# Alternate picking technique is killing me.



## pantsaregood (Oct 22, 2015)

I've been playing for a pretty long time at this point, but I've hit a complete brick wall on the whole "getting better" thing. Regardless of the difficulty of the pattern I'm playing, simple alternate picking seems impossible for me to pick up properly.

Just for an example of awful I am with alternate picking, I can play through the solo of Megadeth's "Tornado of Souls" (minus awesome vibrato), but I can't play the main riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" using alternate picking. That's one of the first songs people learn when they pick up a guitar!

Practice with a metronome, gradually increase the speed - I know the drill. The issue is that once speed starts to build up, my pick inevitably begins to slide towards the base of my thumb regardless of how tightly I squeeze it. I've tried Jazz IIIs, standard Ultex picks, and even the carbon fiber Jazz IIIs that are supposed to prevent sliding, but it still occurs. Around the same time this is happening, I also begin to accumulate a ton of tension in my right arm.

Seriously, is there some way I can make myself start fresh with alternate picking technique? I was trying to play some simple Amon Amarth song randomly and realized I couldn't do it because of my inept picking hand. Every time I try to slow down and practice gradually bumping up speed, I hit a brick wall and ultimately want to throw my guitar through my window.

I just want to stop being limited by my picking - it's hard to have fun with guitar any more because of this.


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## OmegaSlayer (Oct 22, 2015)

Reading your post you have 2 problems.
The first, the bigger one is that you squeeze the pick in your hand.
You have to hold the pick lightly, the more you squeeze the pick, the more you tense your hand, the slower you will go, and you will probably even feel pain.
So, relax on that pick, it must be like a butterfly, you'll learn how to pick harder later.
Angle the pick 45% and not parallel on the strings.

Second, you lack stamina, which is something that many people won't tell you.
You have to pick your guitar, unplug it, throw away the metronome for this, put the guitar on your lap and while you read or do something else, just alternate pick on the 6th string like for forever, without thinking about it, speed doesn't matter, you just have to grow stamina on your picking hand.


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 22, 2015)

Go slow to go fast. Just play it at a slower speed and slowly speed it up until you get it up to speed. It works like a charm.

This will also help you in following the above poster's advice. The slower you go the less you'll feel the need to squeeze so hard I think because you'll be more relaxed given the lower, more comfortable speed. The gradual progression of raising the tempo until you hit your target should also aid at least slightly in the building of stamina and you'll also learn to be more relaxed as you go up in speed if you increase it gradually. 

If you're squeezing or tensing, you're trying to go too fast for yourself usually.


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## watson503 (Oct 22, 2015)

> ...I can't play the main riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" using alternate picking. That's one of the first songs people learn when they pick up a guitar!



This issue is simple - the Gods of Metal are simply inhibiting you from committing such a sin as Master of Puppets should be downpicked.


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 22, 2015)

That'll cramp your forearm even faster. But... That *is* how I play it too.


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## Maniacal (Oct 23, 2015)

Good points made so far. 

Make sure you are comfortable holding the pick and the guitar. Before you play anything you should be relaxed - no tension in the shoulders, neck, forearms, hands etc

Gripping the pick is probably the biggest factor I have come across that will restrict speed and make playing inconsistent. I like to drill my picks for even more grip but there are plenty of picks with pretty good grip as standard. Take a close look at how you hold the pick too, although if you don't know what you are looking for this may prove pointless. Just remember to avoid squeezing, rest your hand gently on the bridge of the guitar etc.

Once you have done what OmegaSlayer instructed (playing open strings for hours), add a metronome and see what tempos you can reach with a relaxed playing style. Do this with 16th notes, gallops, down stroked power chords and some basic 3NPS sequences. I suggest you write down these tempos and set yourself realistic short term goals. Construct a 20-30 minute routine that works solely on the endurance and relaxed playing style you require in order to play high speed licks and riffs. 

