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#70: The Exercise That SOLVED My Biggest Picking Problem

🕑 Added 2020-03-20 13:02:59 +0000 UTC

Comments

Jackob

Hi Bernth when I was making notes from this lesson, I noticed that in shape Ebmaj7 (1:43) there should be B flat instead of A flat.  Apart from that, I want to thank you for what you are doing because I think your tutorials are the best to build perfect technique and i feel a lot of passion going from you and this gives extra motivation to work. Moreover, you are a great composer, your tracks (especially with your "special" guitars) are truly amazing. Peace and love from Poland!

David

Ahhh Thanks Bernth. That just solved quite a significant piece of the jigsaw for me.

Bernd Brodträger

Hey David, these fingerings are created with each chord voicing in mind (how you would actually play the chord if you want all notes to overlap) - for the purpose of solos, you can also change the fingerings to your liking if you want to :)

David

What are the best fingerings people are using? That second arpeggio looks a little confusing for me using the pinky finger?

Bernd Brodträger

I'd recommend always working with the Guitar Pro files to adjust the tempo to your own needs :) If you don't have Guitar Pro, the free/shareware Tuxguitar can also open these files!

Rocktopuss

I noticed this too.

Chanel Azemia

Hi, I just joined and I'm practicing this lesson. In your video you keep referering to 120bpm, but the backing tracks for download is only up to 70bpm. Are there other bpms available or was the purpose of the excercise to limit to 70bpm? Thanks in advance.

Samuel Ortiz

What is the tempo range for this exercise? What is considered mid tempo picking? I can do well up to 100bpm, anything after 100bpm is a struggle.

LemonsSs

Hi Bernth, i'm really confused/frustrated about the angle of the right hand. What should I do to know I'm in the correct position? I would be super appriciate if you dedicate a video on that especific theme. Thanks 4 All

Bernd Brodträger

Thanks for sharing that! Yes, I agree - I also work with an angle here, it immediately feels like there's less resistance coming from the motion/strings :) I never cared for extreme picking attack so that is fine for me personally! That way, it still sounds nice and articulated when you play fast with a clean sound or acoustic guitar!

jean-pierre rojas

Hi, I know that the picking technique consider a wrist's movement in the right hand. But , the pick must attack the string strictly parallel to the string,? or is there some angle of inclination? Because if I do strictly parallel I get stuck sometimes and it sounds strong, meanwhile if I attack with an angle of inclination, it sounds less strong.

Bernd Brodträger

Hey Brandon, that's some great input! To practice the other picking angle, you could start the exercise with only one downstroke (just one note on the lowest string), then immediately going into alternate picking for the rest of the notes (upstroke, downstroke for the rest of the strings). That is a great variation of the exercise and it was suggested by one of our students on here :)

Brandon Roth

Around the 4:00 mark you talk about downward pick slanting. If you started the exercise on an upstroke and switched the orientation, downward slat to upward slant, do you think the exercise would help improve overall picking as you would likely become fluent in both modes of traversing the strings?

Bernd Brodträger

Great to hear that you are working that much with this exercise Oliver! You are right by saying that these movements are so small that it gets difficult to determine what's actually going on at faster tempos. String muting is also not something that I practiced actively, it's a passive skill that evolved over time (and I'm sure that I can still improve it, it's a never-ending journey with technique) - so by working on this over and over again, I got better results over time concerning the overlapping notes (not blocking the strings) and reducing the noise coming from string transitions with both hands! I don't dampen the strings I'm not playing on with my fingers though, I just played through the exercise again and get the same sound when I really focus on using one finger at a time for each string! I'm sure you will get the same result if you keep working on it :) I also use a pretty small amount of distortion for this, that also always helps to minimize the amount of dirt!

Bernd Brodträger

Great question Roger! Understanding those 2 picking angles is very important, great to hear that you are spending time on that :) I'm sure you're familiar with Troy Grady's work, he did a great job with showing and explaining the difference. One easy way to turn this into a different exercise is to start with only one stroke for the lowest string of the exercise, then you work with 2 strokes for each note. That means you have a downstroke, then you already move to an upstroke on the next string!

