weird thing that my hand does

[Guest]

Alright so there is two things so the first thing is anytime I try doing a fast solo my fingers cross my middle finger and index so there is one finger on top of the Index finger is this normal have you heard of it. And the second thing is say this is a fast run I can do it faster down picking then alt picking I don’t understand why. Are these things normal I mostly want to fix the second one I don’t mind the first one just asking

 

[idssdi]

Well finger upon finger might keep limit you a bit. Maybe you’re better at doing only down picking because You play a of down picking rhythm stuff instead of alternate picking. if you want to get better at alternate picking you can simply try and practice it.

 

[Guest]

Any exercises you know of or should I watch the lesson on it

 

[John Tierney]

For alt. picking honestly theres a bunch of videos out there beyond this school that can give some insight. Like Ids said just practice it and you will see improvement. Me I do a picking style where I just feel the moment. I down pick ALOT but if I need to alt. pick I still do a down stroke but if you angle your pick to the string so its ~ 30-45 degrees to the string that seems to help me a bit.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Your fingers should never cross under any circumstances during playing. To me it sounds like you are playing something faster than what your fingers are capable of doing. And as far as alternate picking, the biggest thing that people have trouble with with alternate picking is the up stroke. It takes a lot more conscientious effort of the arm to do an upstroke. Make sure your pic gauge and string gauge isn’t too heavy for what your picking hand can handle. If you look at my exercises using the chromatic scales on my page here, everything is alternate picked and really will help you improve your alternate picking and as I’ve said before, feel free to add me on Skype if you would like to show me personally what you are doing and I can help you one on one.

 

[Charlie Erickson]

The fingers crossing sounds like it could be from too much tension so practicing slow with minimal movement and really trying to keep your hand as relaxed as possible should help. Rick Graham has some great videos on tension and using the least amount of pressure to sound a note. For alternate picking with practice it will feel much more natural and a good way to practice getting faster at it is by working on tremolo picking, keeping the pick as close to the string as possible, and using the very tip of the pick.

 

[Noah Berends]

Fingers crossing will definitely slow down playing in the future. It sounds like what Charlie said, that you might be using too much pressure on your index finger, so when you go to move your hand down the neck it doesn’t move as easily and the fingers overlap. The sooner you can kick this habit the better, even if it means slowing things down to learn it a new way. I had a similar problem where I would use the flats of my fingers when playing power chords and everything dragged and it took me a while to relearn but it’s proper now. As far as the second point goes, Jak nailed it. I like to exercise alternate picking and improve it by turning on a metronome and just picking up and down and up and down on a single string with the tempo until I felt comfortable, and then when I felt comfortable with that range of motion I would add another string above or below and do:
—————————————-
—————————————-
—————————————-
———1-2-3-4————————
———1-2-3-4————————
And I would just keep tacking on strings and go up and down the cluster of strings while alternate picking until I could comfortably do it. You can also turn that into a left-hand exercise as well by varying the fingers used, and going 1-3-4 or 1-2-4 or 1-2-3 or even 4-3-2-1 from time to time. I hope this makes as much sense in writing as it did in my head.

 

[Guest]

Thank you

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I have this issue too, have had it for ever. Most slow stuff I dont alternate pick cause its slow enough to down pick. lol