Drilling Master of Puppets at full speed over and over is not addressing the actual issues and will likely prove to be a waste of time. Even if you manage to play MOP at full speed eventually, the chances are your technique will be full of tension and not applicable to other styles of picking. 

I would argue that if you can play MOP at full speed (214bpm or so), you should be able to alternate pick 16th notes at the same speed (or very close to it) - provided your technique is the same. Therefore, nailing MOP 100% is most likely a long term road to achieving technical control and not something you should even attempt until you hone in on your issues.


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Oct 23, 2015)

I use jazz 3's. Drill a few holes in them. It will keep them from sliding.


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## ncfiala (Oct 23, 2015)

Everyone makes good points. My picking is a mess so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I'm going to say one thing. Almost everyone will tell you to angle the pick 45 degrees or something around that. I have tried to make that work for me but I just can't. With that much of an angle I get a really scratchy tone on the wound strings and on the plain strings the pick doesn't seem to "catch" enough and I get a weak pick attack. I think a lot of people need that huge angle because they have too much pick sticking out. I try to pick with no angle or just a small angle and only have a tiny bit of pick sticking out and I like the sound I get better. Although with such a small amount of pick sticking out you have to be careful your fingers don't touch the strings or you may get unwanted harmonics.

Also, remember what works for one doesn't necessarily work for all. Marty Friedman is proof of that.


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## OmegaSlayer (Oct 26, 2015)

You can avoid to angle the pick at 45 degrees, but then you'll probably slant the pick downward or upward.
Picking exactly parallel to the strings doesn't take you anywhere.
Upward and downward slanting is something that probably after years of playing comes so natural that you don't notice it.
When I saw Troy Grady's vid about the pick slanting I was at work, and was totally mindblown, then I got back home and realized that I already slanted my pick and can't imagine from how long but never even noticed, and I'm 100% self thaught, so no one ever told me, the only thing I was thaught was that I had to pick with the wrist, no thumb or elbow, only wrist, then I played holding the pick with thumb + index and medium and realized that using 3 fingers instead of 2 slowed me down a lot and incredibly gave me less precision, then the angle.
I can say that after 25 years my picking is serviceable, but I think there is so much more I can learn, not only to go fast, but to play effortlessly, and will probably only discover them myself.

Anyway...the biggest point is not playing fast, it's playing effortlessly, and it's something you'll get only with growing stamina and with a metronome.

You can go to Maniacal's youtube channel and do his 5 minutes warm up.
Now through youtube you can slow them down or speed them up, but they really work great.
When you master them you can spice them up.


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## Lasik124 (Oct 29, 2015)

Everyone here has really great and in depth advice! 

So I'll just add my small two cents and small tip.

I've tried(And still do) hundreds of picks!

Every time I find a new one I like and learn a new trick by embracing the way each pick interacts with my guitar.

I've had major breakthroughs by trying picks I thought I'd never like.

I used Jazz III's for years for before this adventure. I can't even begin to explain how much my technique improved when I switched to a medium pick. Oddly, I came back to heavier picks after almost a full year of the switch. But in that year, I learned a lot.

Best of luck


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## TedEH (Oct 29, 2015)

Lasik124 said:


> I've had major breakthroughs by trying picks I thought I'd never like. [...] my technique improved when I switched to a medium pick. Oddly, I came back to heavier picks



I'll add that even though everyone and their cousins and their sisters and their aunts seem to use Jazz III and/or bajillion-mm-sized picks doesn't mean you have to do that. You don't "need" thick picks- it's entirely a preference thing. I use a .58 for anything on guitar and .88 for bass, and while the technique is a little different, it works great for me.


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## jsl2h90 (Nov 23, 2015)

I would suggest practicing awareness in your practicing. As soon as you notice any tension in your body whatsoever, or trouble breathing, tightening of grip etc, be mindful of it and slow the pace until everything you're doing becomes totally relaxed. The goal of any effective practice routine is to make everything feel effortless. Rick Graham said this and he's the perfect example: if you ever watch him play he's not breathing hard or tensing up at all. It's not because he's genetically superior to any of us, he's consciously worked on practicing effortlessly until it's become second nature. 

