Use MORE Tension To Pick WAY Faster

[@Murphy_R9]

Paul Gilbert is my No.1 influence for Picking! He is so friggin clean and makes it look effortless! He is not my Favorite overall player BUT his picking is otherworldly and definitely my main influence to my own picking.

[@giannispagonis6229]

Criminally underrated guitar channel

[@MrTubularBalls]

Well, this is interesting. I've seen John McLaughlin play acoustic live, couldn't believe how physical his playing is. He really HITS the strings, like he's playing as loud as he can. Lots and lots of tension when he does high speed runs like that, it was an eye-opener for me. Another player who's like that is Sergio Assad. He's a classical player, but plays brazilian jazz and related music as well as standard repertoire. When he performs he makes the guitar look like a toy.. he throws his body into it, very physical. He's all rhythm, almost like he's about to start dancing. He looks like a percussionist playing a samba groove on his bongos instead of a baroque-playing classical guitarist in suit and tie. Both are world-class players, obviously. They must be onto something!

[@Freddy-kw2mk]

I think all this "tension - no tension" is relevant but the most important aspect, by a lot, is PRACTICE. When I practiced (many years ago), I got to be pretty decent at fast picking but when I say "practice", I mean at least two or more hours a day. Now, I don't have the time to practice, I may practice three hours a week and then not even touch my guitar for weeks again, so the result is that when I try to fast pick, I feel like I'm wrestling the strings. What helped me tremendously when I was practicing, was using a metronome, with it I was able to see how much faster I was playing from week to week. So, practice, practice, practice.

[@christopherharv]

I used to have so much tension buildup in my picking hand shoulder, until I began to hold the guitar on the opposite knee, in the classical position as Mike does here. It didn't take weeks or even days, but the very moment I switched sitting position, the tension in my shoulder went away and my picking endurance greatly improved. I can't believe it's even legal for guitarists to rest their guitar on the same side leg as their picking hand, for their own safety it should be against Guitar Law!

[@TheMirrorify]

There is very good information being delivered in this video.

[@faureswanepoel1665]

Thanks for this, Mike. I was indoctrinated with the "any tension is bad" mantra for years and years. I always wondered why when a guy like Rusty, as you said, looked so "tense" etc. but played so fast. Thanks for calling out the massive amounts of misinformation.

[@camiloelgueta2213]

Yeah, it's literally impossible to play without any tension at all, unless you're knocked out or something like that

[@silentmadness8227]

Thats right man, we have to learn how to use the exactly ammount of tension necesary to make sound what u want. Zero tension is an ilussion. Even tension is more and more used to get different type of interpretations too, i can give you faith of that becouse i play classic guitar style too, where you need a lot of tension xd soo go to get iron arms young paladians becouse it will help to last long a concert using tensions attacks.

[@Jmdeclue]

Spot on. Extremely fast picking typically requires a harder pick, a very tight grip and a fast, metronome like movement of the wrist. Some use the elbow like zakk wylde but I am not sure that would be good for most people. The ability to relax the wrist and hand between the fast picking is the most important thing, as it protects your future, imho. I am getting older and have seen a ton of guitarists suffer wrist and hand injuries after 30 yrs or more of playing.

[@bigdickmcgee5665]

Zack almost seems to strum his single notes

[@nerminsalkic6360]

Great . . . You look like "milan gutovic "serbian actor

[@c-LAW]

Tension = positional accuracy

[@sahivash_semo]

Hi appreciate you for this useful and nice video could you guide me about right hand position on the bridge and movement to up and down? If you have a video about this topic please send it in Ripley

[@sunnys3325]

Stressing anything you try to learn will make it difficult. Relaxation is the key for anything you are trying to accomplish

[@doktabob328]

Stressing and muscle tension are not the same thing.

[@DaNgErDaVe1994]

What about Shawn lanes picking hand?

[@zaccyo]

You stole my question, you fuck!! hahah just kidding. To me, Shawn's picking hand was up there with the most relaxed, and definitely not as tense looking as Rusty's. Check out Roy Marchbank's picking hand.

[@blakegilliam8223]

Love that guitar

[@ubatooba8467]

How about Sir. YNGWIE MALMSTEEN??? - Totally 100% relaxed at all times. - There is NO ONE better at picking, or articulating at speed......He's always clean, and it always looks effortless and fluid. - So it IS possible.....but very very few ever figure it ALL out.

[@Murphy_R9]

I have been a YJM fanatic since his days with Steeler and i agree he is always very relaxed hands wise when he plays. This always baffled me when i watch him play? My ears are hearing this super fast, clean playing BUT visually his hands are hardly moving? WTF??? His right hand hits the strings really light(at least it appears that way). Many have said his light touch it is due to the scalloped boards but i have heard/seen YJM play regular stock vintage strat's from the 50's and non strat guitars and he plays the same! So it is NOT a scalloped fingerboard. He plays the same on a Les Paul. Guy is a freak of nature!

[@qwertyzxcv123]

Now I know why Matthew Broderick is not Hollywood anymore. He found a new love.

[@mak2020au]

What is he using to support the guitar when he’s sitting down?

[@jeffrey.a.hanson]

I hired a metal guitar teacher to help me expand my playing and asked him to play full speed to let me observe. I was missing something. The dude attacked the strings!

[@stephen2634]

Make up your mind You just said to relax your hand My God!!!!!

[@johnnywinford7789]

I've tried to play with my fingers curled up. It f*cks up my playing.

[@GuitarDoco]

finally you are using a different guitar Mike :-)

[@christerdehlin8866]

I can pick fast in isolation, but my fretting hand seems to be made of led. It's way behind, and it's not really so much about synchronization with the picking hand as the ability to move the fingers precisely at high speed. They won't do it even in isolation. I'm left handed playing right handed guitars, so it shouldn't be this much of an issue. I wish some of the KZbin teachers would address that, but it's always about the picking.

[@bruzanhd]

I’m the exact opposite, but I’m also left handed playing right handed guitars.

[@shanehen]

But then Malmsteen’s right hand is totally relaxed. So I think it’s just individual.

[@ohsurepal]

I've also never seen malmsteen pick nearly as fast as Rusty.

[@whitebunz]

@@ohsurepal You have to be kidding!

[@jfo3000]

Malmsteen does pick from the elbow for some moves, also at his fastest trem picking, he will introduce more tension. He flows the motion and tension to what is required at the time, that is what is so amazing about YJM.

[@williammolina9792]

This guy makes this sound more complicated than a open heart surgery....

[@Freddy-kw2mk]

You are right, I thing guitar playing comes down to practicing. Without it, you can relax or tense your picking hand all you want but won't improve.

[@christian98]

It sounds like he's telling people how to practice and not simply giving them exercises and sequences leaving them with no clue how to benefit from them, that's what a good teacher does, if you wanna get results out of your practice time it's not what you practice it's how you practice and if you wanna sound good it's not what you play it's how you play it, it always all boils down to "how" you do whatever you do whenever you pick up your guitar that is the only thing that determines if you're getting somewhere or not.

[@tastjohn1889]

So much talking than action is a boring.... More action than talking is better than thousands words...