TECHNIQUE FOCUS

PICKING

Though very fluid and accurate, Gary’s playing always managed to keep its rough edges -even in the fusion years. The most common advice about developing picking accuracy is to slow things down - and this is perfectly true, but it is also worth taking note of your picking hand posture, and how it changes as you start to turn up the tempo. Try tremolo picking as fast as you can on one note while looking at your arm and hand position - your brain and hands will likely have unconsciously optimised your economy in motion more than when you run slowly through exercises. You are likely to make gains far more quickly if you consciously adopt a similar hand posture when working on alternate picking.