Mindful awareness is key.


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## Watons (Dec 1, 2015)

don't know if it's been mentioned, but check out Troy Grady's channel, he's done by far the most extensive and detailed analysis on picking I've ever seen, it definetly helped me a lot to get past that brick wall you're describing


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## Nomad (Feb 16, 2016)

In my experience economy picking has worked out better in practice than attempting to adhere to strict alternate picking, _especially_ when it comes to crossing strings. Practising alternate picking obviously has its benefits, but IMHO being strict about it requires too much thought to analyze and slow you down. Basically it can feel unnatural, and you should use the technique that feels most natural to you -- and sounds good of course! 

With strict alternate picking it's sometimes claimed that you don't then need to memorize a picking pattern for each riff (since its always up/down) but that's not realistic. There's different techniques like sweep picking and using only downstrokes (for tonality) so really if you're gonna play something a lot of times it's better to develop the most efficient/natural to you way of playing it.

Angling the pick gives a crappy tone when alternate picking. Instead of angling, try to minimize the contact b/w the pick and string. Your goal should be to have your upstrokes sound exactly equal to your downstrokes. So that, for example, one could play MOP using alternate picking and sound equivalent to it played using only downstrokes (why torture yourself??)


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## Simic (Feb 16, 2016)

Am I the only one that feels like the main riff to the MOP should be economy picked rather than alternate picked? I can play it with ease with economy but really struggle when alternating, it just feels awkward, too much movement in the right hand. 

I, for one only practice alternate picking on 1 string, when changing strings I always try to go with economy, I feel like it's the superior technique since it allows you to be faster and it's easier as well (once you start to get a feeling for it). 

Also, this:


Nomad said:


> Your goal should be to have your upstrokes sound exactly equal to your downstrokes. So that, for example, one could play MOP using alternate picking and sound equivalent to it played using only downstrokes


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## Mathemagician (Feb 16, 2016)

7 Strings of Hate said:


> I use jazz 3's. Drill a few holes in them. It will keep them from sliding.



I've heard this before. How does drilling holes in picks prevent them from sliding? Any specific drill bit size? The carbon fiber dunlops aren't bad but still slide on me. After adjusting my picking technique for the 3rd time since learning to play, this is my only issue now.


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## Nomad (Feb 17, 2016)

Simic said:


> Am I the only one that feels like the main riff to the MOP should be economy picked rather than alternate picked? I can play it with ease with economy but really struggle when alternating, it just feels awkward, too much movement in the right hand.




With alternate picking you're usually talking about 1 note and no chords. The main riff to MOP is similiar to Slayer, Sepultura, etc in that its mostly alternative picking but does include some chords, so you simply can't do strict alternate picking all the time because you want to hit the chords with a downstoke, to stand out. For other parts economy picking (AKA sweep picking) feels a lot more natural when crossing 2+ strings in succession than forcing the strict alternate. I don't know; I still think its better to practice each small part individually using whatever technique you like the most, and then connect them together.


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## Simic (Feb 17, 2016)

Forget about the chords, what I'm trying to say is it feels more natural to economy pick string changes and I feel like it's worth practicing that over parcticing those same riffs with strict alternate picking. 
I play the main riff to MOP like this (starting with an downstroke);
down up down(A string) up down down(A string) up down down(A string) up down down(A string) up down down+up(A string)


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## Nomad (Feb 17, 2016)

Just to make sure we're on the same page, the "main riff" of MOP
we're talking about is


```
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------4------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------4------|
|-----2-----3-----4-----3-----2-2-----2-----3-----4-----3-----2------|
|-0-1---0-1---0-1---0-1---0-1-----0-1---0-1---0-1---0-1---0-1--------|
```

Which I do play w/ alternate picking in this case. EDIT: If you start this riff w/ a downstroke I'm not seeing any benefit to employ "economy" picking here.

