Steve Stine Guitar Podcast
If you are passionate about playing the guitar, but often find yourself short on practice time, or frequently on-the-go and in need of musical inspiration, then the Steve Stine Guitar Podcast can help you improve your skills and stay motivated. Join Steve Stine as he chats with fellow musicians and educators, and shares valuable guitar lessons to help you learn new songs, grasp music theory, and create your own solos. Whether you are an experienced guitarist or just starting out, this podcast is perfect for you.
Steve Stine Guitar Podcast
Why Are You Still Playing Slow? The Mindset of Speed Picking Part 2
Speed picking remains one of the most coveted guitar techniques, yet so many players approach it backward—focusing purely on velocity rather than developing the proper mechanical foundation that allows speed to emerge naturally.
This comprehensive lesson breaks down the often-overlooked fundamentals of efficient, clean guitar speed. We start with a simple three-note-per-string pattern, analyzing how proper picking technique creates a natural flow between strings using alternate picking. The crucial insight lies not in how fast you can move, but in how relaxed and efficient your movements become.
You'll discover how physical anchoring techniques dramatically impact your picking stability, why certain finger combinations (like 1-3-4) present unique challenges compared to others, and how to systematically build speed using both metronome work and the powerful "bursting" technique used by virtuosos like Yngwie Malmsteen.
What separates this approach from cookie-cutter speed exercises is the emphasis on self-awareness during practice. Rather than mindlessly racing up and down scales, you'll learn to identify your specific limitations, address them methodically, and accept that progress often comes in plateaus followed by breakthroughs. The honest truth? Sometimes you'll sit at the same tempo for weeks before making a leap forward—and that's completely normal.
Whether you're struggling with tension issues, inconsistent picking, or simply hitting a speed wall, these techniques provide both the physical framework and mental approach needed to transform your playing. Ready to discover what your hands are truly capable of?
Be sure to check out GuitarZoom's YouTube page to see the video, if you need to visualize some of this topic!
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
All right. So let's dive into the actual practice now. What we're going to be doing here and you could do this anywhere I'm going to be heading up to the 12th fret on the second string, but you could do this anywhere you want to, okay. So what's going to happen here is I'm going to play 12, 13, and 15. Three notes on a string and then I'm going to connect to the first string. So that's the first thing is getting used to again that connection point of moving up and making that connection. And, of course, as I do this, my picking hand is going to be going down, up, down and then up. And that's the big thing is getting the up of the first string there. So I have down, up, down, up. So if I put the whole thing together, I've got. That's what it is, okay. So what I want to do is I want to get comfortable with how that feels, starting with a down, ending with an up. Okay, if the first three notes of the grouping on the second string don't feel comfortable, I need to go back and start there, right? If these three fingers aren't moving properly, as I've been talking about this whole time, you got to go back and you got to fix that. But we don't need to do this fast. We're just starting off with that. Okay, then we're going to connect to the next string. Okay, we just want to get comfortable. We just want to get comfortable. What you do is you start thinking about how the down feels and then ending with that up, tick-a-da-dun, tick-a-da-dun, tick-a-da-dun, tick-a-da-dun. Right, and you might even make wider movements than you need to to begin with, just to get comfortable with the motion. Okay, so don't worry about how fast it is, worry about how clean it is, worry about how accurate it is and, most importantly, get used to how it feels to play this thing Having that down and then ending on that up. So you just practice this over and over and over, just getting used to what it feels like. The next thing we're going to do is we're going to take that same idea and we're just going to create a round robin with it. So we're going up and coming back down. So I'm going. So it looks like this Okay, just getting used to starting on a down, ending the sequence on an up, heading back to the down again. Just getting comfortable with that, okay. Okay, once you get comfortable with that, you can start doing a full continuous round, robin by starting on that 12 each time Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, one, two, three. I don't care how you count it, but it's two groups of three is what you're doing. So as you play, you're trying to smooth that out as much as possible. So you're feeling these connection points Ba da da ba da da ba da da ba da da ba da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da da.
Steve:You're doing that. You're smoothing everything out in the process. Do you need to take the pick and move back a little bit? Do you need to turn a little bit right? Where's your motion coming from? Is it coming from your fingers? Is it coming from your wrist? Is it coming from the elbow? And none of it is right or wrong. You just have to start becoming aware of this.
