Alternate picking?

[SilverBlade]

Whenever I use a pick and pluck the string upwards, I always hit the string above as well as the one I was aiming for. I think it is because I am used to strumming across all six strings upwards and not used to solo picking upwards.

Also, I am wondering if this technique is essential.

Any tips?

 

[iAMtheblackwizards]

alternate picking will make your life a lot easier, and will make stuff sound cleaner when you play it. There are tons of exercises you can practice to work on your alternate picking, im sure you can find them all on the internet somewhere, just find one and do it for like 23 hours a day for about 4 months and alternate picking will become second nature.

 

[AjDeath]

Yes, alternate picking is essential, they way I learned it was by being in a Bluegrass band for the first FOUR YEARS of guitar playing, if that doesn't do it, nothing will. Anyways, if you ever hope to play a solo or weird apregGio, you will need to Know alternate picking, it really isn't that hard, it is getting your technique just right that will take some time.

 

[Sunbane]

I agree, alternate picking is an essential part of playing metal guitar - not only for lead playing, but for rhythm playing as well. You will not be able to play a fast Slayer song without a solid, fast alternate picking for instance.

Learning alternate picking on one strings is easy and will be sufficient for most rhythm guitar parts. The hard part is using alternate picking between different strings. I trained this mostly by rehearsing scales and runs. The important thing is to make sure that you're not skipping any strokes.

First, focus on getting one stroke down, one stroke up, one down, one up, etc. Once you've learned a certain scale or pattern like this, change to a different scale and keep on practicing.

This is also important: Practice slowly at a steady rate (use a metronome if you have one). Make sure that each note is clear and ungarbled - if they're not, lower the tempo a notch and start over again. This will also build up your chops. =)

'bane

 

[Ravenous Enemy]

If you like Rage Against the Maching the intro to the song 'Bombtrack' is really good if you want to start getting to grips with alternate picking.
Is shred essentialy very fast alternate picking then?

 

[iAMtheblackwizards]

Is shred essentialy very fast alternate picking then?

More or less, there are exceptions like always but thats a general rule of thumb. Also there is a term for picking one note really fast (just one note) which happens in just about every black metal song, its called tremolo picking.

And that my friends is your guitar lesson for the day

 

[TekChef]

If you want to spend a little..

get-
1.A metronome-picking notes in time is VERY important
2. A copy of Speed Mechanics for Lead guitar by Troy Stetina. This book covers it all!(check amazon.com)
don'tlet the name fool you..many of the skills he presents in the book are VERY usefull in rhythm playing.

 

[JesusChristPose]

Is there any other method? You must learn this technique.

 

[PureRocker86]

what I'm weak at alternate picking is ...I kinda forgot wether I'm picking up or down when I stop for a while...any idea to solve it?

 

[Sunbane]

what I'm weak at alternate picking is ...I kinda forgot wether I'm picking up or down when I stop for a while...any idea to solve it?

Just start over and keep at it.

 

[Smallz]

i dont mean to sound arrogant, but alternate picking came very natural to me. i taught myself to play for the first couple years, and when i finally took the time to take some lessons, the instructor was surprised at my picking.

anyone else pick up alternate picking naturally like i did?

 

[Sunbane]

Some learn faster than others I suppose. For me rhythm playing came very easilly (tremolo picking and speedy downpicking), but I've had to fight hard to get my alternate picking to work. I'm still practicing almost daily with my technique to make my lead parts less muddy.

'bane

 

[AjDeath]

Some learn faster than others I suppose. For me rhythm playing came very easilly (tremolo picking and speedy downpicking), but I've had to fight hard to get my alternate picking to work. I'm still practicing almost daily with my technique to make my lead parts less muddy.

'bane

I have the same problems, I never took lessons and never knew what alternate picking was until someone said that i did it very well, i just called it playing.