Or are you talking about this riff?


```
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------7---6---5---------------------------------------|
|--------------------7---6---5---------------------------------------|
|-----7-----6--------5---4---3---------------------------------------|
|-0-0---0-0---0-0---------------------0-0-7-0-0-6-0-0-5-0-4-0-3-0-2--|
```

Which I would play with all downstrokes & a some pull-offs... EDIT: Alternate picking for the first part, then downstrokes for the chords, then a combination of alternate picking and pull offs.


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## Simic (Feb 17, 2016)

Yeah, we're talking about the same riff;

```
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------4------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------4------|
|-----2-----3-----4-----3-----2-2-----2-----3-----4-----3-----2------|
|-0-1---0-1---0-1---0-1---0-1-----0-1---0-1---0-1---0-1---0-1--------|
```

The way I feel one should practice it to achieve maximum speed is;
down up down up down down up down down up down down up down down up up down down up down down up down down up down down up down down(B power chord)...


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## Nomad (Feb 17, 2016)

Yeah, I see it now. You are advocating a "strict economy" approach? I can see the logic of it but for me personally this doesn't work out practically because I am able to play the line already using alternate picking and am too lazy to re-learn my muscle memory.


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## Simic (Feb 17, 2016)

Yeah, I have the same problem. Riffs like this and many other from metallica/trivium who are heavy downpickers are IMO best played with economy, but 3 string runs and stuf like that, I still use alternate, because thats the way I learned it in the first place. But I'm trying to re-learn anyway


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## Spicypickles (Mar 22, 2016)

Those should all be downpicked. That's how they are played by the dudes that wrote it. That's how I play them.


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## InCasinoOut (Mar 22, 2016)

Watons said:


> don't know if it's been mentioned, but check out Troy Grady's channel, he's done by far the most extensive and detailed analysis on picking I've ever seen, it definetly helped me a lot to get past that brick wall you're describing



YES! This video in particular was a big breakthrough for me in increasing picking hand efficiency, and he explains perfectly why it works the way it does. Troy does amazing work in breaking down minuscule changes to technique that translate into bigger improvements in playing, especially in shredding where disciplined technique is paramount to accurate and clean playing. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TnddE2k598


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## HumanFuseBen (Mar 23, 2016)

For alternate picking, i'll second what someone else mentioned... Troy Grady's Cracking the Code Youtube series. Its religion.


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## InCasinoOut (Mar 24, 2016)

HumanFuseBen said:


> For alternate picking, i'll second what someone else mentioned... Troy Grady's Cracking the Code Youtube series. Its religion.



I've watched quite a bit of season 2 multiple times for the breakdown of specific mechanics, but have just been delving into the more entertaining documentary style of season 1 lately. The information he unlocks is almost like having a magician (_illusions_, Michael) explain exactly how he pulls off his entire bag of tricks. We get to skip over the entire mystery of why things get so much harder to play cleanly once you start really ramping up the bpm.


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## extendedsolo (Mar 24, 2016)

seems relevant to the discussion in this thread


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## mdeeRocks (Mar 26, 2016)

Konfyouzd said:


> Go slow to go fast. Just play it at a slower speed and slowly speed it up until you get it up to speed. It works like a charm.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> If you're squeezing or tensing, you're trying to go too fast for yourself usually.



Playing always slow will teach you how to play slow. Technique changes so much at high speeds that you need to know how it feels to play fast before you can practice it - some people randomly get this from the start, most people struggle with metronome at about 110 bpm then nothing. Practicing at intermediate tempos using slow playing technique will not help when speeding up to blazing ones.

Very good point on tension though.

I'd do 2 things.

Forget about alternate picking for about 3-4 weeks (or longer if you need). Can you play funk? le Freak by Chic, so Daft Punk riffs. Here is a lesson to start you out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAQOqrj9-zI

Can you play this while being completely, totally loose, no looking at the neck etc. at about 100 bpm? Keep time. Example in the lesson at 5:57

If you can't then practice this. Believe me or not it will help you tremendously with alt picking.

