This Stops 90% Of Guitarists From Picking Faster

In this video, I show you how to correctly move your wrist for fast and accurate picking on guitar. You'll see common mistakes guitar players make when picking on guitar and understand the role of the forearm vs. wrist for fast picking.

[jeffrey.a.hanson]

You were not kidding when you said ‘fast’.
After 17 years, I just did a complete revamp in how I hold my pick, anchor my picking hand, and angle of attack. It took time, but opened up an entire new world.

[mike-_]

Thanks for the video! Made me realise that I was solely relying on wrist motion with very very very little forearm movement making it extremely difficult to pick accurately at speed on the higher strings.

[RikJSmith]

Thanks again for sharing your skills and knowledge. 🎸🎸🎸

[mikewarren]

Please upload picking slanting or picking direction next

[jamessmithurst]

I've been playing guitar for 47 years. Different players have developed playing techniques that don't work for me. Eddie van Halen for example, albeit an amazing player, has such a horrible technique that would break my wrist. When I was younger, I got very frustrated because I was taught to hold the pick firm a la Mel Bay and give the string a good, hearty pluck. It took me years to find out that heavy picking is detrimental. I improved in speed and accuracy by holding the pick very loose so that it almost fell out of my fingers. Now that the pick flexed up and down, I had less resistance against the string. After some time just playing slightly over the string, then slowly coming down but still holding the pick very loose, I developed a picking technique that requires no specific up/down, sweep or other technique. My wrist naturally makes minor up/down movements and my elbow occasionally pitches in if an actual sweep is required. It's weird that once the hand didn't have to think or wrestle with string resistance that everything else came naturally. Before you guys waste your time on hard-core picking, you might want to consider my approach. Try it and tell me what you think.

[aleksanderfreberg]

Thank you! I was clenching my fist to tight, loosened it up a bit made all the difference!

[FurtiveSkeptical]

Ferris Beuller you're my hero.❤️✌️

No joke. Your videos help me immensely.

[transparent]

That’s how he used to play lol..Vinnie…thanks for another cool informative video Mike 🙏

[ConstantineM]

I play for 14 years and my weakest thing is my wrist speed. I can play fast stuff by legato, but when it comes to fast alternate picking, my right hand is suffering.

I was sitting and playing with metronome for so long without progress. Damn it

[stevenagorny]

Very informative video's, helps me so much.

[marcoantoniosalinasdeudor]

Thank you so much man .. You are such great guitar player ..my friends and I are following you

[biencalata]

thank you so much, sir! I were struggling with the pick grip and you helped me! Thank you sir!!!!

[alecwoodruffmusic]

1:22 cool to see that Vinnie Moore example of the "forearm-dominant" picking style. Another good example of a player who does that is Jake Cinninger from Umphrey's Mcgee, but it does seem to be a small minority of players using that technique. I have always been totally perplexed how Cinninger does that with any control, it's totally bonkers to me.

[ryan.m]

Damn, the problem I have is, whenever I try to pick fast, I just cease up, or lock up my elbow, everything else is loose n relaxed, it's just my elbow locks up/where I feel all the tension ...

[Fafa_Sauce]

I actually tried doing this and holding the pick with the "ok sign grip" for lack of a better term and shit's just easier to play when you do that.

[monsterzero]

Everyone internet person says to do something different from the other

[jasonday]

Dig it, I’ve been playing fast licks all along with just a relaxed wrist.

[BrokenKeys]

picking with non dominant hand is the main problem to overcome locking the wrist. most lefties certainly have a great deal of frustration with picking, which may look simple to do but it is an illusion for most, that the picking hand will develop without puting mountains of time and effort into it. after unlocking the wrist, next challenge is to coordintate the momentum and feel the centrafugal force in the hand and use the centrafugal force as a spring to generate more speed and not as something to work against. great lesson, thanks.

[NikosKatsikanis]

to many channels promoting differnt grips, I'll just figure it out myself

[StarDarkAshes]

One thing I never hear people talking about is literally the size of the person because what works for someone that is huge and has huge hands is going to be completely different from what works for someone that is short or has short little stubby, hands and fingers. If you have huge hands, you can almost do a motion with just your thumb and your pointer finger more so than someone with really small fingers could do so that’s a factor for sure.