Building Real Picking Speed & Accuracy

Want to improve your guitar picking speed, accuracy and control? In this detailed guitar lesson, we break down the essential picking techniques every guitarist should understand — including alternate picking, directional picking, economy picking, legato playing and hybrid picking.

You’ll learn why tension kills speed, how pick angle affects your playing, and why keeping your picking motion smaller is one of the BIGGEST breakthroughs for improving lead guitar technique.

This lesson also includes practical exercises and famous guitar riffs inspired by Eddie Van Halen, Paul Gilbert, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Green Day and more — helping you apply these techniques musically instead of just drilling exercises. Perfect for intermediate guitar players wanting cleaner solos, faster riffs and more relaxed picking mechanics.

Top 3 Tips to Build Guitar Picking Speed

Top 3 tips to pick and strum guitar faster with accuracy;

1. Keep the motion smaller than you realise

2. Picking angle and motion

3. STAY LOOSE! Tension is the enemy to speed

You can and should play to a drum track or metronome to micro increase speed and make it measurable.

Top tip - use a metronome, and use the beats 2 and 4 trick - Don't know what this? Ask me in a live stream!

However, you can compound how fast you can play by being aware of specific picking techniques

Beginner - all downs

• Come as your are - great song example

• A minor pentatonic scale

Late beginner - alternate picking

Down then Up NO MATTER what note is being picked

1. Easy one string riffs, with an even rhythm: Peter Gunn Theme

2. Even rhythm, move across strings: Wipeout - The Surfaris

Advanced alternate picking

1. Thunderstruck - AC/DC

2. Miserlou - Dick Dale

Legato picking

Uses a combination of picking and hammer ons. Used for most guitar solos at an intermediate level, especially any that use speed or smooth aka legato playing

Directional and Economy picking (aka Inside Picking)

Two different ways of what is called Inside Picking. These are very similar in that they try to use the most economical way of picking so we can do it as fast as require with the least amount of effort. But what is the difference?

Directional

• Pick in the direction of the next string you’re doing to play, use alternate picking when on the same string

• Requires no pre-planning

Economy

• Asks “what is the most economy of motion that can be used to play this?”

• Requires advanced planning to do properly

Either way, these are advanced - the fastest way to play FASTER is to;

• Pick with a smaller movement

• Do this while staying as loose as possible

• Your fretting hand will develop speed faster than your picking hand

Directional song examples

Late Beginner

• Everybody Hurts - R.E.M

• Half the World Away - Oasis (electric guitar picking)

Hybrid picking

Acoustic Blues Bootcamp - Mike Bradley

Mark Knopfler “chicken picking”