As soon as you feel you are 100% loose, pick your favourite legato lick you can play really well, on one string and try to alt pick it very fast, a good approach to try this is to play it a couple fo bars at moderate tempo then burst it for a couple of times, then get back to moderate tempo, repeat. If it feels tense, uncomfortable etc. get back to funk. If it does feel and sound good even for a second, remember that moment, slow it down and clean it up but use the same technique which felt good at high speeds - the hard part is to find out that feeling, you will know when it happens. Make sure you can play it very quietly and control dynamics then move on to 2 strings and beyond.
First and foremost it must feel and sound good.


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## Cameron French (Mar 27, 2016)

extendedsolo said:


> seems relevant to the discussion in this thread



DO PEOPLE ACTUALLY DO THIS!? Maybe I've never spent enough time in Guitar Center.


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## Pyramid Gallery (May 15, 2016)

Ive struggled with speed picking in general for years, and the only
thing that seems to work for me is doing small bursts of speed. 
No, no, no, im not talking about chopping my breakfast on a
mirror. 
I have no problems doing 16th notes up to about 180bpm, then
i fall apart. After warming up for an hour or whatever, i put the
metronome to 220-260 and do mostly 1/4 & 1/8 notes but i can hit
the 16ths every now and then. Now all i have to do is connect the dots,
meaning get a seamless transition between the slow stamina and 
the hyper insanity...


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## Supernaut (May 16, 2016)

Learn the paul gilbert lick.

It's literally the fastest way to get comfortable with the REAL stumbling block in alternate picking, which is an upstroke on an descending outside picking run, and visa versa. If the motion feels completely alien to you at first, you know you're on your way.

Master outside picking and you can alternate pick over multiple strings and not be locked into 3 note per string patterns, ala Al Di Meola, Paul Gilbert etc.


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## MajorTom (May 19, 2016)

Here you go, MajorTom's advanced alternative picking exercise, what you will need and want to do is play it with a metronome, each note is one beat, start slow, and aim to increase your speed by around 10bpm per day, so I would start at a nice round 100bpm, 'D' means down pick, 'U' means up pick '/' means slide, I wrote this years ago, and still use it everyday myself to practice alternative picking, I use it to teach students alternative picking and advanced alternative picking, hell I even use it quite often in my solos, or parts of it in my solos:

It's in standard tuning

1E-------------------------------------------------------7-5-4-5-/-12-10-9-10
2B----------------------------------------------8-7-6-7------------------------
3G-------------------------------------9-7-6-7--------------------------------
4D-----------------------------9-7-6-7----------------------------------------
5A--------------------10-9-8-9--------------------------------------------------
6E-10-10-12-10--9-10-----------------------------------------------------------
----D--U--D--U--D--U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-/---D-U-D

*©MajorTom/J.Scratch*

Even though I came up with this phrase years ago, I still play it dozens of times every morning as a way to practice alternative picking, and it wasn't actually written as an alternative picking exercise, I wrote the phrase as part of a solo, it just happens to work out as a really good exercise for alternative picking, there is more to it, let me know if you want me to TAB out the rest of it for you.

I'm actually quite proud of this phrase to be honest, it has served me well over the years, both for gigging and solos, but also for teaching as a teaching tool for both solo writing, improvising, and alternative picking as well as advanced alternative picking. The real trick to getting the full practice potential from this phrase is to practice it to a metronome, with each note representing one beat, and to aim to increase your speed by roughly 10bpm per day, don't get upset if you can't increase your speed by 10bpm per day, the main thing is to be able to play it properly using alternative picking techniques, and then work on speeding up, accuracy and technique is your first priority, speed is secondary and will come naturally once you nail and get your accuracy and technique up to par.

I can't guarantee that it will make your manhood any bigger or improve your chances with the ladies, I can however assure you that it will seriously help you with your alternative picking technique.


