How to Pick Properly Part 2 

Using the Metronome, playing along with the metronome, starting with slowest tempo so you can play in time with no mistakes, may be painfully slow, but this is how to build up speed and be 'trained' to play in tempo fast with no mistakes.

Sir, your lessons are excellent. Like the humble attitude as well. Thanks for sharing this. Kindest, Roby.

This is so very important...when I started playing guitar in 1959 these techniques were never brought up and I had gone thru rock, like the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin etc. Then 2 kids and jazz melody . Now with so many years of bad habits, my new love is Gypsy Jazz and those old habits are destroying my successes and of course I am much older. For those beginning or with few bad habits, learn what this is about and you will thank yourself for it later on

All the work you do for FREE - AMAZING! I have looked at several videos - all great, but your technique of moving right hand, wrist and arm at about 45 degrees is the best for control with my acoustic guitar. Many thanks. (At the moment I'm trying to play that solo in 'Make Me Smile.')

Awsome lersson. Its great you pointed the specific problem with alternate picking when moving up and down between strings and how guys just letting this dictate the direction of the pick screwing up the sequence. No other video on you tube that I seen points out this critical problem.

This is exactly how Scott Taught me. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and knowledge! So so so valueable! :D !!

This video got me playing like I want to play! I was holding the pick in a really counter productive way where I was relying on my arm for speed, now I'm using smaller more accurate faster movements. This way works!

Hi Everyone, Old7StringGuy here. I'm trying to raise some funds to improve the quality of my videos. If you've found any of my vids helpful, could you please consider donating 50 cents to my Indiegogo campaign (link is at the beginning of this video). All proceeds go direct to upgrades (camera, lighting, sound, etc.) Thanks for all your help.

Just wanted to take a second and say thanks for this video. I revisited my picking technique years ago with this and I can definitely say that my speed and precision is levels above where it was in 2011(I'd hope so, being 7 years later). Again, thank you and rock on!

I was just introduced to this concept wjere, instead of 'inching' up your speed, you play the riff or scale or phrase at slow to moderate tempo for a couple of passes and then hit it at double-speed once or twice, back to the original tempo and repeat. Muffed and a bit sloppy at first but cleans up pretty quick depending on the lengtj and complexity. I've alwsys been a hybrid-picker but this concept really works and doverails nicely. Really helpful...

Very nice video, helpful, informative, and thankfully unlike everyone else who are more interested in showing off their skill them teaching. Hope to see more instructional videos, you're a great teacher.

Thanks so much, I just bought my first electric guitar and your lessons are an absolute must for me. I ignored everything about he correct use of a pick so far, and you put me on the highway. Thanks again!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. enjoy watching your videos and learning from them. much appreciated!

thanks for these, they really help. ive been playing for 6 years but ive never been very good, this is definately improving my pick accuracy and speed. thanks again.

Thanks very much for taking the time to help some of us guys learn to pick properly.. I been having trouble pickng for years.. hopefully I can work some of that out with your great instruction

Sir, you are good at teaching. Thank you

Clearly a great TEACHER!...as well as highly skilled guitarist! BRAVO!!! :)

Great. I will be using both your videos.

great with a tutorial on picking, showing a real technique for it. That's what's stopping most people from playing fast and accurate. It's not the lefthand it's the righthand.

Thank you soooo much for your videos. I just started messing around with the guitar about a month ago, so your tips are extremely helpful

Another great lesson!

Thx. for the picking lessons! They are really helpfull to me. So, I very much apreciate what you teach, and NOT least the way that you do it. It's awesome.

you darn metal heads, always using vibrato on every note!

i needed this like a fish needs water THANK YOU

I like economy picking for 3nps patterns but I really like your idea for how to hold the pick. I applied this years ago in my playing when I originally saw your first video

VERY VERY useful info for this beginner rock guitarist. Thank you!!!

Been needing this for a long time, thanks a lot!

Your lessons are clearly stated.....youre the best!!

your videos are incredibly helpful!

Very useful lesson!

i haven't watched youre other videos but ill subscribe just because of that one. it was great lesson. thanks!

Good tips! Cheers from Portugal!

I feel good now. Thx for excellent lesson

Hey man, great insights, great practice tips just awesome. Thanks so much for doing this.

Beginning to undastan the root of problemo....thanks man!!

Thanks dude, alternate picking is my weakest point, these are easy to understand

one of best guitar teachers out there.... That simple!!! Keep em coming mate !!! :D

Absolutely awesome!! thank you :-) a sneak peek on the fun things to come in my learning!

