How to pick properly. This really works!!! 

It's always the old RU-vid videos from like 14 15 years ago that give the best advice

Got used to holding my pick this way in less than two hours. My speed has increased, my forearm gets fatigued far less quickly, and I'm overall more consistent at playing. All because of one simple adjustment. Unfrigginbelievable

tony hawk is giving me tips on guitar awesome !

11 years later and still the most informative video here on RU-vid! He’ll of guitarists you are🙂

Appreciate your intelligent delivery. No BS, no filler. Great lesson.

There are a few udder things that set us apart from cows.

this literally made my speed and precision almost double

Makes total sense...just kind of hard to adapt when you've been picking in a different way for years and years.

I was looking up something else and this was in the related. I've been playing for over 6 years and this makes my hand feel a lot more free than what ive been doing. Never thought about altering my picking style before now.

being a selftaught guitar player, this is exactly how I pick, and every video keeps telling me it's wrong. I feel the same way about every point you made in the video, and this inspired me to keep learning my own way. Thank you!

Definitely one of the most helpful guitar videos i have watched to date

ah crap, fifteen years in and a lifetime still away from the level I'd always hoped to achieve in terms of speed, and this dude just casually and accurately points out every flaw of my picking technique and now I get to start over, well thanks. really you made my day. but seriously though could you not have made more effort to search me out and save me fifteen years of destructive technique? ain't that what you omniscient oracle like guitar gods supposed to do? perhaps having floated above my bed in a dream or something? ok well I guess better late than never. Many Thanks

guitar teacher for 15years now. Real good point here and I've often done what you're saying - however there is one thing to consider. I see you play mostly with distortion. If you play clean, this doesn't generally sound great say with a jazz tone. More pick string hitting can give you a larger jazz style tone with a full tone - we're talking 12gauge stings and a wooden pick or something. Sometimes hitting the string with more pick can be great in terms of expression and dynamics. what you're doing is more of a flat sound (not dissing at all - i really like your playing) because distortion acts like a compressor - more compressor... less dynamics. So if you want to shred and play super fast - do this. If you like BB king or Grant Green stay away from this because they vary the angle of the pick like crazy for expressive purposes. The best players can adapt their technique to the style of music.

Been playing for over 30 years and could never get past a certain speed due to my right hand technique. Wow! this works! I notice I am picking with more precision, too. I guess this is what you'd call an a-ha moment. Thanks for the insight!

I've been playing metal guitar for 3 years now and I've just learned that both of my hand positions are pretty sloppy. I've spent most of today trying to fix my hand positions and I'm starting to see a huge difference in speed, reach, and clarity. I can play XIV/Behold at normal speed now and I'm more relaxed when playing! I usually practice 6 hours each day, but fixing my hand positions really helped me A LOT. Thanks bro

If you watch the best shredders on earth, like Michael Angelo Batio or Malmsteen, the pick movement is so tight, so precise, so minimal that you realize that is the key to their speed and accuracy. And the angle of the pick is also crucial. Pickslanting is a real technique that these guys have perfected. Then look at a guy like George Lynch. He holds it so loose, so far away, each movement is greatly exaggerated, yet he has developed it to fit his style. Like a golfer with an unorthodox swing. Whatever works for you, ride it to the bank!

Out of all of the guitar videos that I have watched, this one has been the most helpful in some time. Sometimes things that are taken for granted aren't learned by others and they are stuck in the wrong place for some time. Thanks for the video!

This vid gave me the 'eureka' moment. I never thought I can actually pick in near future with the way I used to do it. But now it seem so simple. So 'just' synch hands and I belive I'm already half-way through Cheers, mate

Thanks man! That is so amazing! I saw lots of videos for picking properly but that tiny trick changed my whole picking feeling in the right hand! Metal on!!

Watching this video several months back helped me out immensely! Thank you so much.

Yeah, but cows can hoof tap like nobody's business.

Best tutorial ive seen so far. Will try when get home today. I been playing lead for 30 yrs and cant get my right arm to relax enough no matter what i try.

You just inserted some great learning and technique into my playing. I will forever be in debt. Thanks!

You explained this so much clearer than anyone else. Thank you

Been playing for years and noticed my picking was my road block... struggling to adapt to your teachings but slowly playing off, thanks heaps for uploading

Wow thanks so much man! My natural technique was screwed, you've helped a lot of people out with this!

This is right on man, I don't usually see teachers go into this much detail about the actual kinesthetics of the thing. Keep up the good work!

