Boost Your Guitar Picking Speed – Fast Guitar Picking Speed
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In this article I show you how to pick faster on guitar, without:
– moving your fingers (or the pick) faster than you do right now.
(After you do what I'm about to show you, you'll likely pick faster while moving your fingers and pick a lot less.)
– practicing for hours every day
(I'll show you how to boost your guitar picking speed even if you practice less than 1 hour per day)
– playing any magic guitar picking exercises
As you'll see…
It's very possible to build serious guitar speed, break through guitar picking speed plateaus and play guitar faster without changing what you practice.
All that needs to change is:
- How you practice, and
- What you focus on
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.
To show you what I mean…
Check out this guitar picking speed video where I show you simple ways to overcome guitar speed challenges (without practicing more or moving your hands faster):
Now, let's go deeper.
Here are 5 more very simple ways to boost guitar picking speed and pick fast on guitar:
Tip #1 For Boosting Guitar Picking Speed: Use Directional Picking
One of the best ways to learn to pick faster on guitar and improve your guitar speed is to use directional picking.
What's directional picking?
It's where you always pick in the direction of the next note. Like this: when you pick on a single string, you do alternate picking. (Because every pick stroke goes in the direction of the next note.)
When you change strings towards a higher (thinner) string, always change strings with a downstroke.
When you change strings towards a lower (thicker) string, always change strings with an upstroke.
Sometimes this means you'll be able to sweep pick (on some of the string changes in your guitar picking licks). This enables you to pick with maximum efficiency and build a lot more guitar speed in less time.
Watch this video to see how to practice directional picking the right way:
Question: "But Tom Hess, why use directional picking when most of the famous guitar players use alternate picking?"
Answer: The fact that many guitar players use alternate picking does not prove that alternate picking is a superior technique. It only means the technique is more popular. I've laid out a case for why I believe directional picking is the better alternative to alternate picking in this guitar technique article.
Besides, many great guitar players (the ones who can play guitar fast and have great guitar picking technique) are great in spite of their technique, not because of it.
It's very possible to pick faster on guitar using alternate picking as well as directional picking… the question is: how much time and effort you want to spend reaching your guitar picking goals.
And directional picking makes it possible to pick faster on guitar in far less time than alternate picking does.
Question: "But Tom Hess, what if I want to practice both: directional picking and alternate picking and get good at both?"
Answer: Directional picking (i.e. moving the pick in the most direct path towards the next note) "does" allow you to practice both. When you practice your guitar speed picking licks, you use alternate picking when it is the most direct way to get to the next note you want to play. (e.g. While playing pentatonic scale 2-note-per-string guitar speed licks.)
But when you can sweep pick to go directly to the next note in your guitar lick, you do so – taking full advantage of directional picking. The result is: the most efficient guitar picking technique that makes it much easier to play guitar fast than strict alternate picking does.
Question: "But Tom Hess, doesn't directional picking give you a lighter pick attack?"
Answer: No. Lighter pick attack comes from the guitar player playing the notes, not from the technique.
The guitar player picking the notes controls the pick attack – not the technique being used.
If you want to master guitar picking technique, then you need to practice developing your pick attack (on top of raw guitar speed).
This guitar technique video shows how to best practice your pick attack, so you can pick faster on guitar and sound great when you do it.
Tip #2 For Boosting Guitar Picking Speed: Intelligently Combine Slow Guitar Practice and Fast Guitar Practice
Many guitar players think that in order to pick faster on guitar, you have to do a lot of slow practice first.
Others say: "slow practice doesn't work", or that it's "outdated". Those teachers suggest pushing yourself to play faster than you're currently able to and clean up your (sloppy) guitar picking at the faster tempo.
The truth?
Both are wrong and right at the same time.
There is a time and place for both slow practice and fast practice.
As far as calling slow practice ‘outdated’?
I bet any teacher who says this has never heard a student stutter through a noisy, gargling mess of half-choked “notes” - completely oblivious to how bad they’re sounding - and then ask (with a straight face): “How do I play this even faster?”
Good luck helping someone like that by telling them to “push themselves beyond their top speed”.
Watch this video to see just how slowly you might sometimes practice to clean up sloppy guitar picking technique:
(This kind of slow practice helps you not only build more guitar speed, but also to sound great when you pick fast on guitar.)
But on the flipside…
You sometimes DO need to push yourself out of your comfort zone to become more comfortable with higher tempos and fix mistakes that 'only' happen when you try to pick faster on guitar.
