Alternate Picking Guitar Lessons

The ‘box shape’ pentatonic scale is one of the first things many guitarists will learn and in this lesson I’m going to teach you how you can use this familiar pattern as a starting point to break out into more interesting sounds and expand your musical vocabulary.

I’m also going to explain my approach to pentatonics by showing you some of my favourite patterns and breaking down a pentatonic lick that uses the 3 note per string method which is fantastic for blazing across the fretboard in high-speed bursts. If you’ve been underestimating the power of pentatonic scales – this lesson will change that!

In this lesson, I’ve teamed up with Hutch to bring you a selection of each of our favourite exercises covering things like legato, finger strength and dexterity, alternate picking, sweep picking and more!

Most of these exercises are very quick and easy to learn, you can do most of them in just 20-40 seconds and with a few repetitions and they’ll have a massive impact on your strength, dexterity and ultimately your playing.

If you feel like you get stuck playing vertically up and down in the same position, then you’ll love this lesson! It’s packed full of insights into how I approach playing the guitar and how you can combine multiple techniques and sounds together to open up the entire fretboard.

We’re going to cover things like transitioning between alternate picking into sweeping, moving from chromatics into arpeggios and how to use ‘baby’ sweeps to enable licks and phrases that wouldn’t be possible otherwise and will keep your playing sounding fresh and interesting.

In this lesson, I’m going to break down a really cool riff that combines two of my favourite techniques back to back – sweep picking and alternate picking.

I actually really struggled to perfect this lick, which is a common thing that can happen depending on how you approach it – so I’m going to walk you through all of the pitfalls you need to avoid so that you can nail this technique!

Have you ever looked down at your right hand when you’re picking and noticed how much it’s bobbing up and down? If so, it might be time to learn about pick slanting – a subtle technique that helps you cross strings really smoothly when alternate picking, even at crazy fast speeds.

In this lesson, we’re going to dive deeply into all of the mechanics around pick slanting using a bunch of cool licks and patterns that will help you improve your technique and sound awesome while you’re doing it.

In this lesson, we’re gonna dive into a couple of big-time shred licks which both use very specific approaches that you’ll need to learn if you want to deliver them at speed.

If you go ahead and start trying to approach these licks without the right preparation you’re going to have a very bad time. The good news is I’m going to break down everything you need to know, including how to translate these techniques to other solos and melodies to add more variation and speed to your shred arsenal!

In this lesson I’ve got a really fun yet challenging lick that combines a number of different techniques and sounds together, jumping from alternate picking to economy and sweep picking, with rapid position shifts – even switching from a minor to pentatonic sound (and back again)!

Not only do I break down the lick itself but I also show you the techniques involved so that you can become way more confident when it comes to applying these techniques to your own solos.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve made a ton of progress all at once. My fretting ability, power and dexterity on the fretboard have all increased at the same time – even my creativity has improved. I wanted to share my process so you can see exactly how I was able to make so much progress in a relatively short space of time so that you can do the same!

Included in this lesson are 3 very challenging guitar exercises. These are excellent for your fretting hand dexterity and alternate picking, but what I really love about these exercises is that they remain open to interpretation. This gives you the opportunity to get creative and figure out the best way to cross the fretboard, which is part of the reason they’re so effective.

We’ve all heard guitarists perform a solo with nothing memorable or exciting about it. Maybe that’s even what it feels like when you begin to improvise – it’s too easy to fall into the trap of noodling at the same pace, using the same notes and not really changing much.

What if you could still use the patterns and shapes that you already know, but transform those boring licks into something memorable and exciting? That’s what this lesson is all about, and that’s exactly what I’m going to show you. Let’s go!

Welcome to this lesson where I’ll be dissecting a slide-based lick that’s all about dynamic alternate picking and the magic of outside notes. The result is a swing-style vibe with more than a few hints of EVH thrown in for good measure.

Within this lick, there are a wide range of techniques and ideas we can explore. From commanding big bends to playful triplets, and bluesy sequences featuring a unique upstroke technique, each element contributes to crafting a truly distinct sound. Rest assured, I’ll break down the entire thing for you every step of the way.