Enjoyed the video? Subscribe, Give it a Thumbs Up and Comment Below. Get FREE guitar advice by signing up to my newsletter!

Pretty certain I’ve been playing guitar (badly) longer than you’ve been alive. Yet today I learnt something so simple yet incredible. Just shows, age is no measure of ability to teach. Thank you Ben.

I think it comes from so many so called guitar teachers on the internet demanding you lock and pivot the hand.

Such an important lesson thats normally completely overlooked. Great work as always Ben!

Yup, that's exactly what I do - get tense trying to play fast, that locks the picking hand in place and then I get into really awkward angles where everything turn to slop. Thanks so much for the lesson!

Already knew this stuff but the warm up exercises are pure gold.

Ben is telling that simply move the arm accordingly while you are moving up the strings... Really good advice

This is PRICELESS advice!! I’ve been doing it the wrong way for so long and this solved SO MANY problems I was having. I have bought many of Ben’s lessons over the years. He is one of the best teachers around. But even then I never knew exactly what he is saying here. I guess I missed this lesson. But this is amazing. I was doing it the wrong way, makes total sense watching this. THANK YOU BEN!!

Only been teaching myself for two years and I still haven't gotten alternate picking down. Hopefully soon before the 3 year mark.

This was an immediate improvement after watching this. Been playing with this bad habit for 13 years now. Time to learn a new habit!

This may be all that the problem I've had for years actually was. Thank you.

Awsome u solved me what blocked me for a year ...omy god this is pure gold thankyou

thank you so much ,i had a problem with that for months and you just fixed it within 5 minutes!

i rarely comment but this video is awesome, virtually every second of the video was informative and helpful. it’s like you tied together all the most common problems and addreessed them in one video. great stuff

I’m a new player and was wondering what the right way to move the right way, very helpful thanks!

So I’ve had trouble with string crossing for months now, even though my picking speed is very fast. I tried to find what the cause was for this on my own and noticed the pivot thing you mentioned, I didn’t know though if it was proper technique or not and if I should change it. So I never did. It got to a point with sweep picking as well where I was picking in a full circle rather than up and down. After hearing you talk about the pivot, I went and tried it myself, found the best spot for my picking and my GOD it changed immediately. I finally can string cross with ease and have no issues anymore. In the matter of minutes you changed everything. Thank you!!!!

Yes,Yes,Yes! I teach this all of the time it’s very common, some players can pull off this “Radius”picking when anchoring with the pinky or palm in a mute ready or mute position but for some students I’ll take a magic marker to their strings as a straight line target, your lesson also helps with players who complain about volume pot being in the way, sometimes it’s the little things, good one

Ben Higgins: the King of Commonsense. Well done!

This is amazing advice, and I believe this is exactly my problem.

Dude you have been such a goldmine of information to me, thanks.

Excellent tip, Ben. I'm a self confessed and frustrated 'scraper' so this 4:15m should be invaluable. Many thanks.

And the first place award for this year's Johnny Marr look-alike contest goes to..... BEN HIGGINS!!! Come on up, BEN!!

Full kudos to you mate, you are filling in all the cracks in other courses I have

struggling with this...gonna apply this with practice thank you!

Faced this problem when i tried to upstroke 2 strings keeping palm-mute. Downstoke/upstroke of top strings with palm-mute is good, but when i go a bit lower to 5-4 strings i cant and upstroke and palm mute string 4 at the same time. The only way i found to do that was to move the whole palm lower to save an angle. Alternative way to solve the angle problem is to land the palm lower than you would do, so your angle starts to change later.

Thanks! I was doing this very thing and wondered why I wasn't making the progress I felt I should. I was so inconsistent! (Consistently inconsistent, really, which is maddening!)

Thanks a lot for that man! Sometimes it´s the little detail that makes the big difference! Thanks

It’s like linear tracking on a record deck. Mine is at its best around b and g strings so I will defo look at this . I see a badass alt picking course in my future lo,

Holy crap... I have been struggling with this for years!!!!

Worked instantly, thank you so much

No one has ever explained that to me before. Many thanks 🙏

👍👍 That's what I do wrong Gonna work on it! THANKS!!!!

Great advice - thanks 👍😊

This ibanez is Beautiful 🎉

Great advice cheers

man you r the best! your play is amazing!

Wow Ben I didn't realise I was doing this! Thank you man

Thank you so so much man!!! So simple yet so helpful, you are amazing ✌️

Tysm this helped alot

thanks this helped me for string skipping as well!

awesome!! thanks for the lesson man!

Ben - I just have found your videos and I've been practicing what I've watched from you. I wanted to say thank you so much for simplifying it! I've struggled for years of playing with alternate picking and I'm finally starting to feel in the groove while practicing and that feels super cool! I've signed up to your site as well, thanks for the content in there too. Do you give online lessons?