Steve:You'll also notice, as I'm doing this, I tend to set my pinky or my third finger or something down on the guitar as a brace or an anchor when I do a lot of single note picking. Not everybody does that, so it's not mandatory, it's figuring out what works for you. So if you watch, if I go like this, see how this finger's kind of sitting there. Now, if I was just hovering up in the air like this, that would be really really hard for me to do. It would sound terrible, because I'm trying to hold, I'm stabilizing from my shoulder right and then stabilizing kind of at my elbow and then trying to move like this, like for me touching the guitar with my pinky or my third finger, and again, it's interchangeable for me. But when I do that, all the rest of this can relax and now I can just move from here.
Steve:It's not the same for everybody. It depends on what you like to do. You know, if you, if you play a lot, especially when you first start learning how to play single notes, you know you might have started with just, you know, closing the hand and doing this sort of thing, and as you got better, you got used to kind of hovering over the top right when you play, when I play faster it, you know whether it's my third or my pinky, something winds up stabilizing, which is why you see all the fingerprints there, because that's what it's doing, is it's holding it still. So explore that a little bit. Explore the guitar, pick thickness, like that kind of thing. Does it have a sharp point on it? All the things that we talked about. Don't be in a hurry to just start trying to go fast. Figure out all the details.
Steve:Okay, so here you are. See, there's a little hook in there. When it goes up on the last one, duc up, down, up, and that's what I get comfortable with. Okay, now, eventually we could have conversations about economy picking and all kinds of different things. But I don't want to throw you off right now, and it wouldn't help with this situation anyway, because as soon as you play down, up, down, up, you want to go back to the last string. That's why it's nice to end on an upstroke, because it's turning your pick toward the ceiling to get ready for the second string again. Right, we're going second string down, up, down. It pushes it toward that first string and then I do an up and it pushes it back toward the second string so I can start all over again. Okay, I don't want it to keep pushing it toward the floor and then I got to jump over like this to get back.
Steve:I'm looking for economy of motion is what I'm looking for here? Okay, I'm looking to try and organize my thoughts, make this clean, make it articulate. I'm not worried about speed, but I'm trying to get kind of both a bird's eye view of what I'm trying to do and I'm trying to get a magnified view of what I'm trying to do as well and work out all the bugs as I do that. That's a good time to start trying to bring in the metronome. So once I've brought in the metronome. The best way to practice in the beginning is just think of this as being groups of three triplets. So if I set the metronome, for instance, at 120. Down, up, down up. So get your brain organized to what you're hearing and what you're going to play along with, and then start giving it a chance here. Okay, now, as you're practicing this again, keep reminding yourself. It isn't. How fast can you get the metronome going? Is there comfort in what you're doing? Is there tension in what you're doing? You've got to start working all that out.
Steve:So for me, when I entered this whole speed picking world when I was a kid, the thing about all of this is efficiency. It's about trying to be relaxed and be smooth. That's what you're looking for. It doesn't always work that way and it's not like every day is great or sometimes it takes some work to get into that space. But that's the whole thing about practicing this stuff is you have to be ready to spend some quality time with it. You can't just do it for five minutes. There's just no way. You got to spend time, really get comfortable with what you're trying to do here as you're playing, think about how it feels, think about how it sounds, really get cosmic on all of those small details, the pick and the pick attack and all of these things as you start trying to do this. So you know, if you feel that something is kind of, you know, stuck a little bit, you can always work on some more legato stuff or some picking exercises or whatever it is you need to do to keep trying to work that in. Now I'm playing with a completely dry tone right now. There's no delay or reverb on this thing, so it's brutally honest right now.
Steve:And the other question that you have to ask yourself is how fast is fast enough? Like how fast do you need to go to get to what you want? So these are the things you work on. What I would strongly suggest is you start around a hundred beats per minute. If that's way too slow for you, go up to 110 or 120 or whatever, but start getting used to doing groups of three. Do the triplet, and you don't have to go round, robin, you might just start out by going like this you might just start going toward the floor and you don't have to do it sequentially, you might just do it and stop Right. Once you get kind of comfortable with that, go all the way back down. No, just one shot it and then, as you get more comfortable, start working on. You know that sort of thing. So if that makes sense, you'll keep dialing that in as you go, with honesty.
Steve:So the next thing I want to do is I want to give you some different finger combinations to start thinking about. So one, two, four the one we're doing right now would be the easier of the two that we really want to focus on. The next one would be one, three, four. One, three, four, right. So I'm going to do exactly the same thing, but instead of doing one, 3, 4, right. So I'm gonna do exactly the same thing, but instead of doing 1, 2, 4, I'm doing 1, 3, 4. Now, I'm not concerned with what scale I'm playing, I'm just practicing some finger exercises is essentially what I'm doing here. So I need to get used to this combination and oftentimes that one's gonna be a little bit harder because this finger combination most people struggle with more. So you need to be aware of that. Again, more legato exercises, whatever it is that you need to do. So you set your metronome. Let's go up a little bit. Let's go up to maybe like 126. So I have, okay, same idea.
