff and you keeptrying to work that out.
When it comes to speed picking,it's important to be honest with
yourself, because if you're not, it's all going to get messy
(24:08):
and it's just going to, you know, like people that try and like
all this kind of stuff again,whatever.
If that's working for you,that's great, but it's, it's not
right.
You know what I mean.
You got to keep trying to workthat stuff out from the bursting
perspective.
What's great about that is thatyou're actually starting with
this kind of raw, messyperspective and then you keep
(24:30):
trying to optimize it as you go.
Okay, so that's what I want youto think about.
All right.
So let's dive into the actualpractice now.
What we're going to be doinghere and you could do this
anywhere I'm going to be headingup to the 12th fret on the
second string, but you could dothis anywhere you want to, okay.
So what's going to happen hereis I'm going to play 12, 13, and
15.
Three notes on a string andthen I'm going to connect to the
(00:21):
first string.
So that's the first thing isgetting used to again that
connection point of moving upand making that connection.
And, of course, as I do this,my picking hand is going to be
going down, up, down and then up.
And that's the big thing isgetting the up of the first
string there.
So I have down, up, down, up.
So if I put the whole thingtogether, I've got.
That's what it is, okay.
(00:45):
So what I want to do is I wantto get comfortable with how that
feels, starting with a down,ending with an up.
Okay, if the first three notesof the grouping on the second
string don't feel comfortable, Ineed to go back and start there
, right?
If these three fingers aren'tmoving properly, as I've been
talking about this whole time,you got to go back and you got
(01:06):
to fix that.
But we don't need to do thisfast.
We're just starting off withthat.
Okay, then we're going toconnect to the next string.
Okay, we just want to getcomfortable.
We just want to get comfortable.
What you do is you startthinking about how the down
(01:33):
feels and then ending with thatup, tick-a-da-dun, tick-a-da-dun
, tick-a-da-dun, tick-a-da-dun.
Right, and you might even makewider movements than you need to
to begin with, just to getcomfortable with the motion.
Okay, so don't worry about howfast it is, worry about how
clean it is, worry about howaccurate it is and, most
(01:55):
importantly, get used to how itfeels to play this thing Having
that down and then ending onthat up.
So you just practice this overand over and over, just getting
used to what it feels like.
The next thing we're going todo is we're going to take that
same idea and we're just goingto create a round robin with it.
(02:16):
So we're going up and comingback down.
So I'm going.
So it looks like this Okay,just getting used to starting on
(02:50):
a down, ending the sequence onan up, heading back to the down
again.
Just getting comfortable withthat, okay.
Okay, once you get comfortablewith that, you can start doing a
full continuous round, robin bystarting on that 12 each time
Da da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da
(03:11):
da da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da
da da da da six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two,
three, one, two, three.
I don't care how you count it,but it's two groups of three is
what you're doing.
So as you play, you're tryingto smooth that out as much as
(03:45):
possible.
So you're feeling theseconnection points Ba da da ba da
da ba da da ba da da ba da dada da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da dada da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da, da, da,da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,da, da, da, da da.
You're doing that.
You're smoothing everything outin the process.
Do you need to take the pickand move back a little bit?
Do you need to turn a littlebit right?
(04:08):
Where's your motion coming from?
Is it coming from your fingers?
Is it coming from your wrist?
Is it coming from the elbow?
And none of it is right orwrong.
You just have to start becomingaware of this.
You'll also notice, as I'm doingthis, I tend to set my pinky or
my third finger or somethingdown on the guitar as a brace or
an anchor when I do a lot ofsingle note picking.
Not everybody does that, soit's not mandatory, it's
(04:31):
figuring out what works for you.
So if you watch, if I go likethis, see how this finger's kind
of sitting there.
Now, if I was just hovering upin the air like this, that would
be really really hard for me todo.
It would sound terrible,because I'm trying to hold, I'm
(04:52):
stabilizing from my shoulderright and then stabilizing kind
of at my elbow and then tryingto move like this, like for me
touching the guitar with mypinky or my third finger, and
again, it's interchangeable forme.
