Directional Picking For Guitar - Guitar Picking Technique
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Would you like to play guitar faster and improve your guitar picking technique...
... and do it without putting in more guitar practice time?
You can.
All you have to do is make your picking technique more efficient.
The best way to do that?
Adapt directional picking into your guitar technique.
What is directional picking?
In my experience of teaching thousands of guitar students over multiple decades...
...directional picking is the ultimate guitar technique for those who want to play guitar fast.
BY AT LEAST 100%
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
And in this article...
I show you what it is...
... how to practice it...
... and how to build speed with it without practicing more.
Ready to begin?
Watch this video to get an overview of directional picking:
Now that you understand the basics of directional picking, let’s go deeper.
Here are 5 tips that turbocharge your guitar picking technique and help you improve your guitar technique and play guitar fast(er):
Guitar Practice Tip #1: Focus On 2-Hand Synchronization
There are 2 types of guitar speed:
Your top guitar speed (the fastest speed your fingers can physically move when you try to play guitar fast), and...
Your ‘usable’ guitar speed, which is the highest tempo at which you’d want anyone to hear you play when you play guitar fast.
The latter is the top speed of your 2-hand synchronization.
(You’ll find it much easier to keep your hands in sync when you use directional picking as your guitar picking technique.)
And here are some of my go-to ways to develop 2-hand synchronization in your guitar technique:
- Double picking. As the name implies, you’ll pick each note in your guitar licks two times.
Why use this method when training your guitar picking technique (and 2-hand synchronization)?
Double picking makes it harder to keep your hands in sync while playing (because it forces your picking hand to move twice as fast as the fretting hand, disrupting the usual ratio of action between the 2 hands).
But when you go back to playing licks in the normal way, your synchronization begins to sound and feel more accurate. - Single string picking guitar practice. By practicing your guitar picking technique on one string, you make it virtually impossible to get away with imperfections in 2-hand synchronization. (That’s because your synchronization has no chance to reset as it does on every string change.)
To be fair, single-string practice doesn’t directly help your directional picking… but it DOES help your overall guitar picking technique (which helps improve your directional picking skills). - Play unplugged during your guitar practice. This forces your articulation and pick attack to get stronger, making it much easier to keep your hands in sync when you play guitar fast with distortion.
- Use a stiff pick to play guitar fast. A stiff pick (that doesn’t flex when you pick notes) makes it easy to develop a great guitar picking technique and get your hands in sync with directional picking.
- Do guitar practice with your picking hand only. To do this, cover up the fretboard with the fretting hand and do the guitar picking technique motions of the guitar like you're practicing.
This will be surprisingly hard to do when you first try it… but it’ll help you tremendously with mastering directional picking, improving your 2-hand synchronization and learning to play guitar fast.
Watch this video to see how to do picking hand only guitar practice:
Guitar Practice Tip #2: Control String Noise
Sloppy guitar playing makes your playing sound bad, even if you can play guitar fast and are using directional picking as your guitar picking technique of choice.
Here are the 3 common causes of guitar string noise to avoid during your guitar practice:
- Noise from the lower (thicker) strings.
- Noise from the higher (thinner) strings.
- Noise from the notes ringing (bleeding) together.
Here are the best ways to control string noise as you work on your guitar picking technique and practice directional picking:
- Use thumb muting. Simply rest your picking hand’s thumb on the lower (thicker) strings, keeping them quiet. Then you slide the thumb up and down as you change strings.
Note: to do thumb muting, you need to hold your guitar pick in a way that’s different from how most guitar players do it.
Here is the best way to hold the guitar pick as you’re learning to play guitar fast: - Use the (fretting hand) index finger to mute the higher (in pitch) strings. The side of your index finger should rest on the higher strings ‘as if’ you’re doing a barre chord (even though you’re not).
This “technique” is simple to do - it simply takes attention to detail.
Watch this guitar technique video too see a demonstration of controlling excess string noise in your guitar picking technique. - To keep the notes from bleeding together, concentrate on the transition from one note to the next. As you play each note, let it ring its full length (no more and no less)...
… and make sure that each note stops ringing at the exact moment the previous one stops (not a moment before or after). On top of making your playing sound cleaner, it also helps you sync up your guitar picking technique with your fretting hand.
Bonus tip: one very good way to test for string noise is to play very long notes during your guitar practice. Like this:
Set the metronome to a moderate tempo (e.g. 100 bpm) and play long note values, such as quarter notes, half notes and even whole notes.
The benefit of this?
