Should picking speed take you months?

[@addicted2tone349]

That pick is obnoxious.😂

[@jeremyread261]

Yeah i couldnt focus on anything else

[@Kerriben]

Cost me £30 and sounds like ass as well, got swindled.

[@strumminronin]

​@@Kerriben Is that not a custom plectrum from Switzerland? Shame it's not right for you despite the costs.

[@Kerriben]

@@strumminronin It is indeed - custom plectrums are bollocks for most people to be honest and I’ve owned a lot of them. If you buy something for tonal reasons, fair enough, I know that this company do a lot of different materials (which all effect how your attack sounds) and that can make a big difference to your sound. There isn’t a plectrum in existence that will make you have better technique though. I think these really fat plectrums are somewhat useful as a practice tool for appreciating how tight your grip is however - it makes you think about grip pressure more in a weird way. I also use it all the time in private lessons as a demonstration tool, so in hindsight is probably well worth the money for me!

[@Kerriben]

@@strumminronin also worth noting I have not tried these in a different material and this is an acrylic one - don’t want to shit on someone elses business on a sample size of one plectrum!

[@mxblackout]

Out of all the hundreds of guitar instructional videos I've watched over the years, this is the one I needed the most. Just like you said, you make the right adjustment and the difference makes instant improvement. Very well explained and helped me a bunch. Thanks a lot

[@MauriceKindermann]

lol, finally, I've been looking for this information for a few days now. KZbin recommendations to the rescue. Every other video never just hones in on the actual technical requirements.

[@musiclabtr]

Great tips there that no one else is actually talking about or demonstrating! Keep these videos coming 😁

[@marctorrez774]

Great video. I will definitely try this. Thank you.

[@mark78750]

Fantastic teaching

[@matheussantos9367]

Cool video! I spent years working on single string lines and building up my picking hand. Only recently I figured the problem was on string changes and hand sync, mostly on my fretting hand, not my picking hand. Oh well, better late than never I guess

[@Rockin23]

Jeez I wish I had your lessons decades ago! I've gritted my teeth, tensed up and tried to force it for years. I've had tennis elbow, several times, painful as F which resulted in cortisone shots several times, various cramps etc and I still couldn't get as fast as my contemporaries ! It's only recently, last six weeks, I've made any progress. I've managed to drop all tension and stopped forcing it.That really is the key. You speak so much sense. Cheers!

[@Kerriben]

Not your fault! There are a lot of teachers out there that seem to promote ‘forcing’ speed and dexterity. I don’t know where it originally came from - even with things like weightlifting no sane coach is going to tell you to lift super heavy without very good control and form. Glad you found it helpful and great news you are making progress!

[@Rockin23]

@@Kerriben I always thought 'masters' had worked out through the pain and dug in, what a load of shit. I am now twice as fast as I was 4 weeks ago after realising I just need to relax and stop forcing it

[@jabak7094]

Same thing for me. I've squeezed a lot of guitars to death. Then I stumbled upon videos from Ben, Chris Brooks and TomShreds and suddenly it dawned. Nowadays my grip on the pick is so light that I sometimes drop it. Also when working on new stuff my playing is so weak and undefined that it's almost embarrassing. But as I progress and get the feeling of what I'm working on things start to come together and sounds just fine - without the death grip and loads of tension. Tension is still an issue but not to the extend it used to be. I just keep working on it.

[@johnmac8084]

Great lesson Ben, liked & subscribed, thanks 😀

[@JWisemanMusic]

How you pick with that slab is beyond me. Well done! 😂

[@3hcrew807]

many thanks ❤❤❤❤

[@Jan-ex9uz]

VERY INFORMATIVE AND GOOD

[@mirkojovanovic3216]

I wish I saw this a few years ago.

[@Oneminuteguitarkenji]

very helpful, thanks!

[@cj.mccarthy]

super! thanks for sharing :)

[@nunolance23]

Thank you for this, will definitely give it a try! On a related note, I usually notice my left hand ring finger always “lags” behind when playing patterns like 1-3-4 (numbers being frets) for example.. any tips that could help mitigate this?

[@SystematicMechanic]

Nice video and I will try that out. What happens when you play riffs that have a lot of string switching? I don't play 6 notes per string much but I do a lot of pentatonic leads most with 2 notes per string or 1 on one string and then 3 on another and back to 1. Also a lot of back and forth between 2 strings. The problem is you have to make large movements due to string spacing. Know what I'm saying? Haven't been able to get past 120 - 130 BPM over the years.

[@Kerriben]

Will do a video on this soon - same principles apply! Most people can’t cross strings at speed without really going deep with the pick in at least one part of the lick. Take a simple two note repeating pattern on adjacent strings and really work out where you are letting the accuracy slip and using too much pick. Obviously the movements are a lot wider but in this case it will be string resistance slowing you down because of pick depth.

[@bre4dfish]

Hey Ben, big fan of your videos. I was hoping to pick your brain (no pun pls?) on pick depth for strumming, not just striking single strings. I've always had a deep picking habit, the opposite of what you taught here and I was curious what your motion looks when you're strumming 3 to 6 string chords, especially at higher tempos. How do you approach strumming more traditional cowboy chords, and even just triads on the top 3 strings at higher speeds, think funk rhythm. Thanks so much for your videos, and I'll learn to strike a bit more shallow on the tip of the pick lol! Be good!

[@Kerriben]

I’ll do you one better - video on funk rhythm playing coming soon!