But when I do that, all therest of this can relax and now I
can just move from here.
It's not the same for everybody.
(05:14):
It depends on what you like todo.
You know, if you, if you play alot, especially when you first
start learning how to playsingle notes, you know you might
have started with just, youknow, closing the hand and doing
this sort of thing, and as yougot better, you got used to kind
of hovering over the top rightwhen you play, when I play
faster it, you know whether it'smy third or my pinky, something
(05:36):
winds up stabilizing, which iswhy you see all the fingerprints
there, because that's what it'sdoing, is it's holding it still
.
So explore that a little bit.
Explore the guitar, pickthickness, like that kind of
thing.
Does it have a sharp point onit?
All the things that we talkedabout.
Don't be in a hurry to juststart trying to go fast.
Figure out all the details.
(05:56):
Okay, so here you are.
See, there's a little hook inthere.
(06:20):
When it goes up on the last one, duc up, down, up, and that's
what I get comfortable with.
Okay, now, eventually we couldhave conversations about economy
picking and all kinds ofdifferent things.
But I don't want to throw youoff right now, and it wouldn't
help with this situation anyway,because as soon as you play
down, up, down, up, you want togo back to the last string.
(06:43):
That's why it's nice to end onan upstroke, because it's
turning your pick toward theceiling to get ready for the
second string again.
Right, we're going secondstring down, up, down.
It pushes it toward that firststring and then I do an up and
it pushes it back toward thesecond string so I can start all
over again.
Okay, I don't want it to keeppushing it toward the floor and
(07:04):
then I got to jump over likethis to get back.
I'm looking for economy ofmotion is what I'm looking for
here?
Okay, I'm looking to try andorganize my thoughts, make this
clean, make it articulate.
I'm not worried about speed,but I'm trying to get kind of
both a bird's eye view of whatI'm trying to do and I'm trying
to get a magnified view of whatI'm trying to do as well and
(07:24):
work out all the bugs as I dothat.
That's a good time to starttrying to bring in the metronome
.
So once I've brought in themetronome.
The best way to practice in thebeginning is just think of this
as being groups of threetriplets.
So if I set the metronome, forinstance, at 120.
Down, up, down up.
(07:50):
So get your brain organized towhat you're hearing and what
you're going to play along with,and then start giving it a
chance here.
Okay, now, as you're practicingthis again, keep reminding
(08:20):
yourself.
It isn't.
How fast can you get themetronome going?
Is there comfort in what you'redoing?
Is there tension in what you'redoing?
You've got to start working allthat out.
So for me, when I entered thiswhole speed picking world when I
was a kid, the thing about allof this is efficiency.
It's about trying to be relaxedand be smooth.
That's what you're looking for.
(08:42):
It doesn't always work that wayand it's not like every day is
great or sometimes it takes somework to get into that space.
But that's the whole thingabout practicing this stuff is
you have to be ready to spendsome quality time with it.
You can't just do it for fiveminutes.
There's just no way.
You got to spend time, reallyget comfortable with what you're
trying to do here as you'replaying, think about how it
(09:04):
feels, think about how it sounds, really get cosmic on all of
those small details, the pickand the pick attack and all of
these things as you start tryingto do this.
So you know, if you feel thatsomething is kind of, you know,
stuck a little bit, you canalways work on some more legato
stuff or some picking exercisesor whatever it is you need to do
to keep trying to work that in.
(09:24):
Now I'm playing with acompletely dry tone right now.
There's no delay or reverb onthis thing, so it's brutally
honest right now.
(09:50):
And the other question that youhave to ask yourself is how fast
is fast enough?
Like how fast do you need to goto get to what you want?
So these are the things youwork on.
What I would strongly suggestis you start around a hundred
beats per minute.
If that's way too slow for you,go up to 110 or 120 or whatever
, but start getting used todoing groups of three.
