Alternate Picking - Can We Discuss It?

[matonanjin]

I'm on lesson 2 of Acoustic Blues Guitar Unleashed and Griff goes into some length about it. Strict Alternate Picking vs. Economy vs. Sweep. But I thought this a discussion not limited to just acoustic. So I started this here. And I did search! There was a discussion almost 5 years ago, Alternate Picking Does Everybody Do It? I thought perhaps it time for a fresh discussion.

I'm not interested in if everybody does it but rather do you always work it? Do you concentrate on working it? Griff's bringing it up this early in ABGU really made me concentrate on it for a couple of these exercises and I am horrible. I realized that I don't think about it and most of my picking is down.

Do you consciously think about strictly alternate picking when you play? Or did you concentrate on it early in your learning and now alternate picking largely comes naturally? Or do you use some combination of alternate and economy/sweep? Or do you just not worry about it and just pick whatever manner seems to work?

 

[Mickey Duane]

Griff offers many different techniques and such

If you are not trying to be the fastest in the world I suggest you pick in a way that comes natural and works for you

happy playing

Peace

 

[Elio]

When I came back to guitar playing about 10 years ago I tried to do strict altrrnate picking. I was also seeing a local private instructor that would keep reminding me to do the same. My issue is that I could just never get used to situations in which an alternate pick meant that I had to jump over a string and pick from the opposite direction when it was more convenient to simply pick two adjacent strings in the same direction. Hearing Griff's views on economy picking is what finally made me accept it as an approach. When I pay attention to what I'm doing, I probably alternate pick about 60 to 70 percent of the notes.

 

[PapaRaptor]

I'm pretty much in the strict alternate picking camp. This is not for any reason, but it came pretty naturally to me. One day many years ago, it dawned on me that I had adopted it without much thought.
I have found the drawback to sweep or economy picking is it limits my speed. There was quite a bit of time spent, attempting to play using economy picking to get over that "jump over a string," which definitely slows you down (or at least it slows me down). However, in all my attempts, my right hand just doesn't want to cooperate and retain proper timing. I still work on it now and then, especially when trying something that would make more sense as sweep. But I've more or less resigned myself to hitting the brick wall of alternate picking.

 

[MikeS]

I'm on lesson 2 of Acoustic Blues Guitar Unleashed and Griff goes into some length about it. Strict Alternate Picking vs. Economy vs. Sweep. But I thought this a discussion not limited to just acoustic. So I started this here. And I did search! There was a discussion almost 5 years ago, Alternate Picking Does Everybody Do It? I thought perhaps it time for a fresh discussion.

I'm not interested in if everybody does it but rather do you always work it? Do you concentrate on working it? Griff's bringing it up this early in ABGU really made me concentrate on it for a couple of these exercises and I am horrible. I realized that I don't think about it and most of my picking is down.

Do you consciously think about strictly alternate picking when you play? Or did you concentrate on it early in your learning and now alternate picking largely comes naturally? Or do you use some combination of alternate and economy/sweep? Or do you just not worry about it and just pick whatever manner seems to work?

I never paid much attention to my picking, but always thought I was in the economy picking camp.
I started private lessons with Griff, and guess what! I'm working on a picking lesson this week.
He spotted a few things that I was doing that have added speed bumps in my solos.(pecking at the strings, not always economy, alternate and certainly not sweep... the dreaded double down pick is apparently something I do too often too.)

Back to my spider drills....

 

[Elwood]

Alternate picking here too. I don't see how "strict" even works though. You are picking something, not just picking. When the phrase or passage you are picking ends, or requires a chord, a rest, any timing or voicing change comes along in the tune, you can't just alternate pick right through...you have to make it fit. So your "strict" alternate picking got compromised, in a good way.

The technique seems like any other. Hard at first, then a little easier, then you realize you have other fish to fry, that one is done. Practice, practice.

Strict alternate picking is great for a concept or as an exercise. Mostly alternate picking is all I want. Otherwise the music will sound pretty funny to me.

 

[Paleo]

One thing guaranteed to slow me down is thinking about what someone else says I should be doing.

I think I thought about it about 30 years ago, but trying to follow those up and down arrows below the tab slowed me down more than trying to read the notes.

I think I pretty much use whatever style fits the moment.

But I haven't really thought about it.

And I generally tend not to do anything that someone tells me is the only way to do it at all times.

Even if it is.

 

[snarf]

Seldom think about it. I play however I play. I think this is part of that whole Guitar DNA discussion that gets brought up occasionally. I really only think about it when one of two things happen. (1) When I am practicing a scale or box and am playing pretty slowly. At those times, it's strict alternate picking because it's so slow. (2) When somebody asks the question. Those times, I notice that I am an alternate picker the vast majority of the time with the very occasional economy thrown in.

I blame a lot of it on playing some bluegrass in my younger days. They have a technique that they call crosspicking. If I remember correctly, there are two different versions of it...and both are pretty strict. One is down down up. Two runs through the pattern would be down down up down down up rinse repeat for more. The other is down up down. Two runs through would be down up down up down up rinse repeat - it's just alternate picking. Since the technique involves 3 strings with the pattern generally starting with the lower strings, if you use the alternating pattern, you're eventually downpicking on the higher string immediately followed by an upstroke on the lower string. To this day, I can't do the down down up more than a time or two before the timing gets wonky and it goes sideways, but the alternate pattern I can camp on all day and be fine. That's not to say that I even pretend to be a good crosspicker, but I can fake it sometimes and fool those who don't know any better.