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## Supernaut (May 20, 2016)

Looks like a good exercise but when switching strings, say the low E to A, does he begin that string with an upstroke? That kind of motion is basically what needs to be drilled for most people when learning alternate picking.

Normally it's more useful to have an uneven number of notes on the first string of your exercise, then when you change, you're forced into an outside picking motion. 

Example: (Bstring) down - up - down (Estring) Up - down - Up

Your exercise seems to have even note patterns, which would make it ergonomic to play, which is fantastic for building speed, but won't prepare someone for uneven note patterns.

Not a criticism of your exercise of course, just pointing out something that's often overlooked.


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## MajorTom (May 21, 2016)

Supernaut said:


> Looks like a good exercise but when switching strings, say the low E to A, does he begin that string with an upstroke? That kind of motion is basically what needs to be drilled for most people when learning alternate picking.
> 
> Normally it's more useful to have an uneven number of notes on the first string of your exercise, then when you change, you're forced into an outside picking motion.
> 
> ...





The first note on the sixth string is a down stroke/down pick and the last note on the sixth string is played with an up stroke/up pick
The first note on the fifth string is a down stroke/down pick and the last note on the fifth string is played with an up stroke/up pick
The first note on the fourth string is a down stroke/down pick and the last note on the fourth string is played with an up stroke/up pick
The first note on the third string is a down stroke/down pick and the last note on the third string is played with an up stroke/up pick
The first note on the second string is a down stroke/down pick and the last note on the second string is played with an up stroke/up pick
The first note on the first string is a down stroke/down pick and the last note on the first string is played with an up stroke/up pick

From the section of the solo that I did TAB out the first note on every string is a down stroke/down pick, and last note that is played on each string, are all up strokes/up picks. I have never actually noticed that before, nor thought of it nor looked at it like that before until you had mentioned it in your post. With the rest of what I would consider to be the 'alternative picking section' - what hasn't been TAB'd out, that follows the same picking pattern as well, that's actually pretty interesting and cool to find out, it wasn't something that I was conscious of of or trying to achieve when I wrote the solo, thanks for pointing it out to me.

I don't know if I would go so far as to call it even patterned though, from the section of the solo that I TAB'd out:



There are six notes played on the sixth string
There are four notes played on the fifth string
There are four notes played on the fourth string
There are four notes played on the third string
There are four notes played on the second string
There are eight notes played on the first string


I would say that there is an even number of notes played on each string from the section of the solo that I TAB'd out, though once the rest of that section is added the note count changes quite a lot, it doubles it, if not a little over doubles the number of notes, not to mention that there are slides, in both the section that was TAB'd out, and the section that wasn't TAB'd , again this wasn't something that I consciously set out to achieve when I wrote the solo, it wasn't one of my goals.

Now I'm going to go through a bunch of solos that I've written over the years, and see if they have some of the picking patterns and other patterns and characteristics to them that you have pointed out to me


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## wannabguitarist (May 27, 2016)

Simic said:


> Yeah, we're talking about the same riff;
> 
> ```
> |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
> ...



I always find the switching between inside and outside on riffs like this surprisingly tough. I can hit all the notes but the sound isn't consistent so the riff just doesn't sound right (I used to play this riff, and others DDU). Maniacal's book and Troy Grady's videos helped a lot.


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## MrWulf (May 27, 2016)

Talk about alternate picking, where do you anchor your hand to dig in? I tend to rest my hand on the Floyd, and I know MAB like to anchor his hand with his fingers next to the treble of the strings, but what's your preference?


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## redstone (May 27, 2016)

MrWulf said:


> Talk about alternate picking, where do you anchor your hand to dig in? I tend to rest my hand on the Floyd, and I know MAB like to anchor his hand with his fingers next to the treble of the strings, but what's your preference?



Different combinations of movements call for different anchoring. It's rarely a matter of preference but a matter of technique. Some techniques allow to anchor with the full edge of the hand, or just its base, or the base of the thumb. Changing the anchor generally changes the available motions (not always).