Do the triplet, and you don'thave to go round, robin, you
(10:14):
might just start out by goinglike this you might just start
going toward the floor and youdon't have to do it sequentially
, you might just do it and stopRight.
Once you get kind ofcomfortable with that, go all
the way back down.
No, just one shot it and then,as you get more comfortable,
(10:49):
start working on.
You know that sort of thing.
So if that makes sense, you'llkeep dialing that in as you go,
with honesty.
So the next thing I want to dois I want to give you some
different finger combinations tostart thinking about.
So one, two, four the one we'redoing right now would be the
easier of the two that we reallywant to focus on.
The next one would be one,three, four.
(11:10):
One, three, four, right.
So I'm going to do exactly thesame thing, but instead of doing
one, 3, 4, right.
So I'm gonna do exactly thesame thing, but instead of doing
1, 2, 4, I'm doing 1, 3, 4.
Now, I'm not concerned withwhat scale I'm playing, I'm just
practicing some fingerexercises is essentially what
I'm doing here.
So I need to get used to thiscombination and oftentimes that
(11:32):
one's gonna be a little bitharder because this finger
combination most people strugglewith more.
So you need to be aware of that.
Again, more legato exercises,whatever it is that you need to
do.
So you set your metronome.
Let's go up a little bit.
Let's go up to maybe like 126.
So I have, okay, same idea.
(12:02):
Nothing about this hand ischanging, it's just the finger
combination that I'm doing.
So, as I've dialed in thecomfort, my bird's eye, my
zooming in, everything aboutthis is becoming automatic.
It's becoming natural becauseI'm getting comfortable with the
pick angle, the pick I'm using.
Everything about this isbecoming automatic.
It's becoming natural becauseI'm getting comfortable with the
pick angle, the pick I'm using,the attack that I'm using where
I'm moving from, whether it'sthe fingers or the wrist or the
(12:23):
elbow or whatever.
I'm dialing this inholistically.
So, no matter what happens withmy fretting hand, this thing's
just getting used to everything.
Okay, so now we've got a one,two, four.
We've got a one, three, four.
The next thing you could do isa larger round robin.
So what we could do is, insteadof playing one, two, four, one,
and then going backwards, we'regoing to go one, two, four.
(12:46):
One, two, four.
So we're going all the way up,which is a group of six.
Okay, so we're just going up,okay, working the bugs out as
(13:15):
needed.
So I'm just going up, juststarting all over again.
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da,over and over and over.
One, two, four.
Then I could do exactly thesame thing, doing one, three,
four, and again you mightstruggle with that one a little
bit and that one might take alittle bit more of your time.
This hand doesn't care, butthis hand does.
(13:37):
Then we can take both of thesepatterns and go up and back down
.
So now I could be doing this.
I'll do the first one, one, two, four.
So now I could be doing thisI'll do the first one, one, two,
four.
So now I've got let's thinkabout this.
So now I've got one, two, three,four, five, six, seven, eight,
(13:58):
nine, ten, eleven notes.
So it's not going to workanymore in groups of two or
three having eleven notes.
You see that.
But I can still use the clickof the metronome to line myself
up.
See what I mean.
(14:23):
But it's a little bit hardernow because we don't have enough
notes.
It doesn't make as much sense.
But if we were to do that andput a little hiccup in there,
like we've done before, we coulddo this.
And how would that look?
Well, now we would go.
So we're actually reiteratingthat bump in the center.
(14:44):
So we're going all the way upbackwards.
But right there, I'm going backto the first string, back to
the second string.
So I'm doubling up the motionof this hand.
Watch, see that.
(15:10):
And now I've got a pattern thatwould work with my tempo, okay.
And again, you can move theseto a very large tempo jump as
(15:33):
you keep practicing on thesethings.
So I've got 1, 2, 4, small upor round robin.
I've got 1, 3, 4, small up,round robin, du-ka-da-da-da
Right or du-ka-da-da-da-da-da-daor
du-ka-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-daright, or using the two
combinations.
