Attention: Shredders

Hey, great website. Anyway, was just a question really about my technique.. i usually warm up with some chromatic excercise (3-4-5-6 on all strings then 6-5-4-3 back up), and I practice this with a metronome.

So, when I usually attempt to play fast my picking hand just sorta hovers over the strings but today i was resting my palm (on my thumbs side) on the lower string when i'm picking the high notes and on the pickguard when picking the low E. I was playing at 15bpm faster than I have ever done due to this.

Was wondering is this common or is it a 'bad habbit' to get myself into. Do you do this?


Also if anyone has any tips on how to increase my speed, excercices etc or how long it took them to reach a speed which allowed them to play the songs they really wanted to then that would be very much welcome.

Thank you chaps.