Hi!

I've been playing guitar for a few years now, about 12-13.
But I've just recently discovered that there might be something wrong with my right hand (pick) technique.
I've been trying forever to build up speed in my picking hand, but still can't pick any fast.

What I do when I pick, is that I pick with my underarm and not my wrist, as I think it should be.
My arm often cramp up, but I didn't realize what it was until just recently.

Is there any good exercises to get rid of my bad picking technique, and pick correctly?

Well, don't worry if you created a bad habit, you will fix it in time. Just practice properly from the wrist everything. Hopefully after a few weeks you will already see some improvements.

You aren't using a wrong technique at all. I pick like that on songs that are in a punk style like say if you're playing Million Miles Away by the Offspring then I'd move my elbow but for speed picking and metal you have to pick from the wrist.

Make sure your arm is relaxed and just keep practicing with a pick moving up and down from the wrist without a guitar. Just keep doing the movement. Then grab a guitar and try doing it with one note. If you then build this up to do scales and practice songs then it should be fine if you practice picking from wrist only for a while.

Just try and pick in a more relaxed state using your wrist in slow tempo. Practice over a scale or another exercise like 1,2,3,4 over the whole neck and slowly raise the tempo little by little. Always use upstroke then down stroke while practicing.

Whatever bad habit you might have, you can always work against it, it sometimes just takes some time and patience. In your case I would also suggest that you start slowly and practice to pick from your wrist, not your arm, it should be possible to eliminate your problem like this.

...and take a look at Pavel's Alternate Picking 1 lesson he gives a good introduction of how to hold the picking hand etc..this is of course just the best way to pick really fast...

Batio is doing it all wrong, somebody needs to tell him.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qG74eVb6V10

Was going to mention that, Batio picks from the arm fellas. Though its far more common to find "wrist pickers". I think the only reason Batio picks like that is because he is left handed and couldnt get the wrist motion going when starting out, could be wrong though.

people are different, what works for one might not work for another, for various reasons. It is easy to fall into to the "only way to do it is my way". I an often guilty of that. However, I never believe myself at those times.

Thanks for the response! I have to get this thing corrected in a hurry, since I'm starting school in 2 months.

Oh and I have a question too: when I do sweep picking should I sweep with my arm or my wrist?