Six Strings
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Advanced · step 4 · Not started

Strict alternate picking and speed

You don’t build speed by playing fast, but by playing clean, faster and faster. With a steady motion and a metronome, it comes on its own. Goal: clean sixteenth notes at 100 with strict alternate picking.

Time
10 minutes a day for several weeks
Before you start
An arpeggio solo
You’ll be able to
Play sixteenth notes at 100 with strict alternate picking

The rule

Down on the beats and the “ands”, up on the “e”s and the “a”s. Every note, one direction, always alternating, even when you change strings. The pick makes the same motion as your strumming hand in rhythm playing, just tiny.

On acoustic guitar

On an acoustic guitar, the higher string tension calls for a slightly thicker pick (0.7 to 1 mm) and an even smaller motion. If you play fingerstyle, alternation exists too: index, middle, index, middle, never repeating the same finger.

The +5 BPM method

  1. Find your clean tempo: the one where you play the exercise for a minute with no mistakes at all, relaxed. Write it down.
  2. Add 5 BPM. If you play a clean minute, write down this new tempo. If not, go back to the previous one.
  3. No more than three steps per session. The next day, start again 10 BPM below your record: speed sets in while you rest.

A mistake is a note that doesn’t ring, a note that’s early or late, or tension in your shoulder. Play while watching your picking hand in a mirror.

The exercise: the pentatonic in fours

Four notes, then start again one note further: 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5… in position 1 of the A minor pentatonic. Changing strings in the middle of a group forces the pick to stay strict.

e|---------------------------------------------------------------5-----5-8-|
B|-----------------------------------------------5-----5-8---5-8---5-8-----|
G|-------------------------------5-----5-7---5-7---5-7-----7---------------|
D|---------------5-----5-7---5-7---5-7-----7-------------------------------|
A|-----5-7---5-7---5-7-----7-----------------------------------------------|
E|-5-8-----8---------------------------------------------------------------|

The player plays one note per eighth note: for sixteenth notes at 60, set it to 120; for sixteenth notes at 100, to 200.

The pitfalls

  • Your arm tensing up as you speed up. Stop, shake out your hand, drop back 10 BPM.
  • Your fretting hand lagging. It needs to place the finger just before the pick strikes. Work the hands separately if needed: picking hand on an open string, fretting hand alone in hammer-ons.
  • Skipping steps. Going from 80 to 100 in one day is learning to play sloppy at 100.

You’ve got it when…