 

[Dead Winter]

Alternate picking is kinda difficult for me when I play scales and go over all the strings, but as far as speed picking goes, such as Damage, Inc., Holy Wars, etc. it's pretty easy for me. I practiced for an entire year on my right hand and building up my speed.

 

[Metal Aphrodita]

Ok.. Teachers always "bother" with the "UP-DOWN picking, pleease". But it´s reeeeeaaaaaly important and I comes just like a habit,.. once you practised it enough.

Don´t feel down if it just doesn´t come right the first time...

One good excersice is to play a Major progression (that would be a major scale over the whole freetboard-or the 7 modes, it´s the same)

-Play it really slowly like 120- one tuplet(or triplet) per time
-And start playing the scale upwards and downwards... Then downwards and upwards... Then just upwards ... Then just downwards... and then alternate; one mode upwards the other downwards etc..

This is a very good excersice for alternate picking, learn and remember the scales (you can do it with any scale) , developing speed (if you increase slowly the bpm), trying to adquire a little discipline... and the most important of it all.... INCREASING YOUR PATIENCE

Ok.. tell me if you have any doubts...

GOOD LUCK...!!!

 

[Sunbane]

I actually didn't realise how to properly train picking technique until I started learning chinese martial arts. =P In Kung Fu class we learned to always practice the techniques slowly and carefully, making each move as perfect as possible. Once a solid technique is there, going fast will come naturally, because your body memorizes all the movements when you practice them a lot.

Training technique with the guitar is very similar. Once I grasped this concept, I just sat down and played slow scales for three weeks, only focusing on the alternate picking. Up, down, up down - all the way up and down the scales, making sure each note is perfect (no buzzing or mistiming). It definately paid off. =)

Once you can play a scale or a progression clearly with alternate picking at a certain tempo, raise the tempo a notch and go at it again.

'bane

 

[Till Fjalls]

Alternate picking is essential in my opinion, unless you want to play very simplistic music. Not that there's anything wring with that, as long as it's composed well....

But I've found alternate picking to be extremely helpful. Even some lines that are relatively slow can be played much more cleanly with alt picking. Picking hand speed is like an exercise in stamina and accuracy. Alt picking helkps that by cutting the speed in half and decreasing the need for accuracy in terms of downpicking(thought it increases the need for accuracy in terms of alt picking). It tends to give a fluid style to your sound if done correctly, as opposed to the almost triggered feel of straight downpicking.

Anyway, I recently came across an awesome lesson that has helped me with my picking. I haven't practiced it much (because it's so damn hard) but, I hope to master it in the near future. It'll will improve your playing immensely. Despite not having mastered it, I know it definitely will.

the task:

Practice songs you like using upstrokes only. upstrokes for riffs, solos, whatever you hear the guitar play. It'll confuse the hell out of your picking hand for a while (it still does for me), but if you're adept at downstrokes already, and can do this, you'll be on your way to mastering the guitar!

 

[BasilisK]

Kinda overkill, but the first songs I ever learned to play were Iced Earth. That'll get you pickin up and down like a maniac. May not be the best place to start, but I kinda had a knack for it. I still can't play for shit, or solo at all, but I'm comfortable as hell with alternate picking. I do it without even noticing it, and 99% of the time I alt-pick stuff that's slow enough to play downstroke only. May have gone too far though, now I can't downstroke consistently even when I try. I'll start playing something that way, and five seconds later I'm alting again almost subconciously. May have turned out to be a bad habid, I dunno. Certainly didn't help me overall, I still suck and fuck up any riff I try to play on a regular basis, but that's just me. I wasn't born a guitar player

 

[TekChef]

Sunbane has it quite right-

Quoting speed mechanics-
""your fingers will move as you train them to move. If you practice something fast and sloppy 100 times...why should you expect that the 101st time, you will suddenly become clean and precise? However, if you practice something 100 times perfectly, you can be sure that the next time will be perfect as well...Think quality, not quantity."


Better to do things slowly, in time, and slowly work the speed up-you will be more accurate and cleaner when you get to top speed.