This course is about doing the work needed to level up your picking technique.

If you really want to improve as quickly as possible, you need to be out of balance in your practice for a while.

It takes a concentrated effort (meaning time spent per day) over an extended time (3-6 months) to really see a big improvement in your picking technique.

Think of it like doing pushups. If you do 10 000 pushups in 3 months as compared to 3 years, what will have the most impact on your physique?

Some skills will grow the fastest when you have the requisite volume of practice invested.

My teacher at GIT (Nick Nolan) taught an alternate picking course and in his experience (1000's of students) he said that "most students impress themselves after around 3 months of practicing alternate picking for 2 hours per day".

This was in 1995 and since I started teaching in 2000 and had hundreds if not over 1000 students over the past 23 years, I can attest to this statement.

There really is no shortcut here, you need to spend the time required to earn this skill.

It's not hard and anyone who puts in the time and does it correctly will get results.

If you can't do 2 hours, do as much as you can, you will still improve over time but it might take you longer to get there.

The Basic Routine

1. Transition Time Routine
2. String Crossing Routine
3. Single String Routine
4. The 8 Fundamental Patterns Routine
5. String Skipping Routine
6. Subdivision Routine

The 6 steps above outline the basic routine. This will take you around 90-100 minutes at the tempos given. You shouldn't exceed those tempos but if you can't do it accurately you NEED to bring the tempos down for those exercises. Absolute accuracy is the standard.

Each routine should be done starting on frets: 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17.

Whenever you move up to the next step in each routine (as in changing to an upstroke) you do that in the next higher fret. You shouldn't change any exercises or add any practice filters (more on that later) until you've done each routine at least twice through the starting frets above.

I'll add more supplemental exercises in the coming days and weeks, for now, it's very important to get going with this routine and start building your technique.

Like I mentioned in routine #4, you can never be TOO good at these patterns.

Let me know if you have any questions and, good luck!

/Jon