"Speed Bursts" exercise for the picking hand

Mike Heugel · From: Taylor, Michigan, USA

Hey folks, just wanted to share a little exercise to increase picking hand speed, by focusing instead on control, timing, and accuracy.

This "Speed Bursts" exercise comes from Scott Tennant's "Pumping Nylon" classical guitar instructional video. This exercise translates pretty well to PSG, particularly when incorporating a pick-blocking technique (although it can be used with palm blocking just as effectively.

The exercise uses a repeating alternate picking pattern over an 8-measure phrase. I start with the thumb and middle finger for reference. The idea is that you start the pattern playing stacatto on the 1 and 3 for 7 measures (so, pick-rest-pick-rest), and then "double up" to "1-2-3-4" (or, pick-pick-pick-pick) for the 8th measure, like so:

|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T-M-T-M-|

Pick a tempo you're comfortable with - 60 BPM is as good a place to start as any. As you do this exercise, you gradually increase the number of double-up patterns, until you're playing the entire 8-measure phrase at double time. The complete pattern would go as so:

1. |T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T-M-T-M-|

2. |T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|

3. |T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|

4. |T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|

5. |T---M---|T---M---|T---M---|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|

6. |T---M---|T---M---|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|

7. |T---M---|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|

8. |T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|T-M-T-M-|

Once you can nail it at 60bpm, move it up incrementally.

One important thing to remember is that this exercise will work with any right hand pattern or combination.

I've used this exercise on multiple instruments - guitar, bass, and banjo - for right hand development with pretty good results. I've now incorporated into my PSG practice. Give it a try and see what you think.

Mike

*Edited for clarity, 6/5/13. You can view Scott's entire video at the link below, starting at 1:00:54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1zlTyl74Bk
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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Well...everything I see is alternating T - M - T - M ?
To build real speed, you need some double and triple strokes in there too! Wink

Mike Heugel · From: Taylor, Michigan, USA

Sorry about that, probably should have clarified it a bit. It's a universal drill, that you can use with any finger or string or picking pattern or combination. I just used the thumb-middle alternate as an example.

Hope that helps.
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Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

I think the key to speed comes less from the training of the left hand than from being able to pick the notes fast.
Outside of a few speed patterns that I memorized, and throw in from time to time, most of my fast stuff comes from knowing what i want to play and knowing, without thinking, where it is.
But I've been doing this awhile.
To employ the saying again, "I think the notes and they come out of the speaker: the guitar plays itself. It has taken me years to teach it how."
That said, it'd probably be easier to learn "I'll Come Running" by rote, build it up to speed, and then mentally slice it up (if you then slice it up, you now have a bunch of licklets to add to your bag of tricks) than to analyze it and think those notes at that speed.
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More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Jim Robbins · From: Ontario, Canada

Good idea. Generally I find practicing at a comfortable tempo with precision and exaggerated movements and then doubling the time is a much better way of learning how to play fast than gradually increasing tempo.

Mike Heugel · From: Taylor, Michigan, USA

Thanks for the replies folks.

Here's a link to the Scott Tennant vid that this exercise comes from. The vid is long, but this particular section is at the 1:00:54 mark (one hour, fifty four seconds in!). Hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1zlTyl74Bk
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"No officer, I don't even own a cat... "

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

On further reflection, the more exercises, the better.
We should strive to make playing as effortless as speech as a means of expression. Unless I know I wish to end a sentence with a rhyme or turn of phrase, the words go straight from brain to mouth on the fly, and little attention given to wording. But I've been talking all my life.
The right hand could approximate the mechanics of speech, with the left hand, feet and knees providing the vocabulary. So we're learning how to speak at the same time we're learning what to say.
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Clyde Mattocks · From: Kinston, North Carolina, USA

Thanks Mike for your contributions. A favorite excercise of mine is to sit around noodling on tunes like "Irish Washerwoman" which are so angular that they force you into non pattern pick stroking. It's like maybe you'd LIKE to take liberties with the melody, but you can't. It trains your right hand to be as familiar with the melody as your left.(if that make's sense?)
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Jay Fagerlie · From: Lotus, California, USA

Here's a link to the start of the exercise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1zlTyl74Bk&feature=player_detailpage#t=3642s

Bo Legg · Posted 6 Jun 2013 9:11 am

Great stuff Mike,.
I appreciate your contribution and the contributions of others here who share their discoveries.

We could learn a lot from ideas posted on the Forum if we would remember that they are not offered as the “end all only way” and appreciate them for what they are.

Mike Heugel · From: Taylor, Michigan, USA

Thanks guys. One of the great things about learning different instruments is that you can often find more than one way to skin a cat.
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"No officer, I don't even own a cat... "

Carl Mesrobian · From: Salem, Massachusetts, USA

Thanks, Mike. I will certainly try this!
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"The better it gets, the fewer of us know it." Ray Brown

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