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EntertainmentHow to Play Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Speed Pick on Heavy Metal Guitar

Transcript

Let’s talk about speed picking. There are a lot of different ways to speed pick. I started speed picking by listening to music from different cultures. For example, Italian mandolin, Flamenco guitar, Greek bouzouki, you know, many others. I often find that that’s the best source of speed picking. Just to take the mandolin example. Take one note and just practice playing that note up and down until you’re eventually able to play it almost like a fan. So it’s to be very relaxed.

You can change notes. You might combine this with hammer-ons and pull-offs. So there I worked my way down the scale. If I play more notes on the scale, say I play two scale notes up, and slide down, it creates a nice speed picking exercise.

I’m playing clean right now, but if I play this with full on distortion, it sounds pretty cool. Check it out.

Okay. So at the end I went down the scale across the strings. Again, you have to start slowly and you just need to practice like this and then eventually you get to the point where it’s like this, and you can add extra notes.

And there’s your little lesson on speed picking.


Lessons in this Guide

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How to Play Heavy Metal Guitar with Alex Skolnick

How to Do 2 Octave Sweep Picking on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Do Right Hand Fretting on Heavy Metal Guitar

Cross String Picking Mechanics on Heavy Metal Guitar

4 Finger Vibrato Techniques on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Do 1 Octave Sweep Picking on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Do 2 Techniques with Two-Hand Tapping on Guitar

How to Play Legato on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Do 3 Techniques with Two-Hand Tapping on Guitar

How to Play Lead Heavy Metal Guitar Melodic Licks

How to Shred on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Do Alternate Picking & Play 16th Notes

How to Play String Skipping Arpeggios on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Use the Whammy Bar on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Improve Speed on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play a Major Arpeggio on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Speed Pick on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Heavy Metal Guitar Solos

How to Play Pinch Harmonics on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Change Keys in Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Sixteenth Note Triplets on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Natural Harmonics on Heavy Metal Guitar

4 Improvisation & Phrasing Techniques on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Pedal Notes on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Triplets on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Thrash Metal Rhythm Guitar

How to Use Drop B Tuning on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Heavy Metal Power Chord Riffs

How to Use Rests in Rhythmic Patterns on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Metal Guitar Riffs in Drop D

How to Play Heavy Metal Guitar Riffs in E Minor

How to Play Rhythmic Patterns on Heavy Metal Guitar

How to Play Heavy Metal Power Chords

How to Play Heavy Metal Guitar Riffs in A Major

How to Play 1 Fret Bends on Heavy Metal Guitar

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