i have natrually grown to using economy picking. im just wondering if i would gain anything from trying to practice strict alternate picking? like speed? because now when i try my brain goes to mush and i cant do anything lol. ive been playing for one year. im not very fast i can play scales at 4 notes per click at 90 beats per minute cleanly on a metronome. any advise is appreciated.
I think you need to learn alternate picking it's an essential skill. Economy picking is fine when you going from one string down to another but if you have to pick the same string you need to use alternate picking.
When you are practicing your scales you should use alternate picking.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Actually, I'm in the same situation like UAV. I recently started to practice alternate picking with scales because I was having problems to increase speed with economy picking. My question is:do I have to always keep up&down picking even if I'm going from upper string to lower and I feel comfortable to do 2 the same hits in the same direction?
yes
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
I'm pretty quick at the down strum picking, more so than alot of people I've seen, but alternate picking is so much easier to control with that. I still use the down picks most of the time, but alternate comes in quite handy when I need it.
So learning it, like everyone else has said, is definitely the way to go.
In Space, no one can hear me sing!
The accepted wisdom is to learn the major scale and, then, everything else is a variation on a theme.
So with alternate picking. Learn the strict method and, then, apply it to your style of playing. Use it to improve not to tie you up with rules.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN
Pretty much any guitar instructor is going to get you to do this as one of the very first skills you need to learn and it's good to practice while doing your scales. Start with a downstroke on the first note of the scale and go up and back and make sure when you come back to that note you again hit it as a downstroke. If you when you come back you end up with an upstroke you've messed up somewhere.
Alternate picking is one of the most important skills take time and get it down. You'll never play smotth using all downstrokes and econmy picking isn't always needed so you will need to have that skill.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Thank you CNEV, that's what I needed to know.