[@bre4dfish]

@@Kerriben That would be fantastic, I'd love to see how you approach it, the faster rhythms mixing in a lot of dead notes for the percussive feel. The flesh on my palm that I usually mute with will end up scraping against the strings at higher speed. It tires my hand out after a while. Granted I have a lot bad habits that I grew up with, I'm a lefty playing right handed self taught guitar. So I'm constantly undoing a lot a bad learned habits, but I never got around to fixing my strumming. I'd love to see you talk about strumming though, not even specifically Funk itself, but just the base motions you apply to wider chords as well. Thanks!

[@Chillnote]

So how long does one need to reach speed picking with string changes? (160 bpm 16th notes). Thank you for the videos

[@jabak7094]

I've been following along for few months now and I must say that your videos about speed picking is in a class of it's own. Thank you. A few questions. You say that no one should do the metronome game to reach around 140-150 16th notes - anyone should be able to do that with a little focused practice. That is just picking a single note on a random string like you did in the video right? In one of your previous video you talked about anchoring and showcased how you do it. You kinda press against the body with the upper part of your forearm and float your hand above the bridge. Or at least that's how of interpreted what you said in that video and it sure looked like that. In this video it's not clear to me if you rest your hand ever so slightly on the bridge? The reason I ask is that I feel a loss of control if pressing against the body with the upper forearm and letting my hand float above the bridge. I gain more control the moment i rest my hand on the bridge too. Just barely touching it.

[@Kerriben]

Thanks man, glad you’ve been finding it useful! So you are correct on the picking speed only relating to one string - anything with string crosses needs some slightly more nuanced motion and requires a bit more time - that’s not to see you shouldn’t see significant improvement with a bit of practice though! Contact points on the bridge or anywhere else are absolutely fine unless we are trying to hit seriously high speeds at 240bpm 16ths or faster. I have a lot of light contact points on the instrument, be it my fingers on the pick guard or my palm on the bridge - the key is they are not ‘anchored’ and can move very easily as I don’t apply a lot of force into them.

[@jabak7094]

@@Kerriben Thanks a lot. i try not to use any force at all when my hand is resting on my "refererence points" on the guitar. The wrist twisting motion you mention. If I consciously or intentionally do that motion then tension slowly start to build up and I can't go fast. The moment I stop thinking about it and just "shake" the wrist in a controlled way I can go reasonably fast for longer time. My problem is that I can't do it on an instant. I need to do it a few times before i can lock in and just mindlessly shake my wrist. Any suggestions to remove that roadblock. Maybe you could do a video on that topic? Just a suggestion...

[@BlazinLow305]

@@jabak7094 I have similar issue. Sometimes I need to warm up for like a full 10-15 minutes before I can unlock the "wrist shake" in a way that is effective. I think the more you practice, the more easily you'll be able to do it on command, although keep in mind you are a human being so sometimes there might not be getting around having to warm up a bit first, especially as you get older

[@jabak7094]

@@BlazinLow305 You are absolutely right. With no warm up it's almost impossible for me to do anything meaningful on my guitar. I do warm up before every practice session though. 5-10 minutes. After that I drill an exercise to address my "problem". A few bars 8th notes and then a few bars of 16th notes. I've made some progress in the last 3-4 months but locking in on command at 150 bpm 16th is impossible. At 130 bpm it's kind of fine.

[@zadaziri6584]

You were not lying when you said you'd instantly be able to play faster

[@Pazuzu-]

The size of that pick

[@plantagenant]

Months?....more like years in my case! I've tried all sorts of pick grips from elbow, to wrist to circle pickings and I can't get past 120 bpm 16 notes (cleanly). Not the end of the world as I'm not really interested in being a shredder!

[@musiclabtr]

btw do you anchor your wrest when going full speed? or do you tense/lock your arm or your wrest? my movement gets pretty random when i'm totally relaxed as if my wrest has no anchor point.

[@Kerriben]

You can use an anchor point if you want to, just dont press too hard into it!

[@AugmentedNick]

My guitar pick tends to rotate after 30 seconds of playing.. I tried so many different picks.. currently using jazz iii Max grip.. the problem is not with pick but my grip I believe.. any suggestions for that?

[@Kerriben]

If the pick is rotating either the up or downstroke is too deep in the strings. You are likely trying to relax the grip but not accurate enough with the point of the pick brushing the top of the strings.

[@MajorUpgrade]

Good grief man, did you pull that pick off of some piece of industrial equipment?

[@squidly2112]

Very good description .. nice .. everything you are saying you can see in Yngwie Malmsteen's picking by the way. Watch how efficient, soft and slight of motion he uses. It is incredible how light he picks and how incredibly fast he is with so small of motion. He looks totally effortless. His fretting hand is very much the same by the way. Especially look at his older videos with Alcatraz .. remarkably fluid, light, little motion and very accurate and fast. There are others out there as well, but Yngwie is a good example to learn from for these techniques.

[@Kerriben]

Yeah Malmsteen doesn’t get enough credit for that - it’s worth mentioning that some people just naturally approach speed like this without any instruction. Malmsteen strikes me as one of those very intuitive players who got it right without too much analysis.

[@squidly2112]

@@Kerriben - he's just so smooth and almost motionless with his picking. So efficient and effortless, especially when you watch one of his solos on YT from his Alcatraz days. You can tell he is super relaxed with his picking hand and very very little motion, very compact and without effort.

[@pacoJaco]

Why would you demo this with delay on? Bonkers

[@Kerriben]

If you haven’t realised already the quality of my videos is unmatched on youtube

[@pacoJaco]

@@Kerriben Yes that’s very good to know, but why would you demonstrate picking techniques with delay on? It obviously obscures the detail. Thanks

[@Chillnote]

@@pacoJaco I think he is joking

[@musiclabtr]

he's showing a technique not doing a sound demo, plus it's his channel and his video, he can have anything on as he wants ;)