Steve:Nothing about this hand is changing, it's just the finger combination that I'm doing. So, as I've dialed in the comfort, my bird's eye, my zooming in, everything about this is becoming automatic. It's becoming natural because I'm getting comfortable with the pick angle, the pick I'm using. Everything about this is becoming automatic. It's becoming natural because I'm getting comfortable with the pick angle, the pick I'm using, the attack that I'm using where I'm moving from, whether it's the fingers or the wrist or the elbow or whatever. I'm dialing this in holistically. So, no matter what happens with my fretting hand, this thing's just getting used to everything.
Steve:Okay, so now we've got a one, two, four. We've got a one, three, four. The next thing you could do is a larger round robin. So what we could do is, instead of playing one, two, four, one, and then going backwards, we're going to go one, two, four. One, two, four. So we're going all the way up, which is a group of six. Okay, so we're just going up, okay, working the bugs out as needed. So I'm just going up, just starting all over again.
Steve:Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, over and over and over. One, two, four. Then I could do exactly the same thing, doing one, three, four, and again you might struggle with that one a little bit and that one might take a little bit more of your time. This hand doesn't care, but this hand does. Then we can take both of these patterns and go up and back down. So now I could be doing this. I'll do the first one, one, two, four. So now I could be doing this I'll do the first one, one, two, four. So now I've got let's think about this.
Steve:So now I've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven notes. So it's not going to work anymore in groups of two or three having eleven notes. You see that. But I can still use the click of the metronome to line myself up. See what I mean. But it's a little bit harder now because we don't have enough notes. It doesn't make as much sense. But if we were to do that and put a little hiccup in there, like we've done before, we could do this. And how would that look? Well, now we would go. So we're actually reiterating that bump in the center. So we're going all the way up backwards. But right there, I'm going back to the first string, back to the second string. So I'm doubling up the motion of this hand. Watch, see that.
Steve:And now I've got a pattern that would work with my tempo, okay. And again, you can move these to a very large tempo jump as you keep practicing on these things. So I've got 1, 2, 4, small up or round robin. I've got 1, 3, 4, small up, round robin, du-ka-da-da-da Right or du-ka-da-da-da-da-da-da or du-ka-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da right, or using the two combinations. Then I can go all the way up and just start all over, like that One, two, four, one, three, four. I could do round robin, but the round robin is going to have an awkward amount of notes. But if I put that bump in the center then it evens it out and that's okay. I mean, that's how you make patterns ultimately on the guitar anyway. That's how this stuff works.
Steve:And then the last thing I want you to start trying to focus on is working on 1-2-4 and 1-3-4 together. Okay, so, for instance, I would play 1-2-4 on this string and 1-3-4 on this string, like I would if I was in the key of E minor or G major, for instance. So I'm doing 1, 2, 4 and then 1, 3, 4, all in the same sequence. My brain wants to go faster than the metronome, as I got to keep slowing down here and find that metronome okay, and I'm also focusing on keeping the other strings clean as best I can, all of those other things that are happening as I get comfortable with this. Okay, so that's how you practice with a metronome trying to build speed.
Steve:Now you keep going until you get to a place where Maybe things start falling apart a little bit. Let's go up a bit more. Let let's go up a little more. Let's say we're at 160. So now I've got.
Steve:Now, at that point I can feel that I've got to start relaxing a little bit to get this speed a little bit more. Okay, so let me explain to you what's happening right there. So, as I try and move into this speed, it feels a little awkward because I was playing at the other speed. So I've got to stabilize myself Again, relax, start thinking about what it's supposed to sound like, what does it feel like, and find my place. Okay.
Steve:So there's this technique that I talk about, called bursting, and what bursting is is, instead of always starting from the low side and trying to go to the top side, sometimes you try and start from the top side and you work your way down. Okay. So you might start now with bursting. Things can get really ugly and messy at first, especially if you've got finger limitations you know with in terms of speed and you know dexterity and all that kind of stuff. So again, you want to keep working on all your legato stuff.
Steve:But with bursting what happens is I'm starting topside, not worrying about the metronome. I'm going to start and develop how fast I can actually play it as best I can. Again, I can only go as fast as my slowest hand. At the end of the day, that's all I can do. I can't go any faster. If these two fingers are failing on me, I can't go any faster than that. Okay.
Steve:So in doing what I'm doing right now, my pick could go faster than this hand is going. But because it doesn't make any sense in my brain, it's not going to happen. My hands won't let that happen. So I'm just going to keep practicing this bursting thing and they're going to keep finding each other. Okay. So if it's kind of an off day, my picking hand might need to back off a little bit to find my fretting hand or whatever may need to happen there.