What an easy to understand, concise, useful explanation of your alternate picking technique, complete with demo as you explain it. You are a very good teacher.

Thanks for this video good to see someone go over the finer points of guitar playing for a change.

I've been trying to learn some proper lead/solo techniques for a year now with no particularly success until.. I somehow found this tutorial.. And after 20 minutes of practicing the Old7's stuff I eventually managed to play a simple scale progression that sounds AWESOME AT LAST!!! I FEEL JUST SO FCKIN GOOD!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

There is nothing better than breaking an Eddie Van Halen pick you got from a concert back in '84. I used it, broke it, and it felt great because I did not like the gauge of his pick. Rock on, thank you for your stuff, and I will check out all your vids!!

Holy crap I never heard something that made so much sense like this lesson! Thanks a lot!

This is the best video I've seen yet on the topic. This is how I want to learn to do it. I have a habit of using my pinky finger as a rest, and moving my hand around too much. I was just watching a video on how to play a solo from a very popular RU-vid guitar teacher and noticed that they held the pick as you recommend and I noticed that they moved forward slightly as they worked down the strings. Just as you described. Thanks for explaining!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your knowledge. I really appreciate that! Greetings from Brazil.

I took a couple of months holding the pick as you teach. And yes, it really works. Thanks!

That has the best guitar tip that i saw in my life!! It solved all my picking problems and it gaved me a lot of speed!!!!

And the fact that they have four stomachs rich?

3 immediate thoughts/questions from a fellow long-time teacher (12 years) and player (23 years): how does this allow for palm muting on the treble strings if needed or desired for a certain effect? Also, what if, for a certain passage in a solo, you didn't want that thick "pick by the neck" tone on the B or E strings? Finally, this would really limit the options for variety with pinch harmonics as it automatically boxes your picking into a certain area of each string. All that said, I appreciate seeing someone else's viewpoint on this topic.

I really like this advice - I have been playing for 16 years and this is something I never learned to do properly (too much of a rush)...fine-tuning my playing recently very well by myself and by experiment, this was the only bit lacking. I think you may have solved it for me. Thank you!

This is brilliant! The same technique for each string and moving the entire "mechanism" with your arm. Thank you!

Hi! I see this video's been around for a good long while! I think I first encountered it way back in late 2020, and I FINALLY watched it. Thanks! This is a truly useful video. I appreciate your brief, clear explanation of the mechanics of how the fingers, hand, wrist, and arm work together to keep the picking process as simple and streamlined as possible. "Less is More!" ;-) I'll note for the record: I am a quite accomplished piano player with decades of experience, as well as a proficient violinist (and used to play the French horn, too). I've been frustrated for years at my inability to get beyond a sort of late-beginner stage on the guitar. For one thing, I got thrown by the major third interval between the G and B strings that breaks the long parade of fourths between all the other strings. [To a pianist or even a violinist, that seems strangely illogical! Though it's also part of the special magic of the guitar, I know!] And I also had an exceptionally hard time with picking. Maybe from a piano background, I've been instinctively better at finger-picking than at controlling a pick. Anyway, recently, I've been going "back to basics," and am trying to learn the guitar from the ground up, and to unlearn some of the things I taught myself wrong over the years. And finally, it's kind of working, I think! [For instance, I FINALLY know my way around the fretboard!] And I have no doubt that your video will help in this long-delayed process. [By the way you speak, you sound just like one of the law students I worked with at my job over the past year. As with him, I might guess that you're Canadian - but as with him, also, I might be wrong, because he turned out to be from I think upstate Michigan instead.] Anyway, thanks again for helping us all out - including "slow learners" like myself. ;-)

Subbed. This was a great tip and an original way to look at picking. I have watched many videos and have been shown so many different ways to pick, but I think this one has suited me the best.

Right away I noticed that my picking was a a lot more precise, and sounded cleaner. Thanks!

I've been struggling with my picking hand technique for ages, been looking at other videos to improve it, always without effect; at last, someone explains it well. RU-vid recommendations finally prove to be useful. Thanks for this video, it's great. Thumbs up!

It's funny you should mention this but I am a cow and trying to shred here in the meadow.....I only have about a half hour a day to practice (after milking). In the afternoons I have to lie down to warn all the humans that it's going to rain.....any suggestions?

Seriously, Thanks for the tips. I just bought "Rocksmith" and I am having fun. But I do see the need for some technical tips and skills. This is and will be helpful. Thanks again.

So simple but so effective !!.....the finger support and wrist reference point/angular path across the strings instantly improved my picking noticebly....thanks !!