Roger C

this is a great exercise. Is there one that will deal with upward pick slanting and when to use that?

Oliver Richter

me again, because this Excercise made me dizzy but i think i'm getting the Details more and more. Am i right, that your Finger remains damping on a string until you need it again? I'm pretty sure you do this and yor movements are just really small. And Thats why you cannot use flat fingers to damp the disturbing noises because you block the string below. Thats the only way i manage to minimize disturbing noise by my left hand.

Bernd Brodträger

Thanks a lot for taking the time to share that Oliver, input like that is really helpful for all students on here!

Oliver Richter

Maybe my experience is interesting for others: i found out "pull off" that wasn't my primary problem: i just didn't do 2 strokes, often there was a 3rd touch at the string. I tested it on playing 2 hits fast, stopped, then next string and so on. I hate my guitar. Sorry guitar i dont really hate you

Bernd Brodträger

Hey Oliver, the muting can be tough here, that's correct - we don't want any overlapping notes! The noise often comes from an uncontrolled pull-off motion that is performed when you are done on one string and move to the next! To get a feeling for that, I'd make the exercise a bit smaller and only work with 2-3 strings before working with the full chord voicing :) Focus on a clean transition with your fingers, after a while you will get a feeling for it!

Oliver Richter

how do you mute in this exercise, i have a lot of disturbing noise when not flatten a finger?

Giorgio Pasqualin

Thanks so much for this Bernth. I'm finding this exercise challenging and motivating.

Bernd Brodträger

Happy you enjoy all the content Nicholas, great to hear that :)

Nicholas Duff

Thanks for this lesson. I just begun your patreon ...and damn ...all these useful informations ! Thanks

Bernd Brodträger

Guthrie is amazing, great reference for sure :)

Paul Ribka

Works now! Thanks for fixing this so quickly!

Jim McCall

If I fold my index finger back so the tip of my finger and my thumb are parallel and the space between index and thumb is very small I have much better control at 120 bpm and higher and there is no finger tip ever touching string. I see G Goven use this grip when picking super fast. I would like to learn to pick fast without going into this tighter position so I'll keep playing with pulling my index finger back farther.

Bernd Brodträger

Hey Paul, thanks so much for letting me know - I think there was a problem with the time track in Cubase! I just exchanged the files, please let me know if everything works correctly now :)

Paul Ribka

Hi Bernd, this is really cool stuff! Super effective addition to my practice routine. For this exercise, can you check the 60BPM and 70BPM backing tracks? Both of them seem to start at 70BPM and then slow down to 60BPM. Many thanks, Paul

Bernd Brodträger

That's a great question! It never occurred to me that my index finger might brush the strings a bit when I'm picking, that's something I have to pay attention to in the next days :) When I tried it out with different licks/riffs right now it did not happen in any way but if you don't get any unwanted noise from that it should be OK, especially for blues rock - some additional 'dirt' and liveliness is always welcome there I think, a different approach from the technical shredding we often look at on here!

Bernd Brodträger

I fully agree, it's a real challenge to keep purely mechanical exercises musical - sometimes a simple trick like working in a key (playing the arpeggios on the scale degrees in this example) does the trick :) It immediately becomes less abstract and actually sounds like something you could use in a song!

Bernd Brodträger

So happy to hear about your progress Jim, it means a lot to me to assist you with reaching your goals concerning technique :) Thanks for sharing that!

Jim McCall

For some reason this exercise reveals that my right index finger tip very lightly brushes the strings when picking some of the time and definitely does when Im playing blues rock. Does your finger ever brush the string or would you recommend that I pull the finger back so that never happens? Thanks

Erykah

Can't wait to try this one out! 😄 I especially like exercises that are as musical as possible but know they can't always be like that.

Jim McCall

Bernth, these videos and your two courses are EXACTLY what I need and are the core of my daily technique practice. My technique is notably and consistently improving after months of being at a plateau. Thanks. Jim