Longer notes make it simple to tell when you either accidentally cut off a note too soon, or let it ring out for way too long (creating bleeding with the next note). It also makes it easier to hear (and focus on) any noise from the strings you’re not playing.
Guitar Practice Tip #3: Minimize Excess Tension
You know how your favorite guitar players (the ones with great guitar picking technique) make their playing look easy?
That’s because their guitar technique is free of excess muscle tension… while the guitar technique of most guitarists (the ones who cannot play guitar fast) is riddled with tension.
How do you make your guitar technique free of excess muscle tension?
Here are 2 effective guitar practice methods for doing just that:
- Use a tension audit. This means: go through your body - one part at a time - and relax it as you play.
Start with your jaw (and the muscle under your tongue) and move on to: your shoulders, arms, stomach, thighs, calves and feet. Play at a slow enough speed that allows you to rotate your focus from one muscle group to another and relax it.
Get used to the feeling of having your guitar technique be free of excess tension… and focus on keeping your body as you play faster.
Here is a video demonstration of tension audit in action (even though the demonstration talks about sweep picking, you can also use it when learning directional picking and all other guitar techniques): - Exhale right before you play guitar fast. One of the common causes of excess muscle tension in your guitar technique is holding your breath. But you can overcome it easily simply by reminding yourself to exhale right before you begin to play guitar fast.
Once this turns into a habit during your guitar practice, you’ll find it easy to stay relaxed when you play all your guitar licks, solos and guitar techniques.
Note: There is time when it’s ok to use more tension in your guitar technique… and that time is: when playing notes with a lot of pick attack and strong dynamics.
It’s ok to use more attack in your picking hand, as long as you: A. relax any extra tension you used when you’re not playing and B. keep the rest of your body relaxed, even when (temporarily) using more tension in your guitar picking technique.
Watch this video to see a demonstration of this:
Question: “But Tom Hess, isn’t it true that directional picking has a softer pick attack than strict alternate picking?”
Answer: No. The opposite is true. Directional picking allows you to have more pick attack when you play guitar fast. That’s because you always move your pick in the direction of the next note (or string) you play in your guitar licks. This efficiency makes it easier to hit the notes with maximum power.
To see a more in-depth explanation of all the reasons why directional picking is superior to alternate picking, see this guitar technique article.
Guitar Practice Tip #4: Refine Your Fretting Hand Technique
Here are the main fretting hand guitar technique elements to focus on when you’re learning to play guitar fast:
- Thumb position. The position of your fretting hand’s thumb impacts your fingers’ accuracy and ability to stretch.
There are 2 thumb positions to focus on. The first one is: having your thumb wrapped around the fretboard (which is good for string bending and vibrato control) ...
The second one is: having the thumb behind the neck of the guitar – allowing for more speed and accuracy when you play guitar fast:
Practice switching between the ‘thumb over’ and ‘thumb behind the neck’ positions to become fluent in both. This fluency will help you integrate your directional picking guitar licks with other guitar techniques smoothly, fluently and fast. - Keep the first knuckle curved when playing your directional picking licks. This helps to use less pressure to fret notes (keeping the muscle tension down in your fretting hand).
- Hand independence. This means: learn to keep your fretting hand relaxed even when picking very aggressively. To train this skill, practice picking through any guitar lick with soft, moderate and strong pick attack (at the same tempo). As you do, focus on keeping your fretting hand relaxed.
If you have a hard time doing this, reduce the number of notes your fretting hand is playing. As your fretting hand independence improves, add more notes to the licks to challenge yourself more.
Guitar Practice Tip #5: Build Guitar Speed Using Speed Bursts
Speed bursts are great for:
1. Challenging your guitar picking technique (forcing it to improve)
2. Getting used to higher tempos, and:
3. Learning to play guitar fast without going the usual guitar practice route of: starting slow and gradually building speed a few beats per minute.
How do speed bursts work exactly?
Set the metronome 10-15 bpm faster than your top speed...
... and play only a short fragment of your guitar lick (e.g. 4-12 notes long).
By playing fewer notes, you make it easy for yourself to get used to the higher tempo and play the short fragment cleanly.
When you do, add more notes to the fragment and continue adding notes until you can play the entire lick up to speed.
Watch this video to see a demonstration of guitar practice using speed bursts:
Now that you know how to practice directional picking to improve your guitar technique (and speed), I want to show you another highly effective guitar practice method that can help you to double your guitar speed, while cutting your guitar practice time in half. Download this free eGuide to learn how and discover the guitar mastery secrets most guitarists will never know.
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