Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio answers a viewers question...

Q: I play guitar with a pick. And, I liked that video you had on, "Demystifying Picking Direction," how we don't have to always use; down-strokes, up-strokes or alternate picking. But, my thing I have troubles with is just being a good overall picker. My troubles are coordinating my picking so that it is always smooth. I guess it will never be perfect, but I'd like to become really good. How can I? Namish -- Kanpur, India

A: Picking technique is extremely important so it's very good that you've taken a solid interest in developing it to another level. In doing this, it is very important to realize that there are a number of factors that need to be addressed (daily) for a long period, (perhaps up to a full-year), until you burn in the kinds of results that you'll need to solve most, if not all, of your picking dilemma's. The best thing in the world that any student can do is to design their own picking exercises that will cover the main areas that they want to get really good at. These areas should include the basic alternate picking, some economy picking, and some all down and all up studies. The other side of this is to also include all of the important picking durations like; the Straight -- "Eighth-note & Sixteenth-notes," as well as, the Triplet -- done as, "Eighth-note & Sixteenth-note," feels. At the other side of your picking development is the use a metronome. Use the metronome on both a good collection of very short studies (as short as one bar in length), and longer studies as well. In the video I zoom in on the neck, and demonstrate a collection of original picking exercises that you can use as a starting point for the creation of your own exercises!