You're a very good teacher dude! Keep it up man!!!!!

Very nice exercises,lessons 1&2. Easy to take in and invaluble for any level of guitar playing. Nice one..

Great lesson, thank you.

straight to the point lesson, clear & usefull, thanks for share

Genius!!! Thanks a lot, greetings from Poland.

u seem like a good guy and a good teacher, props to you! sir!

great lesson

Great stuff! The first video in this series was what I'd been looking for. (Not that I *knew* what I was looking for; I just knew I had trouble with my picking and everything I tried failed.) I had the problem of using just the index against the thumb and my index would pivot a lot. It's always tormented me that although sometimes I play well fast, I've always been *inconsistent.* And I really practiced. But the problem was how I was holding the pick! (Not reinforcing my index finger.) Thanks!

I'm going to try this picking style and see what it does for my playing :) Thanks Sir

I JUST LEARNED TO PICK THE GUITAR. NOW ON TO RYHTYM!

Good job. You explain the example s really well. K

You need to be able to control both hands at the same time. As much as I hate to say it, you may need a metronome. It will help you to stay focused on the timing at any speed. I hated using mine, but it really helped.

Good lesson. Thanks!

I play without a pick so i would just use my thumb on 1 string and my index finger on the other. My thumb would pluck going down & my index would pluck coming back up. I would make sure the distance between my thumb & index finger remained constantly precise so only my wrist action would cause the motion. Being able to physically feel precisely where the strings are allows me to make sure i don't misjudge them.

Nice! Another great teaching! to allways follow the "up, down, up, down" instead of up, down, down up" when switching strings :P

Great videos

Hey J, Well, the next video I'll be showing how to put these shapes into various scales. Sit tight, they'll be coming soon.

Thanks this was helpful.I decided to try my pinkie and ring finger to make the 14 to 16 stretch and found a weakness in finger strength there

Did somebody have open counseling with Paul?? U r SOOOOOOOOOO Lucky Man!!!!!

I'm getting a lot of people asking about strumming. Yes, I will post something soon.

Hey Nuggs I used to do that too. What I had to do was slow down and use a metronome (ugh, i hate those things). It was the only way I could fix it, that way I could just assign a 'click' to each finger. Hope that helps!

ive seen many videos on you tube, many good tips. but your videos are kind of WAY better bro. if i play a wonder shit solo in you tube ill thank it to you

scott... thanks for all the great videos, as well as the lesson yesterday; i really enjoyed it! to everyone else... scott's exercise at 7:55 is great! i have gotten pretty good results so far by doing this all the way up the neck, on all strings, starting slow and advancing 2 bpm per day. moving up slowly 2 bpm at a time barely seems noticeable, but after a month of practice and persistence, you'll have gone up at least 40 bpm :)

Good video. Good tips. Although, as long as you can pick fast, clean, and accurate... the technique can vary greatly. But this looks like a great place to start. Keep up the good picking!

nice lesson tusi great ho I am Indian panjabi I am no English ...you r very nice mann

Great!

Thank you sir.

you can still use eco. picking but practice slow to kee the accent in the time its correspond example. 1', 2, 3, 4 ,1' ,2 ,3 ,4. or if it is more faster. 1';2,3,4,5,6,7,8. more faster 1',2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 and so on. and try to hit with normal strength the weak beats, and exaggerate at first the strong one. (the one with the ' ) practicing alt. picking can be a good warming exercise. So eventually you practice both.

If you were local, i'd definitely want you as my guitar teacher.

I'm a little surprised you didn't give Paul Gilbert any props for the four note exercise "down up down UP down up..." Anytime I teach that technique I refer to the Paul Gilbert video. I saw him do it first back in the early 90s. Not bashing you - these are great videos and I've subscribed.

God bless you sir

Strumming is a bit different - I will be posting some strumming vids soon (I hope).

wow,, this is my first time seeing a 7-strings guitar.. ,, o.O ,, i will surely follow your advice,,

Really nice videos, they have a pretty relaxed feel to them - not right up in your face with an over the top attitude and straight to the points. What I will say is that I don't really pick like you do (position and the way you hold it) but I can shred, however i'm not always consistent - sometimes I have blinding days of pure speed and accuracy then other days it's like I've never picked up a guitar... Is this down to not warming up or should I consider trying to hold the plectrum as you suggested? I tried to hold it like you do and it's just so alien to me and it feels like it's not meant to be, especially only having a little of the plectrum exposed... I know you'd said everyone has little differences, so can it still work by not necessarily using but exposing a lot of the pick? Sorry for such an odd set of questions but it's an odd situation :) thanks again for your videos

THANKS!