I applied that concept within the first minute of your video, and I can already feel/hear the difference. It's totally logical. Thumb and index finger alone is rather "flimsy". Rather than ALL fingers, I'm supporting the index [at the first joint] with just the middle finger. I've gotten back into shredding the past few weeks, and this now helps tremendously. The extra stability and mass gives increased picking momentum, thus less "drag" and I'm picking faster now. Thank you for sharing!!!!

It's cool because Hetfield holds his pick with 3 fingers I believe, and he's the god of rhythm/picking imho. Disposable Heroes is, to me, the benchmark of amazing Thrash but also a test of stamina.

I can't shred to save my life!

Those are some great tips on picking! I've been playing for a long time and still have trouble with speed and right-hand technique. Your tips make a lot of sense to me and I'm going to employ them immediately. Thanks!

this has helped me so much. my playing is way more controlled and clean than when i was anchoring my pinky and gripping the pick with only one finger. awesome vid.

Damn I'm one of those anchor guys

Have been playing with a pick for 6 years now and I used to have the other three fingers on my picking hand sort of spread out slightly a little bit like Paul Gilbert or Joe Bonamassa, and got reasonably accurate and quick that way.some times it would feel comfortable and other times there was something that just didn't feel right I know it takes a long time to sync the left and right hand so I put it down to metronome work and just good old practice!!😀. Well one day I was just practicing some excercises and decided to just curl the fingers on the right hand up to make a fist. Well within minutes that changed the way I pick. Litraly like a wand had been waved over my right hand. The accuracy and precision improved instantly. Almost to the point where I thought it was just a lucky run that I had played. But no again and again more accuracy and synchronisation was there without a doubt. My personal opinion on why it changed my picking is that when I had my other fingers hanging down I think that subconsciously your brain is sort of thinking of two separate units, your thumb and index finger being one and the rest of the fingers the other. Yet when I made a fist the whole thing kind of becomes one thing for the brain to deal with. I know that might sound crazy but that is how it felt!! On top of that the resistance of the pick through the string feels sooo much less than when I was playing that other way, as Old7StringGuy says the other fingers a backing the thumb and index ffinger up, making a very strong connection between the pick and the hand. This may not work for everyone but my god how that's changed my playing is unreal. 😀😀

I've only had my guitar for 6 days so I'm pretty new to everything and need to build good habits. This video makes a ton of sense. Thank you.

Super good lesson and good logic throughout. I've tried various styles and this approach makes the most sense for me. I've been playing 20+ year and always focused on the L hand - but realize my R hand has been the limiting factor in my progressing. I'm getting better because of lessons like these. Thanks!

"It's the one thing that separates us from cows" Well I mean... among at least 20 other things, but sure.

hey ive been trying to follow this but i dont know if im doing it correctly, as i hit the lower strings i find that my pinky knuckle is resting a lot on the guitar itself and when i try to use my wrist as a reference point i end up touching the strings that im picking, im totally new to this so any advices please?

I amazed when someone can relay at a level that is both rudimentary and advanced through the observation of what the problem is to begin with. How simple things are, eludes most of us and I thank you for being so aware of the tiniest detail. The title of this video stands as truth and that means so much in this virtual place....

Good pointers, Great job. "Genius is breaking the complicated down to simple lighter blocks. That is to say, doing what he has made info more understandable more quickly. I've played and taught for 37+ years and, This guy is someone to listen to.

I know that you uploaded this video a while ago, but nowadays I'm learning to play the guitar and in the pretender by foo fighters I must strum 2 strings at a speed of 360 bpm, but I get stuck. How would you do that???

1.5 million views. Now you have the moeny for your 6 string

The Best teaching tutorial i've ever seen!

Easily one of the most informative videos I've seen in regards to technique. Too many picking technique videos address the motion like you already know what to do. This one goes step by step, and provides common problems that this technique overcomes. Awesome video, Thanks!

Not sure where you are anchoring your palm. Are you starting with your palm touching the bridge? Everything I play trying to anchor the palm or wrist mutes the strings.?? Anyway you play really well. Thanks for the video.

I cannot do your angled approach. I've tried it and it REALLY slows my picking speed down (not that I am fast to begin with... still learning). I find some people say to rest on the bridge, other's say that's a no-no. They say your hand must be free-floating. Others say rest your pinkie on the high strings when picking the low strings and rest your back palm on the low strings when picking the high strings. It is just so confusing for a beginner. I think I may just have to do the method that's most comfortable to me even if I'm sacrificing accuracy because all these "techniques" are too contradicting.

