Alternate Or Economy Picking

Alternate picking is still used when playing on one string but sweeping is used when you wish to change strings.

Alternate or economy picking. Economy picking is an advanced technique so really you should be good at alternate picking before you go down that route it s a method of getting more speed and if you re not careful accuracy can suffer if you ve not got the accuracy ingrained by alternate picking. When you combine alternate picking with sweep picking on the guitar you get economy picking. Then this year 2017 i have another teacher who tells me to do strict alternate picking when i am playing scales. It s an absolutely essential skill to develop when you re first learning to pick on the guitar.

I learned alternate picking first on the guitar then months ago i had a guitar teacher who indoctrinated me to do economy picking when i play scales on the guitar. For example if you started on a downstroke and played three notes on the a string your pick will end on a downstroke for the third note. I cant go cleanly past about 120bpm 1 16th notes and i am considering returning to alternate picking as my teacher recommends i do. Alternate picking is probably the first picking technique you ll learn on the guitar.

Economy vs alternate picking question i have been practicing economy picking for the last 6 months or so and a have recently hit a brick wall in terms or speed and accuracy. Economy picking is to break the alternate picking pattern when you change strings. I am not with that teacher anymore. To play a 3 note per string scale with your left hand going up the picking would be down up down down up down down up down.

This type of picking is so named because of its economy of movement. Economy picking is a guitar picking technique designed to maximize picking efficiency by combining alternate picking and sweep picking specifically. For example if you start on the thickest e string and pick down up down instead of going over the a string to pick it using an up motion you use two down picks in a row or one sweeping motion. Alternate picking works well most of the time but in some situations it s more economical to reuse a stroke usually the downstroke.

On this video i try to explain how i utilize alternate economy picking techniques show you a couple of examples tha. When changing to a new string sweep picking picking in the direction of travel. Down stroke if moving down or upstroke when. But as you get better and start playing faster economy picking becomes a hugely beneficial augmentation of your alternate picking technique.