i dont think it has to do with the way one positions the hand, i think it just has to do with the tensio of the strings, the thicker gauge strings feel a lot better to people mainly because theyre a bigger target to hit, and when you pick the bigger strings, they're also more likely to have more bounce and play in them because lower pitch note strings vibrate like crazy, when you palm mute the vibration of the string gets much shorter, while still keeping the bouncyness of the string, intact. And what i mean by that is that essentially what your picking hand needs to do Tripple picking or tremolo picking or legatos or whatever you call it is Bounce, because when the string makes your pick bounce into the other side of the string you suddendly have to waste less energy, its easier, you can go though it like a bullet goes through untempered glass. However when the tension of the string is really high and solid, but you have a small gauge string to hit (very small string) your pick gets locked into place when you use the same technique as you did for the lower strings, which essentially means the force being exerted into the string does not get absorbed by the string as much, your hand thinks its good, and you get locked out into the position. If you pick too hard you can have the note go out of tune, you can even break the smaller strings and you could hurt yourself. Its a mix of the size of the string how big it is and the tension each string carries, for example i find it easy to tripple pick on the low E A D but on the G string B and E i struggle to even get a nice CHUGGING action going simply because these strings are so thin and so high tension they dont have a lot of bounce and play in them. Now im not saying is impossible to chug on the High E string (professional guitar players will proe me wrong all day long if thats the case) All you have to do is change the angle in which youre picking and possibly even shift your hand further towards the neck pickup as opposed to the bridge i found this to be quite helpful but now i struggle with my right hand getting tired all the time! how do they do it!!!!

Thx man rly helped my latest issue

Omg this worked instantly thanks man your amazing

Hey Ben, your tips are always very helpfull! keep doing the awesome work man!!

Man, that's one of the best advices I ever get. Thanks a lot, really. I love your videos!! BTW, am I the only one who is disturbed by the volume knob??

I liked you video. I don't suppose you know how to fix arthritis. I got it years ago and in my thumb and I have terrible Control of my hands at times and was hoping I could figure a way to fix it by looking around and what is cool about your video is people aren't going to check this stuff out until they find themselves unable to do things because the body has a problem and then you find out that all kinds of things we do that we shouldn't or how hard you need to squeeze to hold a pick or something. You would be surprised how many things a lot of us did that weren't good and then years later you have to try to relearn it so break old habits

Hi Ben I think this one Is the most important lesson can be done for picking. I figured out by myself exactly what you explain in this video and a new world opened to.me, allowing to pick much cleaner. The only I disagree with you Is that you Anchors the Pinky AND this for people with big hands can be no issue as the length of your anchored picking still allows the forearm movement you explain but for people with smll hands as me, if I anchor then I can not maintain the proper forearm-picking position in the Thicker strings hence issues appear on picking lower strings. cheers

I identified this in myself... it happens when you get lazy or fatigued alot too.

Thanks

Excellent tutorial

Great video, great info!

Does this also solved the problem when using different guitar? Im using a les paul type guitar and this works but when i switch to another guitar that is not a les paul type it feels like i dont know how to pick. Great and helpfull tip anyway cheers!!!

i don't find an anchor point on my jackson rr without tremolo because there is no proper bridge

you are the man!!!

please, How did paul do the riff at 25:41 ???? what strings ? how to pick ? just How ???

Great content!

I have an issue where I pick down and then up and the I need to pick down again but on the next string down and I just end up hitting the same string by accident. How do I fix this?

Thank you! \m/

So you got tabs for this? I need to use that

I struggle with this in a bad way. Are you letting your palm touch the strings at all? I've been really practicing different techniques but they keep clashing with each other. Sweep picking vs. alternative picking vs. Hybrid picking. I can't seem to connect them all. Once something starts to lock in for me I start losing other techniques.

Great Video ! thanks a lot Ben ! I have a technical question. I use a lot of "classic" scales which makes my right hand alternate and go back and forth between two strings. In that case, does the right forearm have to move according to the motions between a string and another? I mean, does this motion of the forearm is applied on little changes between a string and the next one? Thanks :)

Hey @benhigginsofficial thank you so much for the excellent video lessons! I've been hitting a bit of an issue trying to follow this one and was curious to pick your brain. I tend to rest my forearm on the guitar and my elbow comes behind the plane of the instrument. This seems to exacerbate the problem you demonstrate here by making it challenging to actually move the whole arm up and down. I'm thinking taking my forearm and elbow and making it more parallel to the guitar body is the way to go, but I wanted to check with you to see if that is what you would suggest here?

what about the other strings that u dont mute when u move your arm down, i have an 8 string and when ever i dont mute the 8th string it rings out, and thanks for the video :DDDD

I only have this problem when palm muting. Is it even possible to tremolo on muting?

Guitar ??

question. is it ok to pick upwards then downwards between two different strings? example is picking upwards on the g string then downwards on the b string.

what's the guitar of paul ?

Is that a Full Metal Alchemist shirt? I just found your videos and was wondering what the downloads on your web page offered that the youtube videos do not? I am set to buy, I was just curious if there was more in depth content.

My wrist gets stuck on the face of the guitar making it hard to swap strings

I've been playing for over a decade, but my wrists are so messed up, and stiff, no matter what I can't do it.

for me I can't even move across string quickly without picking...

Is it bad to rest the picking hand on the guitar while playing?

is there other kind of exercise outside of playing the instrument that can speed up the arm's movement between strings? shakeweight? lol

can you be less awesome pls

Hey guys, does someone know the title of the song in the intro ? (a Malmsteen one apparently)

Are you wearing a Fullmetal Alchemist t-shirt by any chance?

what is the intro song

bennnnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

My biggest question is... what happened with your great long hair?

Ben's a great player and what he said in this video is true, but it's only one piece of the puzzle. I doubt anyone watching this video thinking that this was going to solve all their problem made any significant gains. Sorry. (I did NOT thumbs down the vid though.)

Like 398

second

First ;)