This works flawlessly, I didn't take any notice of this video because of how arrogant I was about my pick holding technique. I soon found I lacked the stability in the pick, now I have picked this holding technique up and it has made me come along leaps and bounds! Great way to hold the pick!

As some of the others are saying: do what this man says. Practiced for a few hours, and this has revolutionised how I play. It's boosted my enthusiasm for the instrument through the roof.

this guitar has 7 strings?

NICE -- FOOD FOR THE BRAIN -- THANKS

This helps with my open string problem. And i just came for picking help. This was a real buffet of help.

Wow, that was the best pic instruction I've seen yet! Revolutionary! You answered about 5 questions at once, from how to assist your fingers in staying healthy to how to move down the strings without your forearm getting stuck!! Thank you!

Is the top string a D? I've never seen 7 string before sorry for dumb question.

This made my udder hurt

Finally a good picking video. I'm looking a while for a good video that explains a proper way of picking and this is just perfect. Thanks

Phenomenal share!!! Thank you SO SO SO much for this... you've helped me tremendously.

Whenever I pick fast, I can't avoid bumping into the other strings, Is that bad in playing?

yes the thumb its a good thing i have that or i would b just like a cow lol

Instantaneous Improvement... man i've been playing for 11 years.. and you just unleashed me.

Thank you. Thank you... I play many hours per day because I love it, but I noticed that I hit a plateau and playing faster stuff was sometimes a problem for me, in terms of picking precision, clarity, and getting stuck between strings. This single tweak improved me by a lot! Thank you again!

Too much talkin'

Thanks for this video. My instructor once told me there was no right way to pick, but rather methods that have a better chance of making you successful. I'm starting, after playing for 5 years to begin what he was saying. Thanks again!

This video made me a MUCH better guitar player in 4 hours of practicing this technique. I'm blown away. Thanks!

Lol. And just to be clear, I did watch the rest of this and the second part. Much appreciated. They both helped me a lot. Been spinning my wheels for a while. Peace.

You are very well spoken and you sound intelligent. Thanks.

Dude, this is insane. This technique legitimately makes my picking so much quicker! I'm kicking myself for not learning this much sooner...

Wow dude! It works..I have to change my whole picking style but it works..Clean and comfortable at the same time..My thanks to you..Keep on rockin!

Extremely helpful. I'm three months into learning and I've been having the problem of picking the wrong string when doing scales. So frustrating, I'm feeling I'll never get out of being a beginner. I think this video instruction is going to help. NOTE: I learned on my own before this video I need to use less pick, but everything else is new technique info.

I love the tip about putting other fingers below the first one. I can't believe I haven't done it. It feels better as far as control

Hello my brother. I am a singer, primarily, and I have dabbled with the guitar for years, only to convey to any guitarist I have played with, a certain sound or rhythm that I have rolling around in my head. I can play chords, and when I have a lead in my head, I can pick it out slowly to communicate it to my guitarist, but what you have shown me here, it has opened up so much to me, and after about 10 minutes, I am ripping through scales. Just want to thank you for this post. Ciao, LC

I am actually grateful for this. Thank you so so very much.

This was great, I feel like in the 5 years of playing I am just now realizing how important this kind of thing is, better late than never I guess! Great videos.

I accidentally developed this same method along the way...kinda neat to hear a methodical explanation of how and why it works, I just did it cause it made the right sounds. Thanx man, well done...

Guys like you make the learning process of guys like me go much more smoothly. I hope to one day be good enough to teach a new batch of new guys a trick or two. Thanks for the video!

Raw beginner here..but, I tried it..IT WORKS! HUGE improvement in my pick accuracy...Thanks!!!!! It's MUCH easier to hit a string if you're anchored at the wrist and not just the elbow...

One of the best videos out there... thenk you for sharing your knowledge.

Thanks for the advice.To be honest this is by far one of the best videos ever on this common issue. As a matter of fact;I remembered watching this when I started play in guitar in a black metal band.really useful

Very very helpful lesson, this has been an issue of mine for couple years now. Your lesson is helping overcome this picking hurdle. Thank you

OMG! This worked! It’s amazing. What’s funny is I watched another video right after yours that contradicted everything you said. Then I tried your technique and it’s like an epiphany. Eureka! Thanks!!!

Having practised this way for the past month I have noticed a marked improvement in my playing, and the way I sound. It is not just the result of more playing - I practise two hours a day, and have been playing 45 years - it is the result of doing it in a more efficient way. Thank you for the video. :-)