Alternate picking help

My goal is to pick 16-notes on 240b.p.m.

Currently I pick 16-notes at 70b.p.m. (I started playing the guitar a few months ago...)

So, I nailed them at 70, what now??? Should I continue to play slow, or speed up, o combine this (HOW???)

Also, after about 20 sec. of picking, my pick slips from my hand... What should I do???

THANKS!

practice practice practice and yet more practice..keep up what you doin and make sure its clean..spped comes with time..it doesnt happen over night so keep practicing that and change stuff around..playin that one lik all the time will ecome boring..as for te pick slipping..it used to happen to..try holdin it diff or tighter maybe some powder for grip..you will get the hang of holidn the pick after awhile

So you nailed them at 70. kick it up to 72. than 74. Do it slowly. Don't do like 70; perfect it than jump to 9. that won't work. Like Ketsukei said, Speed comes with time. Also play it with a clean tone. Distortion can really mask the mistakes you are making. Good luck.

i have a very light picking from my acoustic days, and i never hold the pick tightly, with that i never had a pick slipping problem, so try that... tight grip of the pick and hard picking may easily lead to your problem, also try different grips of the pick, i have mine layed on the side of the pointing finger, and the thumb holds it from above. the pointing finger is diagonal to the point of the pick.
as for the alternate picking, i donno because i never had any problems with that, it came really naturally to me since the beginning, but i suppose you should pick with the wrist, not the hand, and just play whatever you want, it'll come with time. instead of trying to learn techniques try learning songs, and through that you'll learn the techniques.

Thank you very much about the feedback, I just have one more question: Should I mix practicing slow and fast (f.e. practicing 30 min. at 80b.p.m. , and then 30min at 180b.p.m.), or should I just practice at fast tempo?

depends, are you trying to get speed or get good alternate picking?
judging by the fact your pick slips every 20 seconds i'd say you have no reason to push it any further because you either psycho picking it or really locking your muscules, and probebly both, and that's not a way to alternate pick.
i don't really see why you'd want to push your speed so much, and i suppose that if you insist i'd suggest fast but at a comforteble speed frame, i.e. don't go for yngwie fast, go for Autark fast, whatever you are capable of, the better you'll get the faster you'll get without even noticing, but my best advice is forget about pointless speed pushing exersices and try learning songs instead..
every time you learn a new difficult song your overall skill improves greatly, and it's much more fun.

But, I pick slowly, and that's why I want to improve my speed. I want to pick 16-notes at 240 because, I don't know, it's my goal.

And of course I don't want to pick fast and unclean. I want to pick FAST and CLEAN!!!

So I go for speed picking and good picking!!!

When I'm trying to get going really fast, I tend to lock my wrist and hand. (Think tremelo picking)

*Quote from Michael Angelo*

"The secret to being able to alternate pick fast is the ability to start a new string with an upstroke."

Just make sure your picking motion is the same fast or slow. A good exercise is to pick (no pun intended) one note on the fretboard and start alternate picking it, speed up and then slow down, speed up and then slow down. Make sure that your picking style doesn't change.

There is no secret on being fast. You just have to practice practice and practice some more. If being fast was easy, then everyone would be able to shred. Just don't give up.

I also suggest checking out Michael Angelo's Speed Kills DVD. It's very helpful.

Thank you. I really would like to check Angello's dvd, but the problem is that I live far from America and EU, and I can't order anything over the internet. But maybe you could send me some exercises(guitar pro or powertab)...

Get a metrinome n' such.

Set it to 80. Practice up to 32nd notes at that speed, you will be playing relatively at 16th notes at 160.

Next set it to 100 and practice up to doing 32nd notes at that speed.

Once you can do that 200 tempo 16th notes are within your reach.

Set it to 120 and practice up to doing 32nd notes at that speed.

Once you can do that you can do 16th notes at 240.

then move up to 140 and do 32nd notes at that speed.

Once you can do that then you can play 16th notes at 280.

Practice slow, then fast. Built the coordination and the speed will be a byproduct of coordination as you must truely realize this. And practice all the fricken time.

Also slow tedious practice with lots of force can also aid you in strengthening your wrist and fingers. Force your finders at slower speeds to hold those notes, really grip the notes and sustain them. Learn also how to mute with both hands while playing so that you only get the notes you want and nothing else. There are a couple techniques but that's another discussion topic.

Another thing to do is practice scales and note patterns that you cannot easily play yet at slower speed to build the coordination or repetative scale exercises. Take any minor scale and do triplet and various ascending and descending note patterns in order. or just stick with charomatic exercises, I find the charomatic to be a good general speed exercise built me up good years ago. Try a bunch of variants on the ole 1-2-3-4- down and up the strings and fretboard.

Not much else to say excep keep playing,
Practice makes better,
People can never be perfect,