Alternate Picking/Speed Exercises

If you find yourself having trouble with basic alternate picking these exercises should help. Once you have alternate picking down, you can use these same exact exercises to gain speed and accuracy in your playing. They are great for beginners and great for advanced guitar players because you always gain from these exercises. Most guitar players who have fantastic speed swear by these alternate picking exercises and still endorse them today.

In the first exercise your right hand uses strict alternate picking. Up, down, up, down exclusively. The left hand uses its four fingers to fret four adjacent frets one after the other. You then move on to the next string. Start slow at a very comfortable speed. For example.

Once you reach the Low E string, move the pattern up one fret and repeat, this time playing from the Low E string to the High E string. Once you reach the High E string, you repeat once again moving up one fret and playing back down to the Low E string. For example.

Some Tips

• - Start this exercise slow. You want to be able to do this exercise perfect and you can only do it perfect if you start slow at a comfortable pace.
  - Always start this exercise on the high E string moving down to the Low E string.
  - This exercise is played in four, with four notes per string. Every four begins with a downstroke. Thus every time you change strings, you should begin with a downstroke. This should help in keeping time.
  - No background noise. You must mute all unwanted noise. No strings should be buzzing in the background. The only thing you should hear is the note you intended to play. Another reason why it's important to start slow.
  - Play this exercise on both a clean amp setting and distortion/overdrive.

How To Gain Insane Speed

Take your time and digest the information above. You should now know how to play the alternate picking exercise, but you don't know how to use it.

The first thing to do is find out what speed you can play at without making any mistakes, which should be a slow tempo. From working on the alternate picking exercise already you should probably have an idea of how slow that is. The next step is to slowly increase your speed. After increasing the speed play it again. If you play it well, increase the speed again. However, if you play it poorly, back off on the speed and try again at a slower tempo.

By using the alternate picking exercise in this manner, you will notice that gradually over time you will find alternate picking easier to play, with no mistakes, at a fast tempo and your overall guitar playing will improve in technique, accuracy and speed (after all, its the desire for speed why most guitarists use this exercise).

Some More Tips

• - Use a metronome when practicing. That metronome could be a simple click or even a drum machine. But the important thing is to be able to keep track of your speed. Without a metronome you can only guess speed (slow, medium, fast). But with a metronome you can dial in the exact speed you want or want to reach. Even a small change on the metronome, for example a change of 120bpm to 125bpm can be a big learning curve and a confidance booster, but without a metronome you wont be able to distinguish between/replicate the two tempos unless you have a highly trained ear (and people with highly trained ears usually already know the importance of practicing with a metronome).
  - Gradually increase your tempo. Make small adjustments from one speed to the next, playing the exercise correctly. A large tempo change when you are not ready often leads to sloppy alternate picking.
  - A tempo change greater then 10bpm is probably to much, especially at a tempo thats already fast.

By following these guidelines, your alternate picking should improve considerably, playing with incredible speed all while still playing clean with proper technique. It will take time to develop, but this exercise is proven to work.