What's up future rock stars!!!
Hope your guitar learning journey is going well.
Today we are going to talk about an essential skill for any guitarist, alternate picking.
Alternate picking might sound a bit fancy, but it's actually a really easy and basic technique.
It's alternating between an up-stroke and a down-stroke when picking, in other words, picking up and down...yeah that simple.
Hope your guitar learning journey is going well.
Today we are going to talk about an essential skill for any guitarist, alternate picking.
Alternate picking might sound a bit fancy, but it's actually a really easy and basic technique.
It's alternating between an up-stroke and a down-stroke when picking, in other words, picking up and down...yeah that simple.
As simple as it may sound it is a crucial skill to learn. When I was just starting out I went weeks with only down-strokes, it's only after a while that I realized “wait a minute...my hand has to come back up anyways, wouldn't it be easier if I would just hit the string then as well”. The legendary Paul Gilbert told a similar story in one of his interviews, only he thought he could only do upstrokes (not that I'm comparing myself to such an amazing player).
On to the technique itself, pick any note on any string with a down-stroke, don't pick while moving your entire arm, just move your wrist. For the upstroke it's just the same thing, move your wrist back up and down and up and down...Easy right? The part that will need practice is getting the notes in the same rhythm, you can practice this while using a metronome. When you are comfortably with alternate picking at a slow bpm, try going faster and faster.
Here's a link to a great online metronome: http://www.metronomeonline.com/
It's really easy, really basic, but gets the job done.
Here's a nice exercise for this technique.
Put your index finger on any fret on the low E-string (the thickest string), play that note with a down-stroke and then put your middle finger on the next fret, play that note with an up-stroke, then place your ring finger on the next fret, do a down-stroke and lastly put your pinky on the next fret and play that one with an up-stroke. Keep repeating this until you reach a comfortable speed, remember to use a metronome to get the rhythm just right. You can also play four notes on the low E-string and then move down one string and do the same pattern, do this on all 6 strings.
On to the technique itself, pick any note on any string with a down-stroke, don't pick while moving your entire arm, just move your wrist. For the upstroke it's just the same thing, move your wrist back up and down and up and down...Easy right? The part that will need practice is getting the notes in the same rhythm, you can practice this while using a metronome. When you are comfortably with alternate picking at a slow bpm, try going faster and faster.
Here's a link to a great online metronome: http://www.metronomeonline.com/
It's really easy, really basic, but gets the job done.
Here's a nice exercise for this technique.
Put your index finger on any fret on the low E-string (the thickest string), play that note with a down-stroke and then put your middle finger on the next fret, play that note with an up-stroke, then place your ring finger on the next fret, do a down-stroke and lastly put your pinky on the next fret and play that one with an up-stroke. Keep repeating this until you reach a comfortable speed, remember to use a metronome to get the rhythm just right. You can also play four notes on the low E-string and then move down one string and do the same pattern, do this on all 6 strings.
This exercise is great for practicing your alternate picking as well as training your four fretting fingers.
Lastly here is a famous riff that uses alternate picking, its the main riff of Nirvana's Come as you are. It's not played in standard tuning though, for this song you have to tune your guitar a FULL STEP DOWN. In the previous article I explained the half step down tuning, this is the same except every string is tuned two semitones lower instead of just one. You are only going to use the two thickest strings though, so those are the only two that matter, the low E-string becomes a D and the A-string becomes a G. Now I'm not going to explain it note for note like I did in the first article because I really want you to use your ears. At the bottom of the article there is a little video showing you the riff, you can use that as reference to see how the picking hand is moving and where to play the notes, but try to figure most of it out on your own.
Lastly here is a famous riff that uses alternate picking, its the main riff of Nirvana's Come as you are. It's not played in standard tuning though, for this song you have to tune your guitar a FULL STEP DOWN. In the previous article I explained the half step down tuning, this is the same except every string is tuned two semitones lower instead of just one. You are only going to use the two thickest strings though, so those are the only two that matter, the low E-string becomes a D and the A-string becomes a G. Now I'm not going to explain it note for note like I did in the first article because I really want you to use your ears. At the bottom of the article there is a little video showing you the riff, you can use that as reference to see how the picking hand is moving and where to play the notes, but try to figure most of it out on your own.
Hope this helped you out, if it did, don't hesitate to subscribe.
Don't forget to listen and have fun!!
No comments:
Post a Comment