Steve:But I'm practicing with this without a metronome, just trying to find where I am and find what the problems are and then try and fix those and continue going. You see what I'm saying, so I can practice with the metronome. I know I'm at 126 or 142 or whatever it is you're at and that's where you're. You know, always remember again, when you start for the fresh for the day, you might need to start a little bit lower on that metronome. Don't expect to just start the next day at the top speed you left off on yesterday. Right, sometimes you got to work into that speed. You got to work into that top speed and then see where you are.
Steve:And also, please remember that some of these speeds you'll sit there for days, weeks, months, fighting with these same tempos. Sometimes you're going to make big strides, sometimes you're going to get stuck and it takes a long time. Otherwise, every guitar player on the planet that's been doing this for a long time would be at 600 beats per minute. You know what I mean Just impossible speeds. That's not going to happen. So there's going to be limitations in there.
Steve:And then you keep fighting through those limitations. Is it a psychological limitation, limitations in there? And then you keep fighting through those limitations. Is it a psychological limitation? Is it a physical limitation? Is there some small discussion that we're having right now that could fix that and make it even better?
Steve:So that's what I love about practicing from both sides is, if you practice from the slow end, working your way up, you start by warming up and you find where you need to be and you connect with that metronome and all that kind of stuff. When you start from the top side, you're starting with kind of a mess and then you keep dialing that in and then you can set your metronome and go well, what speed am I actually doing here? Because when we practice like this, what you're going to start recognizing is there's a, there's a speed in the metronome, there's a tempo in the metronome. That's your struggle. You can play up to here from this end and you can play down to here from this end, but there's going to be a spot in the center. That's where Murphy's Law says most of your songs are going to exist in that trouble spot right there. But see, this is why we work on this and we use songs right. If we're learning a song that has a particular thing that we're trying to work on, that's great. Then we can do this.
Steve:I've always thought of guys like Yngwie Malmsteen as being very bursting. That's why I called it bursting, because when he plays it's like he's going as fast as he can but still making all the connections. So what he's not as concerned about is whether or not everything is fitting exactly with the metronome all the time. Of course he does some of the time when some players connect with the metronome all the time. Of course he does some of the time where some players connect with the metronome all of the time, or at least most of the time, right. So if you thought of, like a Paul Gilbert or something like that, he's probably trying to make more of that rhythmic connection on a regular basis. Where Yngwie is okay with this flourish of playing that isn't necessarily directly connected to the tempo and the subdivision.
Steve:Now, those are generalizations, but they're true. Again, I'm not saying that Yngwie can't play with a metronome and I'm not saying that Paul Gilbert can't play freeform. Of course they can do all these things. I'm just saying this is a stylistic characteristic, so you want to get used to that.
Steve:When you're playing you might do forward round robin, you can do other groups of strings. There's all kinds of different things that you can do here, but the point is developing this core element of three notes per string using one, two, four and one, three, four. That's what I want you to try and focus on Get comfortable before you start trying to do stuff, because if you just start failing right away and you go, I can't do this, like that's the worst thing you can say Of course you can do it, but where are your trouble spots? If you're not aware of your trouble spots, it's because you're not really thinking about it. You're not even trying right. You can't just try and play. You got to think about it. Where are the problems? What do I got to deal with? Do I got to optimize? It's like a race car, I suppose. If there's some component of the race car that is failing, the rest of it is going to fail. Right. You've got to optimize all of the pieces for it to be a high performance element, all of the pieces for it to be, you know, a high performance element, which is what this is.
Steve:So start by just, without using the metronome, dial things in, start working with the metronome and, honestly, if you were a private student of mine and we were working on this, you would know exactly what tempos. You wouldn't have to think about it or get a notebook, or something. If I said so, how fast are you doing this? You'd know exactly what the tempo is, or something. If I said so, how fast are you doing this? You'd know exactly what the tempo is. I can do it at 142. And if I move to 144, it fails on me, you'd know. You'd know where your crack point is right. And then you've got your bursting and you've got your regular stuff and you keep trying to work that out.
Steve:When it comes to speed picking, it's important to be honest with yourself, because if you're not, it's all going to get messy and it's just going to, you know, like people that try and like all this kind of stuff again, whatever. If that's working for you, that's great, but it's, it's not right. You know what I mean. You got to keep trying to work that stuff out from the bursting perspective. What's great about that is that you're actually starting with this kind of raw, messy perspective and then you keep trying to optimize it as you go. Okay, so that's what I want you to think about.