 

[Tangled_up_in_Blue]

I got back into playing guitar seriously about a year ago after a very long break.
I have been exclusively using Griff's courses for about 8 months. For the 4 months previous to that I spent a long time reviewing different courses and online instructors that emphasized picking exercises in all forms. However, I quickly got bored with this and now I mostly don't give my picking technique a second thought. I just pick the way that feels right for a particular lick. The only exception would be when I am trying to learn a particularly difficult/fast lick that I can't nail. Sometimes the reason is inefficient picking. I think of a particular technique as a means to an end; if my poor techniques hinders me from playing what I am trying to learn then I will work on it. If not I don't give it a second thought.

 

[Elwood]

Once, a wise member opined;

"One thing guaranteed to slow me down is thinking about what someone else says I should be doing. "

Whoever that masked man was, I sure agree and wish him well. His observation was on point for this topic.

We need to work to learn what we need to learn, alternate picking in this case, so we can play like we don't care!!!

EDIT////
I believe I have been blocked by a member for making the following response to his post. Very unfortunate as my comment was in no was disparaging and certainly was on point. While I don't understand the reaction the member chose his action.
Regardless, his action made a mess of my response in this tread so I chose to re-post my earlier statement, the following is as it was written.
______________________________________________________________________

Paleo, Paleo, I have waited for the day.

First, you are an adept student of theory and without fail stand ready to help others understand, I salute you and thank you Sir!

Your statement that I quoted says so well how I internally react when theory breaks out every time I play a note. No dig here. More an opportunity (I hope) to clarify how my admiration for your love of theory exists in my world, where I treasure the childlike exhilaration of discovering how something works through wandering through the musical landscape (vs having a trip planned via map (or e gads gps) aka theory.

Years ago, it seems like lives ago, I took theory at the local CC. Pretty quick I was the TA helping to grade papers as it seemed my teacher used the time to help me progress faster. The more rules I learned, the worse I played. Just what you said, only it was me saying what I should be doing/ I felt like every note had some rule why I shouldn't play it right then.

I always think about a pretty girl about now...hmm...no. What I mean is if I see a fine looking lady, being a man and all, I may be taken by her beauty, her grace and poise. I never once ponder all the laws of nature, science and such that are in play.

So it is with my music world. Of course i want to learn. I see two ways, one is more work to me, one is more fun to me. Since I really don't care where I am going, I really do care about how I get there. I feel like I run out of time to start everything over. So for me, I stick to my meandering route, with no maps. I may get lost now and then, and I might make a few mistakes. I have time as long as it is fun.

What you are doing helps lots of folks Paleo, excellent!!! I was just maybe thinking that you were thinking that I was somehow at odds with you. I'm not. I'm just gonna keep having fun my way!!! I hope you keep up your way for a long long time.

________________________________________________________________________

that was the whole thing??? really?????

sorry for the distraction on your thread @matonanjin. I felt all the commentary was very relevant.

 

[Norfolk Bill]

there are some strange people on here ,,i was blocked by big Jim years ago, for a gentle ribbing over his constant Quilter refferences whether it was relevant to the post or not,,,it certainly messes up any thread these people are involved with,,,but hey ,,suck it up my boy, be the adult lol

 

[tommytubetone]

eldom think about it. I play however I play. I think this is part of that whole Guitar DNA discussion that gets brought up occasionally. I really only think about it when one of two things happen. (1) When I am practicing a scale or box and am playing pretty slowly. At those times, it's strict alternate picking because it's so slow. (2) When somebody asks the question. Those times, I notice that I am an alternate picker the vast majority of the time with the very occasional economy thrown in.

I'm probably in this camp, but use alternate picking most of the time. (I think). When playing something like Tore Down or some other song which requires thumping hard with palm muting, I definitely go with down picking. I have more power going down it seems.

 

[Jack]

Or did you concentrate on it early in your learning and now alternate picking largely comes naturally?

That's what I did. It's a good thing to have as your "default" method. Once I become more familiar with a piece and get more relaxed, I'll naturally fall into more economy picking, but for fast passages it's nice to be able to jump into them with some alternate picking. For string skipping and all that stuff, you can do the spider exercise with 3 notes per string, which forces you do move to the next string with an upstroke once, and a downstroke the next time. There's "inside" and "outside" picking, inside for instance would be a downstroke on the high E followed by and upstroke on the B, while outside would be an upstroke on the high E followed by a downstroke on the B. Or any other pair of strings. As I work through a piece and find I'm having problems in a certain spot, I'll analyze exactly what's going on with the picking and that usually solves it.

Of course there are some blues licks that require economy picking, and various arpeggio things that require sweep picking.

 

[Elwood]

It just occurred to me (as I sit down to do it) that every day when I do my routine with the metronome I am alternate picking the whole time. So, this is around 20 minutes running through 5 boxes between 100 - 160bpm. My hand/peace of mind therapy. It also keeps me alternate picking ready. Some days this may be the only time I spend with a flat pick though.
So I guess the alternate picking is so important to me that I keep it up without conscious effort.

 

[Rancid Rumpboogie]

I just do what feels good and works the best at the moment.

 

[dwparker]

By default I alternate pick. But when I come to passages which feels a little awkward to me, I figure out the best way to pick just that passage. I usually notate in the music as well and then play it through 20-30 times until I've got it down cold and don't have to think about it. Then back to alternate picking.