Then I can go all the way upand just start all over, like
(15:55):
that One, two, four, one, three,four.
I could do round robin, but theround robin is going to have an
awkward amount of notes.
But if I put that bump in thecenter then it evens it out and
that's okay.
I mean, that's how you makepatterns ultimately on the
guitar anyway.
That's how this stuff works.
And then the last thing I wantyou to start trying to focus on
is working on 1-2-4 and 1-3-4together.
(16:17):
Okay, so, for instance, I wouldplay 1-2-4 on this string and
1-3-4 on this string, like Iwould if I was in the key of E
minor or G major, for instance.
So I'm doing 1, 2, 4 and then 1, 3, 4, all in the same sequence
.
My brain wants to go fasterthan the metronome, as I got to
(16:49):
keep slowing down here and findthat metronome okay, and I'm
also focusing on keeping theother strings clean as best I
can, all of those other thingsthat are happening as I get
comfortable with this.
Okay, so that's how youpractice with a metronome trying
(17:12):
to build speed.
Now you keep going until you getto a place where Maybe things
start falling apart a little bit.
Let's go up a bit more.
Let let's go up a little more.
Let's say we're at 160.
So now I've got.
(17:36):
Now, at that point I can feelthat I've got to start relaxing
a little bit to get this speed alittle bit more.
Okay, so let me explain to youwhat's happening right there.
So, as I try and move into thisspeed, it feels a little
awkward because I was playing atthe other speed.
So I've got to stabilize myselfAgain, relax, start thinking
(17:58):
about what it's supposed tosound like, what does it feel
like, and find my place.
Okay.
So there's this technique that Italk about, called bursting,
and what bursting is is, insteadof always starting from the low
side and trying to go to thetop side, sometimes you try and
start from the top side and youwork your way down.
Okay.
So you might start now withbursting.
(18:20):
Things can get really ugly andmessy at first, especially if
you've got finger limitationsyou know with in terms of speed
and you know dexterity and allthat kind of stuff.
So again, you want to keepworking on all your legato stuff
.
But with bursting what happensis I'm starting topside, not
worrying about the metronome.
I'm going to start and develophow fast I can actually play it
(18:49):
as best I can.
Again, I can only go as fast asmy slowest hand.
At the end of the day, that'sall I can do.
I can't go any faster.
If these two fingers arefailing on me, I can't go any
faster than that.
Okay.
So in doing what I'm doing rightnow, my pick could go faster
than this hand is going.
But because it doesn't make anysense in my brain, it's not
going to happen.
My hands won't let that happen.
(19:09):
So I'm just going to keeppracticing this bursting thing
and they're going to keepfinding each other.
Okay.
So if it's kind of an off day,my picking hand might need to
back off a little bit to find myfretting hand or whatever may
need to happen there.
But I'm practicing with thiswithout a metronome, just trying
to find where I am and findwhat the problems are and then
(19:32):
try and fix those and continuegoing.
You see what I'm saying, so Ican practice with the metronome.
I know I'm at 126 or 142 orwhatever it is you're at and
that's where you're.
You know, always remember again, when you start for the fresh
for the day, you might need tostart a little bit lower on that
metronome.
Don't expect to just start thenext day at the top speed you
(19:52):
left off on yesterday.
Right, sometimes you got towork into that speed.
You got to work into that topspeed and then see where you are
.
And also, please remember thatsome of these speeds you'll sit
there for days, weeks, months,fighting with these same tempos.
Sometimes you're going to makebig strides, sometimes you're
going to get stuck and it takesa long time.
(20:13):
Otherwise, every guitar playeron the planet that's been doing
this for a long time would be at600 beats per minute.
You know what I mean Justimpossible speeds.
That's not going to happen.
So there's going to belimitations in there.
And then you keep fightingthrough those limitations.
Is it a psychologicallimitation, limitations in there
?
And then you keep fightingthrough those limitations.
Is it a psychologicallimitation?
Is it a physical limitation?
