5 Songs to Improve Your Picking (Beginner to Intermediate)

One of the best ways to improve your picking technique is by learning actual songs rather than only practising dry exercises. Songs give you context, timing, and a clear musical goal, which makes the practice more enjoyable and more effective.

In this lesson I’ve chosen 5 songs that progress from absolute beginner level up to intermediate. Each one focuses on a different aspect of picking so you can build your technique step by step.

1. Love Yourself – Justin Bieber

We start with a single-string arrangement of Love Yourself. This is pure alternate picking on one string. It’s perfect for developing consistent timing, even pick strokes, and a relaxed right hand before you start crossing strings.

2. Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol

Next we move to two-string picking with Chasing Cars. You’ll play a version on the D and G strings, then a slightly more challenging version that involves string skipping between the G and high E. This is a great way to start training accurate string crossing.

3. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day

Here we introduce a classic chord-picking pattern. The right-hand pattern stays consistent while the chords change underneath it. This helps you develop independence between your fretting hand and picking hand.

4. Wherever You Will Go – The Calling

This song uses a slightly more involved chord-picking pattern. It’s a step up from Good Riddance and helps you get comfortable with more movement while still keeping the picking pattern steady.

5. Street Spirit (Fade Out) – Radiohead

The final song is the most challenging of the five. Street Spirit has a distinctive and more demanding picking pattern that will test your control, stamina, and accuracy. It’s a good goal to work towards once you’re comfortable with the earlier songs.

How to practise these

Don’t rush through all five. Get really solid on the earlier songs before moving on. Play them slowly with a metronome first, then gradually increase the speed. Focus on clean notes, even volume, and staying relaxed.

You can watch the full video lesson here:

Let me know which of these songs you’re going to start with.

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Would you like me to make it longer or adjust the tone at all?