Alternate Picking Lesson 1

You are just in time 😁

Very nice lesson. Am I 15 years too late? Lesson is from 2007.

pick like hell xDDD

I saw the lesson once without sound, and your left hand looks like a spider on ecstasy ! Awesome lesson

Wow, very good lesson! Perfect explanation of this stuff, from now I`ll try to minimize distantion from my fingers to fretboard,especially pinky. He like to fly away after each note=\

Great lesson, that helped me finally learn how to speedpick in only a week!

thanks man this is a great lesson,

Hi, this one is great. Reminds me on a early Paul Gilbert lesson.
Keep on rocking

nice lesson Pavel!!!!!

THIS Is THE BEST LESSON ever MAN thanks of you now i can play 10times faster than i could before my hands
it feeeelss like its just air its so relaxed im playing in warp speed after 50 min of practising noooonn stop THANKS! it all thanks of you i can play like this now THX! again

This is absolutely great...damn fast...my deepest respect

Hey Pavel, heres my first questions on GMC ever!

My arm doesnt move too much, i guess about as much as yours. Still my upper arm is really tense when I play like this, so the biceps and triceps (or however you spell that). Is that ok, or should my arm be relaxed?

Apart from that its actually more my left hand causing the trouble coz it starts hurting a bit sometimes. But i think that is because i started using te pinkie so much lately. But just to be sure: is that a matter of practice, or am i doing something wrong?

Apart from that I wanted to say that I like your explanations;)

Yea this lesson really improved my speed like nothing else on GMC (or any other lessons).

Pavel really deserves an applause for letting out these secrets.

Wow! When I first started this 4 days ago I could barely do 60 bpm but I've been playing it for approx an hour each day and I can now do it relaxed and comfortably clean at 80 AND I'm even starting to get very close to clean at 90! Nice payoff...I'll be able to actually play along with a backing track instead of just my metronome(though I love it and it is my best friend) in about another week I am hoping.

Hey Pavel you have inspired me bigtime! Thanx - I am new to GMC and totally enjoying all these lessons. Alternate picking rocks and I will get all 3 of these ones down as soon as I can. And one day I will play them as fast (or faster )as you!! That is one of my goals.

Pavel, I am new to GMC so I am viewing all the lessons late it seems . This was a fantastic lesson that I intend on using everyday. I love your technique

Soo helpful.. thanks Pavel =D

ill be practicing this after i get sweeping down

hey.. pavel.. hey... slow down... jesus. wheres the fire man

I love this, i noticed improvements within only an hour of practicing this

the strange thing is that with me its not the pinky thats the problem , its my ring finga. it seems that because its not playin any notes ( first exercise) it just to get as far away from the fretboard as possible

mmkay, thanks guys.

Pavel- can you make a new lesson for improvising tapping into your solos?

(this doesnt have anyhting to do with the lesson but...)when your sweeping and you want to mute going down is it a palm mute on the string as u hit it or afterwards? or does it really matter?

@jeffrey

Just play it more slowly Also, have you seen Kris' alt picking basics lessons? The idea is you slow it down until you can play it perfectly then keep practicing to increase the speed over time.

hmm.. I'm not 100% sure I can play this=P How come this is so hard for the first alternate picking lesson? Can you make one easier? I'm pretty good at guitar but I can't be the fluid and fast without cramping or messing up=P

hey nice lesson but i wonder i you keep your finger exactly verticall or something else?

Hey Pavel - just got around to having a go at this last night - awesome exercise, thanks!

holy ****

i cant get the speed yet!!!

I need to get down to practicing

wow, seriously, great lesson helps alot and this will be a great warm up!!!

Got it.
I have already reduced the distance significantly and can feel the impact of my playing. Although, the short distance is hard to maintain when using more than one stirng.

What is the ideal distance between pinky and fretboard?

Thanks Pavel!

Hi Pavel, what guage pick would you recommend for this type of stuff??
I've just kicked off your this lesson, using .73mm, would you recommend a heavy pick?