@austinfar practice, practice and practice. Don't try to rush, start slowly, you'll eventually get it and then you will be able to play as fast as him.

I'm currently working out of Troy Stetina's book "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar", and, if I'm remembering correctly, one of the things he recommends is setting the guitar height--in relation to your body--to where it doesn't matter if you're standing, sitting, kneeling, laying flat on your back... your guitar is ALWAYS at the same height. It makes perfect sense to me; I don't understand these guys going around with their guitar at their ankles, with their arm fully extended to play... BAD

I use Dunlop Stubbies, the small kind and their thickest gauge. If you're comfortable playing the big stretch with the 1 3 4, please do, that's what Paul Gilbert does.

If you get a chance, come watch my "how to pick properly" (the first one) and it talks about muting. The other thing is make sure the guitar isn't too low when your playing while standing.

Thanks man. Im a amatuer and don't think I will get further than I am. But Your picking ted was new for me and it is difficult to change what y are used to, and when y are 42 like me it is even more difficult. But Y make me wanna try your tech cause what y are saying in y 1 vid about pic tech is totally logic.I already started working on it. So again thank you. Thomas :)

Got the exact same guitar. Color and all.

thanks a lot...

now you need to do a vid on "inside" and "outside" picking and how to incorporate them. Also economy picking too. All of it with the above patterns. Just a suggestion.

@MrOstepop2 Angel your arm like an upside down v and really dig into that string. Scott taught me for two years and he is a fantatsic teacher. This technique is really good for shredding. Once you start getting really good you can change your picking style but this is one of the most consistent ways of pickin :) gl

Yes, unless I'm doing arpeggio-style stuff, I always alternate pick.

NOW ALSO GOT TO PRACTICE THAT WARP TO GOING FROM G TO B AND B TO G. WITH THESE EXERCISES!👈🏿👀

Also good to mention to not let the picking hand palm rest too heavily on the strings if you use a floating bridge as it will throw the strings out of tune. Just my 2 cents.

my dad used to have a 12 string guitar. it was pretty cool :)

mmkay..great video

nice

Really exited t...

very helpful......Thanks.......\m/

u r. very nice guitar player

Picking...a never ending story. First off, thanks for your videos on this topic, I found them both really helpfull and greatly explained. For the most time of my guitar-plaing, I've tried to alternalte pick everything regardless of the string changes, just as you explained. I've made quite some progress, but still far away from your accuracy and speed. However, some years ago, I've stumbled across "directional" picking, which mandates the player to change strings always the same way - down with a down pick, up with an up pick, all in order to eliminate unnesseccary movement (which would also be the way to sweep pick). This improved my guitar playing quite a bit. I know that there are different picking techniques that work equally well. Just wondering what your thoughts on directional picking are. Keep on rocking and educating!

I feel that economy picking is much more efficient. if you're picking three notes on each string anyways, economy picking works much better. down up down down up down down up down..more efficient

dude!i do appreciate your video and its really helpful,but i'm having a hard time with the picking stuff,can you recommend what type of pick to use? i'm using the large one.sorry i'm just newbie when its comes to picking

I think your point about supporting the index finger against the pick with the rest of the fingers might help me out... I've been holding the pick with just the thumb and index finger and the pick feels kind of unstable in my grip as the speed increases. I'll try out your idea, thanks for the video!

okay! learned this sequence, thank you for this. looks like i don't have problem with string skipping-alternating:) again thanks, and waiting for your other videos. as i see there some people as me wanted to know about strumming - how to hold pick properly when strumming, where to place hand to play efficiently. any chances you do that? ;)

love the sound of your amp...what do you use

Hey thank you for the tips i'm deffenetly going to apply them... can you recomend me how to increase the speed alternate picking alternating the strings, in a riff not in a solo

In the first video on proper picking, you talked about being as efficient with your pick movement as you can. I notice that you alternate strokes, even when you skip strings. Wouldn't it be more efficient to stroke down every time you moved down a string and stroke up when moving up a string since that eliminates the need to move over the string and then back to pick it? This is more of a sweep picking pattern, which works well for me, but I'm definitely going to work on what you've taught here.

Good tip MarjinBZut. Though it is comical to see players starting out who just have to mimic Metallica or such and hang it low only to find the excruciating back pain later from the pull down on their lower back.