Video Question: Alternate Picking Strokes

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Date: October 10th, 2007 | Length: 2.93 | Instructor: Matt Brown

Thomas1603 says, "Hey guys, I've been having a hard time with my alternate picking techniques, I know it's not completely NECESSARY but I would like to be able to improve it since I would like to play a little faster, It's just that I can't seem to coordinate my hand very well. Anything you guys can help me with?" Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

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Jdemail78 asks, "I have a pretty simple question, I think, on the correct way to tune a guitar. I have an acoustic/electric guitar with a tuner built right into the electronics but my question would apply to any guitar with any sort of tuner. When you go to tune a string, should you give the string your tuning one good strum and then adjust the tuning peg, or is it better to continue to pick the string while your adjusting the peg? It seems like I can get a slightly different result doing it one way or the other. In the end, I think either way has the guitar pretty much in tune but I'm just curious if one way is better over the other or if it really doesn't matter. Thanks and keep up the great lessons." View Response

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Gregory Gage asked "Hey guys I had a question about harmonics and wanted to know if you could give me some help i don't completely understand how to to make that sound and its really hard because my instructor isn;t being specific, please help me out." View Response

thumb pick technique - May 5th, 2008 (1 minutes, 35 seconds)

Greeno asks, "Jim, I've noticed in some of the songs that you play that you use an upstroke with the thumb pick and it gives the riff an additional sense of syncopation. I'm having some problems with that and wonder if you could share any excercises that would improve my ability to do that. Great lessons BTW. Thanks. greeno" View Response

Fast Picking - July 18th, 2008 (3 minutes, 34 seconds)

StephenWhan asks, "Can you give any advice as to how to improve fast picking techniques? By way of example, I've been messing around with the intro to Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years" for a while now and find that I keep missing the string every 3-4 picks. Either I miss the string altogether, or I dig too deep into the preceding note and it throws off my rhythm. I've tried practicing without using my left hand and get fairly accurate relatively quickly, but as soon as I re-introduce the left and start depressing strings, I go right back to missing strings again. Slowing down, I'm 100%, so it's the tempo and length of the repetition that's throwing me off. Any and all help, as always, is greatly appreciated. Jam on!" View Response

expensive guitars..? - April 1st, 2008 (2 minutes, 26 seconds)

Teewii asks, "hi there! im a beginner guitarist, and i bought an electric guitar from a friend for about 220$(including amp, so it was kinda cheap) even i can see that its not the best guitar in the world, but i guess its more than great for a beginner. but anyway ive been looking around the net at sites where they sell guitars, and i see many that are sold for more than 2000$ (some even more expensive). i was thinking, as i get better, i will get a new guitar, and in that case i was wondering; is there a lot of difference between expensive and "cheaper" guitars? what is different? is it just the sound? and what makes a guitar worth paying 2000$ for? please explain what a good guitar is. hope somebody can answer me. btw, this site is so great =) thanks." View Response