And get two things wrong !
Both books by an Australian guitarist called Chris Brooks;
- ā137 Guitar Speed and Coordination Exercisesā
- " Alternate Picking Guitar Technique"
Cheers, Shane
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Here is a video of me goofing up the Iām Tore Down rhythm part I mentioned in the first post.
I played this at about 75% tempo. I have some trouble with muting string 6 today that I hadnāt noticed before. I did notice it while playing, but it really stands out in the recording. There are a few light mistakes until the end which is where things go very wrong. I usually recover on the next bar, but I need to fix this because it is my primary cause for learning limitations.
Iām not familiar with making recordings, so if you notice something I need to fix there, go ahead and comment on that so I can fix it for future recordings.
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The exercises in these books are largely built around melodic lines using the major/ minor scales, and are specifically designed to teach/develop a particular skill. eg string skipping, inside/ outside picking etc. So for structured, focused Iāve stuck very close to these.
Outside of this, one great example of say, string skipping, is the opening few bars/ intro of Sweet Home Alabama. In fact, Iāve found this song is a goldmine for all sorts of technique/ skill development.
Cheers, Shane
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I added that to my practice after @LeeMB covered it in his club session.
Hot Rod Lincoln is in the distant future.
My $0.02 is to practice isolation. Your brain is not good at learning more than one thing at a time. Just forget your fretting hand and just focus on your picking hand.
I practice picking for 5 mins every day with nothing fretted. I go through several patterns, and vary which one each day, for example to day was alternate strings (i.e. skipping a string in between the two Iām picking) and I practiced down-down, down-up, up-down, and up-up for each string duo. I use a metronome and play eighth notes at 100bpm (started 3 months ago at 60 bpm). Tomorrow will be adjacent strings so I will do E-A, A-D, D-G, G-B, B-E with each of the 4 picking patterns.
The key is isolation, only work in the picking hand, and consistency. If you make mistakes, then slow it down until you donāt make any then increase the speed.
Focusing on individual skills like this translates directly into better performance when playing songs.
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Good on you for sharing a video Michael. It came through great.
What immediately stood out to me is that it looks like youāre picking using finger movement, with the pick held between the tips of your finger and thumb. I donāt think this allows your anchor to work as effectively. Try picking with wrist movement, with the pick held between your thumb and the side of your index finger. It will probably take a while to get comfortable with this different way if youāve been picking like that for a while.
Hereās the best video Iāve found on the subject - I found it very helpful when I was stuck on a plateau with my picking technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JA2TPOYmTI
You probably need to practice getting that thumb over, and left hand muting other strings - thatās another subject though 
Craig, I know youāre being helpful and mean well, but I think Michael is quite far beyond the basics in his playing and itās all about co-ordinating both hands at speed at an intermediate level. Practicing flawed technique faster will hit a limit, itās about fixing the technique.
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Your picking technique seems good to me mate.
In regards to what youāre playing, you also seem fine picking from one string to the string next to it.
But you are struggling with the string skips. Youāre alternate picking it which means youāre inside picking, which is more difficult over string skips.
Iād recommend doubling down on the string skips.
Iād personally practice the whole song through playing the octaves only (string skips). Play it once as in the song, and then play it again in place of what usual happens. Repeat. Also, start with no tempo practice so you can control the movements accurately throughout.
Alternate picking is cool, but itās not essential and you might find directional picking (over the octave) easier because it creates an outside picking pattern. So essentially, youāll be picking down, down, up, up over the octaves (string skips).
If you do decide to alternate pick though, just make sure youāre not upward pick slanting at all because your pick will be stuck between the strings and youāll have a hard time finding the octave note. A little downward pick slanting might help.
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I think my video is hard to see that. When I sat down to test your observation this morning, I think I am moving 99% in the wrist. I tense up a tad in the fingers for each attack and that seems nudge the position relative to my hand, but very little. Far less than I am missing by.
I did get something out of the video you posted - finding the right place for the palm anchor and being aware of it. This is something I feel strongly I need to do.
I understand the exercise you describe for playing the song - just keep the same rhythm rotating through instead of going into the C-E-A# chord.
I came to alternate picking before I ever knew it was a technique. When the Justin lesson came up for me I realized I was already doing it. I do find myself being inconsistent, and I try to control that into being the same when I notice. I seem to be inconsistent when I am off target on picking. Not sure how I know I am off target, but I seem to. Seems like If I can determine that while playing, I should be able to be on target! lol.
Iāll take a look at up-up/dn-dn and see how that feels.
Iām not sure what you are saying about the pick angle. Can you detail a bit better? I know what I am doing - the pick is rotated so a leading edge is striking the string but the flat is pretty close to vertical. I do not roll my wrist for this picking at all. I do roll for strumming so I donāt catch if I dig too deep into the string plane. I do strike a little differently on this one than some others in order to try to get the sound right. Justin said he was coming in more toward the body instead of straight across.
Something in the video that wasnāt commented on was the movement of the head. I thought this was moving a lot. Can that be a source of the strings moving but my hand no, introducing error in my picking?