I've heard heavier picks are better for improving picking technique....?

Pavel -
Sadly I found this site after years of playing on my own, but im a decent enough musican through the years that I was able to break my bad habits quickly. One I cant seem to break is:

My thumb always seems to slide up (towards low e) on the neck and wrap around as im picking up speed. Do you have any tips to train my thumb to stay in the middle of the neck? Or should I just tape the thing down

Thanks ahead of time!

mistergixxer, I can't tell you enough how important it is to get that right. I have been playing this exercise for about three weeks now. I first started playing it with a down stroke on the E string. Not only did it not sound right, but i could not get control as I upped the tempo. Only when I made a conscious effort to play down - up - down - up... did I realize how clean and fast I can play. Pavel is absolutely right, start slow, make an effort to play it right, and you'll get it in no time. I don't even think about it anymore, it just comes naturally.

The hardest thing I find with alternate picking is changing string, like when moving from the B string to top E and the next pick should be up, I always want to play a downwards pick. and vice versa. I Guess thats going to take a lot of practice to change.

can i know what does the boxes refer to? does it mean playing in different scales?so what scales are we playing in this area?

how should you count the notes when you are practiceing with a metronome...??

Just mute the strings your not playing with your right hand palm while picking on the strings (like pavel does)

What is the best way to mute the other strings?

Same problem as n0x also; I can't seem to keep my pinky from pulling back way off the fretboard -Anywho, great lesson and most definitely adding it to my warmup and practice sessions.

pavel you are a speed demon.

so i i'll go now and practice it .

imprasive!!

Awesome lesson Pavel, and your playing is super clean even at warp speed - very impressive, and a clear signpost for us to follow, shows what good technique and LOTS of practice can achieve! I'm gonna add this to my practice regime fir sure, thanks!

Very useful lesson... I have a question regarding left hand: I've noticed you place your thumb on the middle of the neck, but for me it feels more natural to place the thumbs on top of the fretboard, and I've always done it ... Should i change this?

Great lesson. I can't play it nearly as fast as you, but this is going to make a great warmup/practice every day.

Man im a dumb A$$ . The reason I wasnt getting the sequence and it wasnt sounding right was because . I was playing 12,13,15 rather then 12,13,~16~.


And all this time
I Thought it was the PICK

Great stuff! I'd like to see more of the kind! :-)

Awesome lesson, alot of usefull info in there.

Yeah Im starting to realize im to concerned with how others do things that im not being creative and trying different things out to make a " Johns Alternate Picking Style ". I will keep at it .

Great lesson Pavel! It's very helpful to improve speed picking.

Keep it coming

One Question- When you have your hand resting on the bridge of the guitar, that means you have your pick at a slight angle ?

USe your pinky as much as possible, and the muscles will adjust to the stretch, i found it useful when i couldnt really use it, by using it when it wasnt even neccessary, it gave me practice on how to control it with strenght, and gradually i increased the distance of frets.

Anyway, cool lesson, ive got the first few parts down and its really fun to play, great stuff.

that was a cool lesson, but i have the same problem as nox.whenever i try to stretch my pinky to do something like that, it hurts.if you have any pinky exercise tips, i'll be happy to hear them.

/edit : actually, the pinkey stretch puts strain on the index finger!

Excellent lesson! Ive needed one of these badly hehe.. I've got one problem though.. my pinky isnt trained well and everytime I stop using it, it just pulls 5 meters away! And the stretch is kinda tough on my pinky too it strains it.. So what should I be doing in order to minimize pinky strain?? Im sure the pulling away part I can fix just by putting in hours of pinky discipline .

yeah thats the question, thanks

i have one question about the guitar youre using, i have the same guitar and it looks awesome but i'm having trouble with the tuning so i hardly use it

that was crazy awesome, nice one

lol that was cool, I haven't got that pattern down yet so Im going to that now