Alternate picking technique is killing me.

[pantsaregood]

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.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

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.

 

[Konfyouzd]

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.

 

[watson503]

...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.

 

[Konfyouzd]

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

 

[Maniacal]

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.

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

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

 

[ncfiala]

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.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

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.

 

[Lasik124]

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

 

[TedEH]

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.

 

[jsl2h90]

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.

 

[Watons]

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

 

[Nomad]

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??)

 

[Simic]

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:

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

 

[Mathemagician]

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.

 

[Nomad]

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.

 

[Simic]

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)

 

[Nomad]

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.

 

[Simic]

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)...