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## OmegaSlayer (May 27, 2016)

What redstone said.
There isn't a way to anchor.
Maybe you just won't even found anchoring comfortable.


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## MrWulf (May 27, 2016)

I mainly alternate pick with my wrist, and I rest my full edge of the hand on the floyd allow me to get pretty fast with it. But the problem is that it is pretty close to the string so I often get scared of palm muting the string easily. So far I've not done it, but still


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## OmegaSlayer (May 27, 2016)

MrWulf said:


> I mainly alternate pick with my wrist, and I rest my full edge of the hand on the floyd allow me to get pretty fast with it. But the problem is that it is pretty close to the string so I often get scared of palm muting the string easily. So far I've not done it, but still



Actually the more you get scared of muting, the more you will tense and will go on the strings.
Unless you mute them heavily, what's the fear of muting strings?


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## Vladissonance (May 30, 2016)

pantsaregood said:


> I've been playing for a pretty long time at this point, but I've hit a complete brick wall on the whole "getting better" thing. Regardless of the difficulty of the pattern I'm playing, simple alternate picking seems impossible for me to pick up properly.
> 
> Just for an example of awful I am with alternate picking, I can play through the solo of Megadeth's "Tornado of Souls" (minus awesome vibrato), but I can't play the main riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" using alternate picking. That's one of the first songs people learn when they pick up a guitar!
> 
> ...



alternate picking comes easy to me. never learned any metallina or amon amarth songs...some good exercises you'll find in Frank Gambale's "chop builder" https://vk.com/doc-9023155_132021708?dl=cc2de92117796ecf30


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## raytsh (Jun 1, 2016)

mdeeRocks said:


> Playing always slow will teach you how to play slow. Technique changes so much at high speeds that you need to know how it feels to play fast before you can practice it - some people randomly get this from the start, most people struggle with metronome at about 110 bpm then nothing. Practicing at intermediate tempos using slow playing technique will not help when speeding up to blazing ones.
> 
> [...]



That's a valid point. Playing fast totally changes for me at a certain threshold. It feels like it's not even the same technique anymore; one has to be way more movement efficient at a certain speed and this can't be learned by playing slow and controlled. That said, maybe one has to give up a certain amount of control.  I mean by that for instance: at certain speeds I can't think as fast as I'm playing regarding single picks. I then think in groups of 4 for instance.


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## P-Ride (Jun 1, 2016)

From your description, you sound too tense. I try and relax as much as possible before playing and keep a clear mind. Keeping physically fit and meditating are both helpful.

Whenever I get stressed in any way with my playing, I take a break and stretch while working on breathing exercises. This is really important.

When boxing, you move better and strike harder when very relaxed. I find your guitar playing is improved like this too.


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## mdeeRocks (Jun 7, 2016)

raytsh said:


> That's a valid point. Playing fast totally changes for me at a certain threshold. It feels like it's not even the same technique anymore; one has to be way more movement efficient at a certain speed and this can't be learned by playing slow and controlled. That said, maybe one has to give up a certain amount of control.  I mean by that for instance: at certain speeds I can't think as fast as I'm playing regarding single picks. I then think in groups of 4 for instance.



Yeah, group of 4, groups of 6. Playing a fast triplet/sextuplet pattern feels more like playing every 6th note.

By the way I am not saying play as fast as possible without paying attention to accuracy all the time. Quite the opposite, just try a burst of 2 - just to get the feeling then slow down. Playing at too high speed all the time can possibly embed a lot of tension into one's technique (to the extent that it feels "natural") and this is bad - you can hurt yourself, don't ask me how do I know that.

Being relaxed is paramount - hence I recommend funk riffs, they will not only teach how to stay relaxed, but also how to play various accents (on 2 or 3, triplets etc.) and groups. I really encourage people to try it - it really works.

One more thing, with time, "fast" technique tends to trickle down to moderate tempos.


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