Alternate Picking Guitar Technique: The Plectrum/Pick Grip

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Alternate Picking: Essential Grip for fast articulated picking

IMPORTANT: Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at alternate picking plectrum/pick grip.

It’s not so important how you hold the pick or what finger you use. But, it is essential not to have a wobbly thumb and/or finger .

alternate-picking-guitar-techniques

A lot of guitar players when they start out with alternate picking often change the grip just as they are about the pluck the string! This makes it impossible to gauge distance.

When the thumb is rigid and the grip is solid, distance, articulation and timing fall into place automatically.

Pic 1: Good solid grip

alternate-picking-guitar-techniques

Pic 2: Pick confidently plucks string

alternate-picking-guitar-techniques

Below [Pic 3]: BAD! At the last moment the pick is turned as it is about to pluck the string and the thumb and finger wobble/collapse:

alternate-picking-guitar-techniques

2 BASIC EXERCISES:

Here are a couple of exercises for practicing whilst getting the feel of gripping the pick firmly.

The first is a simple A minor Pentatonic scale in sextuplets. Counting basic 1 2 3 4 5 6

This starts on a down stroke:

alternate-picking-guitar-techniques-exercise

Next we have the same thing but in groups of four 16th notes.

alternate-picking-guitar-techniques-exercise

It’s a good idea to play around with these two exercises by mixing the groups of 4 and 6 together and create little phrases out of them.

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“EXTENDED” Alternate Picking Guitar Exercise:

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4 Positions Alternate Picking Guitar Exercise:

Please watch the video above for in depth detail:

Hi Guys,

Moving on from our last alternate picking video we will now extend this to 4 different positions on the guitar fingerboard.

As always for this mid tempo jazz/fusion [140-160 Bpm] style it’s essential to accent the [first] and third notes in each 4 note grouping.

“The third note being the most important to accent”

Without doing this, the rhythm, tempo and dynamic gets lost along with the timing and fluidity.

[1st] and 3rd notes Accented

alternate-picking-guitar-technique

Here is the alternate picking exercise: It is essential to watch the video above in order to understand the “Simple” concept of the guitar fingering as this is crucial for executing this exercise.

This starts on a “Downstroke” with strict alternate picking:

alternate-picking-exercise

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Alternate Picking Guitar Mechanics “How to Cross Strings”

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Alternate Picking Guitar Mechanics “How to Cross Strings”

Please watch video above for detailed analysis:

Hi Guys,

In this blog I am going to look at and answer the age old question-

“What is the one thing that players don’t do or not understand when learning alternate picking guitar technique”.

The answer to the question and the secret if there is one is to understand the “Mechanics” of alternate picking which means:

Visually and Intellectually knowing what is happening when we Cross the Strings.

Below demonstrates what is happening when crossing the guitar strings:

Fig 1: Example

alternate-picking-guitar-mechanics-diagram

You will notice the importance of coming “Up” on the upstroke-This is because we come up skip over the string before plucking down on it.

Fig 2: Example

Below is an example descending across all 6 strings:

alternate-picking-guitar-mechanics-diagram

The video at the top of the page demonstrates this in full detail:

Okay, now let’s play through a few repetitious exercises.

The first is a basic 2 string exercise: Notice the “Up skip over pluck down” when crossing the strings.

Exercise 1: Two string Alternate Picking Guitar Pattern:

2-string-alternate-picking-exercise

Exercise 2: This time we employ string skipping to emphasise “Up skip over pluck down”.

alternate-picking-string-skipping-exercise

Exercise 2: This time we emphasise this even further by employing two string skips

alternate-picking-string-skipping-exercise

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