Speed bursts can help you there.
On top of being a fantastic way to break through guitar picking speed barriers, speed bursts also help you create cool guitar licks (so you sound expressive and creative when you play guitar fast).
Watch this guitar video lesson on speed bursts to learn how to use them when you practice guitar:
Tip #3 For Boosting Guitar Picking Speed: Relax Excess Tension
Excess muscle tension wrecks your ability to play guitar fast.
When your body is tense, your hands struggle to play the notes cleanly and in time. Plus, you build a lot of fatigue in your body that limits how long you can play before you have to stop.
(And, in worst-case scenarios, tension can lead to hand injuries.)
Here are some proven ways to deal with excess muscle tension that help you to pick faster on guitar.
Idea 1: Do a “tension audit.”
As you play, mentally scan through your body and relax any areas that feel tight.
Start with your jaw and neck, then check your shoulders, arms, stomach, and even your legs and feet.
You’ll be surprised how much tension builds up in places that have nothing to do with your hands.
This guitar practice video shows you how to do a tension audit as you’re practicing to pick faster on guitar.
Follow the steps in it as you practice guitar:
Idea 2: Rotate your focus during your guitar practice.
Don’t try to relax every part of your body at the same time. Choose one area to focus on and then rotate to another one.
For example: Spend one minute relaxing your jaw. Then switch to your picking hand grip. Then your stomach… then your thighs, then your calves and feet. This is called focus rotation, and it makes the process much easier and more effective.
Watch this video to see an in-depth demonstration of focus rotation:
Idea 3: Exhale before you begin to play a fast guitar lick.
This simple trick helps to avoid tension levels spiking up (as they often do when you are about to play something fast or difficult) and helps you make fewer mistakes when you increase your guitar speed.
Tip #4 For Boosting Guitar Picking Speed: Work On 2-Hand Synchronization
One of the keys to building guitar speed is making sure the notes sound clean when you play guitar fast. This brings us to 2-hand synchronization.
Here are some of the best ways to get your hands in sync as you increase your guitar picking speed:
– use double picking: pick every note you fret in your guitar picking lick two times. This temporarily makes your synchronization feel harder, but helps you sound much better when you go back to picking every note once.
– single-string picking: this exposes your 2-hand sync issues much more than vertical scale sequences (that you play from the 6th string to the 1st string).
The reason is: when you change strings, you get to reset your synchronization in a way you're not able to do when moving horizontally up one string. And the more obvious your 2-hand synchronization errors are, the easier it is to fix them.
– play unplugged: similar to single-string picking, playing this way exposes pick attack and synchronization issues and makes it easier to focus on (and improve) them.
– use a stiff pick (at least 1.0mm): if your pick flexes when you pick through the string, it takes a moment for it to reset. This moment of reset gets in the way of your synchronization (especially as your speed increases). Using a stiff pick solves this problem.
– accent the first note of every beat of your scale sequences. This is quite a bit harder to do than it sounds (so, slow down the metronome tempo appropriately when working on this skill). But this kind of practicing makes it easier to keep the hands in sync on longer guitar picking runs.
(As an extension of the previous idea: switch between triplets and 16th notes when playing your guitar picking licks. Play a 16th note lick as triplets and play triplet licks as 16th notes.)
Watch this video to see even more effective ways to practice 2-hand synchronization:
Tip #5 For Boosting Guitar Picking Speed: Integrate Guitar Techniques Together
One of the best ways to make your fast guitar picking technique usable in real-life playing is to practice connecting guitar techniques together.
Choose any 2 guitar techniques and create a guitar lick where you have to switch between them smoothly, cleanly and in time.
Then find the top metronome speed where you can easily integrate the two techniques. Gradually increase the speed until you're playing the new lick at the speed you desire.
Watch this video to see how to practice guitar technique integration:
Now that you've learned how to pick faster on guitar, I want to help you transform the rest of your playing and help you play guitar the way you've always imagined and dreamed about. I show you how in my personalized Breakthrough Guitar Lessons online. Here is how it works: first, you tell me everything about your guitar playing, your musical skill level and your goals. Next, I create a personalized guitar lesson strategy (and lesson materials) specifically for you.
Then, you practice the lessons while I give you a ton of support, feedback and guidance every step of the way to help you master the lessons and become the guitarist you want to be lightning fast.
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