Subtle Picking Moves That DRAMATICALLY ENHANCE Your Guitar Playing

What separates a professional finished product from a rough, amateur one has a lot to do with the little things. Whether it’s mixing a song in your home studio or playing guitar with solid, precise technique, this phenomenon rarely has much to do with a drastic change. Instead, getting a professional sound is usually the result of a combination of subtleties that lead to a huge payoff. When it comes to playing the guitar, you’ll find that there are a lot of subtle moves your picking hand can perform to separate yourself from other guitarists.

Vary Your Pick Attack

Varying your pick attack, or accenting certain notes, is a subtle technique that changes the way something sounds.  This can be done by simply hitting certain notes harder than others.  Accenting select notes with greater force from your guitar pick adds dynamics to your guitar playing.  With some parts louder than others, your listener is more likely to stay engaged with what you're playing.  Accenting notes is also a great way to help stay in time, especially when trying to master alternate picking.  You can improve your timing and sense of rhythm by accenting the downbeats in a phrase.

Palm Muting For Cleaner Playing

Sometimes when we play guitar, some unwanted noise from other strings can ring out. This can be frustrating. While this isn't typically something we need to worry about when playing a phrase on a single string, there are things we can do to eliminate the problem when it arises.

We can eliminate unwanted noise by adding a little bit of palm muting. To achieve this technique, gently graze the strings of your guitar near the bridge with your picking hand. When moving from one string to another (e.g., a lick across multiple strings), you can ensure that the previous string doesn’t ring out if you mute it as you proceed to the next string.

The Fading Effect

Now we're gonna take our palm muting concept and get fancy with it.  Ever use a wah pedal, volume pedal, or some other expression pedal?  The same concept can be used by technique alone since this expression pedal comes from your picking hand.

In a shred sequence across multiple strings, you can:

1. Increase palm muting pressure on the lower-range strings
2. Fade the palm muting intensity off when playing the higher-range strings  

Applying palm muting in a shred sequence can make your playing sound super clean.  Depending on the composition, it also creates a spiraling effect and adds more dynamics to your playing.

BONUS: You can get a really cool volume swelling effect in a riffing scenario.  To achieve this, start with the heel of your palm closer toward the neck, then gradually slide it closer to the bridge while maintaining a steady chugging pattern.  The palm muting pressure can stay the same throughout, but you'll notice the volume increase as you bring the heel of your hand closer to the bridge.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a combination of nuances to keep in mind if you want to make yourself stand out as a guitarist. You can make notes stand out by accenting them, play with improved technique, and stay in time by using dynamic picking attacks to your advantage. Palm muting can also be used for cleaner playing and added guitar effects. Try these techniques out for yourself and listen to how they impact your sound. Which tips do you think will make the biggest difference in your playing?

Watch the full lesson here: Subtle Picking Moves That DRAMATICALLY ENHANCE Your Guitar Playing