Hey Michael,
Hopefully all these well meaning replies arenāt doing your head mate.
So hereās another one 
In your video, I noticed as you moved up and down the strings, the attack motion came mainly from manipulating of the fingers ( index and thumb), with wrist movement being pretty much static. This means the angle, plane, slant, whatever you want to call it, is constantly changing, even if slightly, many times a second.
At the tempo you are playing, you can get away with it, and may be preferred by some at lower speeds. No issue.
But, as you pick up the tempo/complexity though, your accuracy will suffer, as you just cant accurately manipulate and adjust angles repeatedly with your fingers while jumping strings back and forth, maintaining rhythm etc. The other crucial thing that will happen is your pick depth ( how much the pick digs into the strings) will likely keep changing, slowing you down, and causing errors.
The pick motion needs to be in a fairly constant plane in both directions, whatever that is for you, and your pick depth needs to be consistent over a given period.
The above has been my experience thus far. Perhaps it can be of some use.
Cheers, Shane
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Thanks for this, which I have added to my practice. Oddly I find that alternate picking is easy than all down picks for this!
Hi Shane,
I did another video, this one looking down the fretboard along the strings. I think I understand what you and JK are seeing. It looks like I reach with the pick and move the relative position maybe about 1 string spacing. Is that what you are seeing?
If so, do you keep your fingers totally rigid? That doesnāt seem natural, but it may help with positions bit. How about moving from string 1 to 6? no reaching out or in ? This seems like a lot of wrist movement. Trying that is definitely a mess at the moment, so I want to make sure it is the right thing to be trying.
Pretty much. If youāre just moving just to the next string, then it doesnāt matter that much. Unfortunately, weāve got 6 strings. So further than two, and youāll start to āreachā more, as you said. At slower speeds, it doesnāt matter as much because you can still be pretty accurate. But as you need to go faster, it falls apart. I found that out pretty quickly when I initially tried some Gary Moore runs, and even some of Dave Gilmour runs in Comfortably Numb.
As for my fingers, theyāre not ārigidā as such, just firm enough to hold the pick. They do move around a bit, but Iām constantly drilling in that default in/out motion on the same plane, so it becomes unconscious. Initially, I could see I was āscoopingā in and out a fair bit, like in a U shape. I can now see how this was slowing me down, as its wasted movement away from the string, and it caused more errors.
And the wrist is certainly not moving this way all the time, as your lines etc are going to include, bends, slides, legato etc, and all sorts of other movements.
Basically, I use this alternate picking style as a default, or neutral thing. In reality though, Iām really using a presently basic combination of alternate, economy, sweep, and hybrid picking.
As for say going from string 1 to 6, Iād likely just use hybrid picking, depending on the tuneā¦ie pick the 1, pluck the 6 with a finger.
Please know that I am still very much developing my technique, as you are. I am far from being any sort of expert. The couple of things Iāve mentioned though are commonalities Iāve seen over and over, and have improved my picking significantly already.
Theres an ginormous amount of content on Youtube on this subject area, which, in many ways makes it more difficult. Iāve watched scores of them over the last year or so. From guitar gods whoāve said they never thought much about it, they just did what felt natural ( lucky them); to guys like Troy Grady whoās made a (somewhat bizarre) career out of it.
One guy I am going to mention though if youāre intersted, is a young, unknown guitarist called Ben Kerrigan. Some short, to the point, no fluff videos about both picking and fretting that made alot of sense to me.
Cheer, Shane
Yes I did not mention the type of picking but alternate picking would be fine. Ideally you should be picking towards the next string your are going to pick, so an up pick to return to E is fine. 
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Thanks. I hadnāt discovered Ben Kerrigan yet. I also like the no nonsense videos.
You might like Bernth if you havenāt seen him yet. Go into his technique videos. Lately he went a little too commercial probably getting enough money off the typical junk and less off the good stuff. He has a handful of experiments and data tracking of his speed and progress that I found interesting.
Yes, Iāve watched quite a few Bernth videos over time. Very talented young man, and all round nice bloke. Heās a real metalhead though, isnāt he .
Cheers, Shane
Hereās a good exercise/set-piece to practice string-skipping in a musical context: https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/blues-study-riff-sidestep-16-bar-blues-be-104
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Thanks! Iām not quite there yet, so will watch for it in my progress.
While fiddling with containing movement to be all in my wrist as you were recommending above, I am wondering if you are able to comfortably make it across all 6 strings while keeping a consistent anchor on the bridge? I may lack range of motion in my wrist if you tell me āyesā.
I am seeing a little better progress mentally concentrating on not flexing fingers and moving only from the wrist. However, I also notice that I cannot make it across all 6 strings and the pick rotation by the time I go to string 1, I get a pretty weak pick sound. If I scoot my anchor down to improve that, then I cannot flex enough to get to string 6 without strong effort.
I have had to deal with a lot of flexibility improvements, so I need to know if this sounds like your experience and if I should expect better range of motion. After that, I know what to do.