Is there some small discussionthat we're having right now that
(20:33):
could fix that and make it evenbetter?
So that's what I love aboutpracticing from both sides is,
if you practice from the slowend, working your way up, you
start by warming up and you findwhere you need to be and you
connect with that metronome andall that kind of stuff.
When you start from the topside, you're starting with kind
of a mess and then you keepdialing that in and then you can
(20:54):
set your metronome and go well,what speed am I actually doing
here?
Because when we practice likethis, what you're going to start
recognizing is there's a,there's a speed in the metronome
, there's a tempo in themetronome.
That's your struggle.
You can play up to here fromthis end and you can play down
to here from this end, butthere's going to be a spot in
the center.
That's where Murphy's Law saysmost of your songs are going to
(21:16):
exist in that trouble spot rightthere.
But see, this is why we work onthis and we use songs right.
If we're learning a song thathas a particular thing that
we're trying to work on, that'sgreat.
Then we can do this.
I've always thought of guys likeYngwie Malmsteen as being very
bursting.
That's why I called it bursting, because when he plays it's
like he's going as fast as hecan but still making all the
(21:37):
connections.
So what he's not as concernedabout is whether or not
everything is fitting exactlywith the metronome all the time.
Of course he does some of thetime when some players connect
with the metronome all the time.
Of course he does some of thetime where some players connect
with the metronome all of thetime, or at least most of the
time, right.
So if you thought of, like aPaul Gilbert or something like
that, he's probably trying tomake more of that rhythmic
connection on a regular basis.
(21:58):
Where Yngwie is okay with thisflourish of playing that isn't
necessarily directly connectedto the tempo and the subdivision
.
Now, those are generalizations,but they're true.
Again, I'm not saying thatYngwie can't play with a
metronome and I'm not sayingthat Paul Gilbert can't play
freeform.
Of course they can do all thesethings.
(22:19):
I'm just saying this is astylistic characteristic, so you
want to get used to that.
When you're playing you might doforward round robin, you can do
other groups of strings.
(22:39):
There's all kinds of differentthings that you can do here, but
the point is developing thiscore element of three notes per
string using one, two, four andone, three, four.
That's what I want you to tryand focus on Get comfortable
before you start trying to dostuff, because if you just start
failing right away and you go,I can't do this, like that's the
worst thing you can say Ofcourse you can do it, but where
(23:01):
are your trouble spots?
If you're not aware of yourtrouble spots, it's because
you're not really thinking aboutit.
You're not even trying right.
You can't just try and play.
You got to think about it.
Where are the problems?
What do I got to deal with?
Do I got to optimize?
It's like a race car, I suppose.
If there's some component ofthe race car that is failing,
the rest of it is going to fail.
(23:22):
Right.
You've got to optimize all ofthe pieces for it to be a high
performance element, all of thepieces for it to be, you know, a
high performance element, whichis what this is.
So start by just, without usingthe metronome, dial things in,
start working with the metronomeand, honestly, if you were a
private student of mine and wewere working on this, you would
(23:44):
know exactly what tempos.
You wouldn't have to thinkabout it or get a notebook, or
something.
If I said so, how fast are youdoing this?
You'd know exactly what thetempo is, or something.
If I said so, how fast are youdoing this?
You'd know exactly what thetempo is.
I can do it at 142.
And if I move to 144, it failson me, you'd know.
You'd know where your crackpoint is right.
And then you've got yourbursting and you've got your
regular stuff and you keeptrying to work that out.
When it comes to speed picking,it's important to be honest with
yourself, because if you're not, it's all going to get messy
(24:08):
and it's just going to, you know, like people that try and like
all this kind of stuff again,whatever.
If that's working for you,that's great, but it's, it's not
right.
You know what I mean.
You got to keep trying to workthat stuff out from the bursting
perspective.
What's great about that is thatyou're actually starting with
this kind of raw, messyperspective and then you keep
(24:30):
trying to optimize it as you go.
Okay, so that's what I want youto think about.
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