Alternate Picking Help! Options

[Kalidia]

Hi everyone!

it's about 2 months i'm practicing seriously alternate picking doing lessons of pavel and todd but i've encounter some troubles.. Even at low speed (let say sixteen notes at 100-120 bmp) it seems my right hand go a little out of control. This prevent me to play even a single note at higher speed! I've noticed that the things get better if i had some muscular tension in my wrist, i got more control. However i've read somewhere on GMC that no tension should be in the wrist! I'm doing wrong? what do you think?

Thanks

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[Cosmin Lupu]

Hi everyone!

it's about 2 months i'm practicing seriously alternate picking doing lessons of pavel and todd but i've encounter some troubles.. Even at low speed (let say sixteen notes at 100-120 bmp) it seems my right hand go a little out of control. This prevent me to play even a single note at higher speed! I've noticed that the things get better if i had some muscular tension in my wrist, i got more control. However i've read somewhere on GMC that no tension should be in the wrist! I'm doing wrong? what do you think?

Thanks

Hey mate! i think you should give things a little more time don't rush thinking that there's something wrong with your playing. Practice diligently and keep your wrist relaxed - when tension kicks in, you'll usually lose control because the body grows tired quickly.

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[Ben Higgins]

Tensing our hands up may give us the illusion of control but in reality it the worst thing we can do. The amount of progress one can make through tense muscles is very limited.. with a tense muscle there is nowhere for it to go, apart from eventually just get worn out..

Alternate picking is perhaps the biggest subject of adversity for all guitarists. However in order to progress we need to dispel one myth: We cannot expect to go back to the metronome everyday and be able to play at a higher bpm than the day before.. it takes weeks and months to condition the body for a certain task and everyday is different. Due to diet, amount of sleep, how tired and used the muscles are from the previous day)s). If you can accept that you won't necessarily be reaching your ultimate speed boundaries every time you pick up the guitar then you will take some pressure off of yourself.

As for the physical act of alternate picking, I'll leave it to a more experienced picker like Todd to add his thoughts to this

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This post has been edited by Ben Higgins: Jun 22 2011, 12:44 PM

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Practicing speed is all about achieving precision first, and giving yourself some time to settle things a bit. You will play fast, only if you are precise, and you will be precise only if you repeat everything precisely enough on slower tempos, and increase gradually, so you don't let the precision suffer.

As soon as you hear that you are playing sloppy, it means that you went too fast up with the tempo during practice. Your muscle memory didn't have time to adapt the movements to new speed, bigger pauses between the notes are created, fingers are not fretting on the same place every time, and your picking hand is becoming out of sync.

There is only one way to play fast - play ultra slow for a while, 60bpm quarters, and increase speed gradually. As soon as you see that you become sloppy in ANY way, stop, refresh, stay on that tempo, and tomorrow start from where you stopped. It's a process that requires lots of patience, and it can be almost considered a zen state, since you need to be very calm and focused while doing this.

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[Cosmin Lupu]

Indeed Todd Simpson is the guy to talk about alternate picking with - Ben's and Ivan's advices are very good and useful, so take it easy mate. No pressure..if you build it, it will come

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[Kalidia]

I really need to release the tension in my wrist and also in my mind Sometime i really want to rush to the goal, by the way i'm happy with the progress i've made in these months because at low speed i've become more precise. If there are more progress or problems i'll let you know,Thanks a lot to everybody!

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[MonkeyDAthos]

i don't know if this work with all people, but when i am training AP, i don't pay attention to the guitar, i usability watch a movie and grab the guitar and start, i can maintain the speed so i don't have much downfall, the thing is, like mention before i don't pay attention to the guitar and i notice i can still develop "high speed" control and build up less tension

BUT BEWARE!! don't this while doing a marathon of Lord of the Rings!

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This post has been edited by MonkeyDAthos: Jun 22 2011, 07:37 PM

[Azzaboi]

Make the thumb straight and locked in place (don't flex at speed).

Choke up so just the tip of the pick is sticking out, use the point to just graze the strings (don't dig into them).

Rotate the hand clockwise so the thumb is pointing downwards at around 45 degrees to the strings rather than flat picking.

When picking, ensure it's not at a upward or downward slope to the string (only rotation of the pick is allowed - see above).

Move just with the wrist motion (no arm movement) and stay relaxed.
It should be a very short distance of movement. Ensure timing of each note and that they sound alike.

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[jstcrsn]

you will never get clean speed until you fall more in love with perfection , and out of love with speed , but then, speed will show up when you least expect it .I know it sounds weird ,because when you love perfection you don't rush to get to the next level, you just enjoy the perfection of the speed you are at and when you enjoy the speed that you are at,practicing -- becomes fun

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[maharzan]

I did it for 1.5+ years now, still not perfect, still miss notes here and there.

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This post has been edited by maharzan: Jun 23 2011, 03:52 AM