When to alternate pick??

It'll matter with time- eight notes, at least if they're going somewhat fast, will often require a nice steady alternation. (But practice them slow, no matter how fast they are!)

Other notes...really a matter of style- it really does, to me at least, have a very different feel to use all downstrokes, to alternate, or, as is often the case, to mix and match as it best seems to suit you and the piece.

From the question, I'm going to guess that you're just starting out- if you're learning things like blues scales at this point, I'd probably work on learning alternate picking, regardless of speed.

Best,
Ande

I agree with Ande. If you're practicing scales? You should always use alternate picking. This is where you will pick up speed and accuracy when plucking the strings. You can always alternate pick at a slower tempo. But, you won't be able to down pick or up pick at very high speeds or tempo's.

I've found alternate picking to be much easier than all down.

It's like everything else. You should learn it the "proper" way, until you have it down pat.

Then you can decide when to use it and when something else is better.

If you have, say:

|-----------3---
|--6--4--3-----

and alternate picking say to play the "6" on an upstroke, it would tell you to play the "4" on a down-stroke, the "3" up and the last "3" down. Those last 2 notes are inefficient, especially if they're short (e.g.16ths), so I'd consider changing the 6 to a down-stroke or just changing the "4" to an up-stroke. Which I changed would depend on what came before and what came after.

I let the song and tempo be my guide. A lot of the music I play sounds good down picked so I usually only do alternate picking for fast things. I'm more apt to alternate pick a lead than I am a riff. I agree that practicing scales is a good time to also practice alternate picking.

When picking notes I've read that you should alternate pick on the eighth notes? Should you downstroke pick all other notes? What do you gernerally do when picking? Does it really matter?

Short answers:

1. No, you should downstroke pick only the notes that are longer than eighth notes
2. What I do depends on how fast I have to play, and where the accents fall. See the long answer below :)
3. Yes

Long answer:

There are about four different types of picking strategies for single note passages: all downstroke, alternate picking, economy (or directional) picking, and sweep picking. Each one has its use.

All downstrokes - this is easiest to play, because you only have to master one motion, and some of the finer points, like the angle of the pick, won't matter much. Because it's easiest, you shouldn't move on to alternate picking until you're pretty confident in your downstrokes - that is, you can hit the right string most of the time. All downstrokes is good for simple lines full of aggressive attacks (heavy accents), and because of that it's a favorite of punk and grunge music.

Alternate picking - this is more efficient than all downstrokes, because you get two notes with each wrist motion. Now the angle of the pick matters - picking single notes is different from strumming, and your pick should cross the string in either direction at the same volume; if the pick angle is too large, you'll have louder downstrokes than upstrokes. Besides being faster than all downstrokes, alternate picking has the advantage of helping you keep time: if you're moving the pick down on the beat, a syncopated phrase like sixteenth-eighth-sixteenth becomes down-up-up... your hand is now moving up and down in a steady eighth note rhythm, whether you're picking or not.

Although strict alternate picking will help with your rhythm if you're playing only divisions of the beat (eighths, sixteenths, etc), it gets complicated in a couple of situations: if the notes are arranged so higher strings happen on the beats and lower ones in between, strict alternate picking results in extra motion and limits your speed slightly. In those situations you'll want to master reverse alternate picking, which is simply alternate picking that places upstrokes on the beat.

The other situation is if your lines are full of triplets or other uneven divisions of the beat - here you'll have to figure out what's the best compromise between efficient motion and the accents you want. Strict alternate picking of triplets means you'll have an upstroke every other beat, and accents are easier to control if they all have the same stroke direction. So if you're playing a triplet run, D-U-D D-U-D picking is better for placing accents on the beats, but it also means changing pick speed to squeeze in that third note in each triplet - it takes practice, and can mess up your rhythm a bit. But it's also a core skill if you really want to be good, so work with a metronome and a tape recorder to get it right.

Economy/directional picking - once you're good at alternate picking (and I mean really good at it!) it's time to start worrying about playing faster. Strict alternate picking has a built-in inefficiency: if you play a note with a downstroke, your next note will be an upstroke... even if that means going past the string you need to play next. It's more efficient to keep going in one direction if you can. For example, look at this C major scale:

--------------------------------7-8-
---------------------------8-10-----
--------------------7-9-10----------
-------------7-9-10-----------------
------7-8-10------------------------
-8-10-------------------------------
With alternate picking:
-D-U--D-U-D--U-D-U---D-U-D--U-D--U-D-
With economy picking:
-D-U--D-U-D--D-U-D---D-U-D--D-U--D-U-


You can see that in economy picking, when you're able to play two consecutive strings without changing pick direction, you do so. Otherwise you're using strict alternate picking.

Sweep picking - this is a favorite of metal players, because it gives you the most speed. In sweep picking all the strokes are in one direction, and you add any additional notes on a string with hammer-ons. Sweep picking the same scale would look like this:

--------------------------------7-8-
---------------------------8-10-----
--------------------7-9-10----------
-------------7-9-10-----------------
------7-8-10------------------------
-8-10-------------------------------
Sweep picking
-D----D------D------D------D----D---

The real trick to sweep picking is muting the strings as you move across the fretboard - if you don't you're basically just strumming. Even though it's mostly metal players who must master this technique, there are some other songs where sweep picking makes sense - for example, in the solo for "Sultans of Swing" there's a quick Dm7 arpeggio that's far easier to sweep than to alternate pick.

As you advance, you'll want to practice drills to master each type of picking strategy, and you'll want them to be second nature - you should be able to do them without thinking about it. Then, when you're improvising, you'll just do what feels natural for the melody line, and you'll combine all the techniques whenever they're appropriate.

I don't know what I can add to what Noteboat just said. As usual, he is a fount of knowledge.

I'm just going to through in a personal observation/opinion. When I started learning guitar, I played with all downstrokes. I quickly learned that I couldn't play anything speedy that way and learned to alternate pick. When I was taking bass lessons, my teacher had me alternate plucking with my index/middle finger (the bass version of alternate picking) all the time. Even if I'm playing whole notes at 50 bpm, I still alternate my fingers. That way, it becomes a natural motion and when I need to play something fast, remembering to alternate fingers doesn't occupy any brain processing.

Economy/directional picking
That's what I'm saying I do! Well aside from the riffs as I mentioned where I use the down strokes to get the sound I desire. (Alos mentioned above) :mrgreen: Thanks Noteboat!