The Art Of Picking Part 1

by Eric Vandenberg

Shortly after I started writing instructional stuff for Guitar4U, I decided to write about picking... alternate
picking and all the other nice picking techniques... how to practise and work on that stuff.

Back then, a lot of people obviously liked those three articles, so I figured I should update them and publish
them on iBreatheMusic.com.

Actually, when I re-read those old articles, I noticed that I'd change quite a bit. Not because any of the stuff
in those older articles was wrong. I just figured I could just try to approach the topic a bit differently. And
therefore, the whole thing changed quite a bit...

Let's go for it.

Introduction

Alternate picking is one of the most basic but also one of the most important technique for guitar players.
Whats even more important, it's the basic building block of many other techniques, such as economy and
sweep picking.

That means that you should make sure that your alternate picking works before you attempt to delve into all
those other techniques. Picking is a great way to work on synchronizing your hands and building speed,
which is an elemental thing for stuff like sweeping etc.

So, lets work on alternate picking. Much of the stuff I'm gonna tell you might not all be new to you. After
all, the topic has been discussed and explained many times. But maybe I can kinda sum it up and combine
several different approaches, ideas and exercises.

The left hand

Weird huh ? We're talking about picking and I start with the left (the fretting) hand. That is because
alternate picking is about synchronizing the hands. That means, you wanna pick every single not you fret
and vice versa. This is a tough thing to master, but once you do you have taken a huge step.

What is important to consider for the left hand ? Well, we don't wanna waste any energy and time with the
left hand. Because, let's say you're able to pick pretty fast with your right hand... but you can't fret even half
as many notes with the left hand.

When I started out, I was a huge fan of Eddie Van Halen (I actually still am). Back then, my teacher told me
that Eddie does more with his left hand than he does with the right. Well, I guess I got him wrong, because
for the
following months, I did nothing else but working on my left hand (legato) technique, hammering and pulling
pretty much EVERYTHING.

That was cool, I got really fast that way. Problem was:
a) I wasnt able to pick fast because my hands were not synchronized at all. So, I did a lot of unvoluntary
double- picking (picking each note twice) because my right hand was picking faster than the left hand was
changing notes.

and

b) I was using way too much strength with my left hand when picking... which means, with the right hand I
was picking, but with the left I was using as much strength as I was when playing hammer ons. I was
playing this fast picking thing, and then I would stop picking... and it still sounded the same cuz my left
hand was doing all the work, fretting way too hard, thereby creating a constant legato-thing.

So, the first thing to watch is how much strength you are using with your left hand. Just like Jamey Andreas
wrote in a recent article for iBreatheMusic, you don't need to use much strength. After all, the pick is
supposed to make the notes ring... the left hand just has to fret the notes.

So, try to relax your left hand, and make sure youre not fretting too hard when you work on a picking
sequence. It really does take a very light touch. The key is: relax !!!
The other important thing is: minimize movement of your left hand fingers. Many players move their fingers
way too much, taking them really far away from the fretboard when changing notes. That way, you kinda
waste time, because you could fret the next note way earlier if you wouldnt move your fingers too much.
How to work on that ? (Turn the page...)

Supportive Fingering

Well, use "supportive fingering". Thats an approach I was introduced to at the GIT. I was told that Steve
Lukather is one player who uses that approach a lot (ever has been since starting out). If you watch Steve
play live, youll notice that he hardly moves his left hand when playing fast runs. It looks as if he's only
shifting his hand up and down the neck without moving his fingers at all.

Now, what is "supportive fingering" all about ?

Its a certain kind of left hand exercises that you should do a few minutes every day. If you do, youll notice
some huge results after a while. Its tough to keep up supportive fingering at absolute high speeds, but if
you practice that stuff on a regular base, it will help you to minimize left hand-movements.

Here is the exercise and explanation of "s.f." (supportive fingering). Take your regular 1-2-3-4 chromatic
exercise. (That means, start out on the low E-string. Play the first note at the 1st fret of that string with your
index finger. Then, play the note at the 2nd fret, same string, with your middle finger. Next is the 3rd fret
with the ring-finger and finally, the note at the 4th fret with your pinkie. Next, you move to the A- string and
repeat the whole thing. You can see a TAB of an exercise like these at the end of this article...).

Once you reached the high E-string, you can either play the whole thing descending (1-2-3-4 starting on the
high e- string, or 4-3-2-1 on that same string) or move the whole exercise up the neck chromatically.

Anyway, using the s.f.-approach, we change one thing:

You fret the 1st note with your left hand. Then you fret the second with the middle finger of the left hand,
while the index finger remains in place (at the 1st fret) !!!

Next, you use your ring-finger at the 3rd fret while the first two fingers stay in place. Then you fret the last
note on that string, and now you have all your fingers placed on the fretboard. (index at 1st fret, middle at
2nd etc.)

OK, now its time to continue on the A-string. You move only (ONLY !!!) your index finger to fret the note
at the 1st fret. Then you leave the finger there. Next, youre moving ONLY the middle finger up to the A-
string.

By then, the index- and middle-finger are on the 1st and 2nd fret of the A-string respectively, while the 3rd
and fourth finger are still on the E-String.

Eventually, you move those two to the A-string as well. Continue the whole exercise that way. It's actually
less complicated once you try it. It might feel a bit awkward in the beginning, but if you do those kinda
exercises (you can also do them with diatonic exercises) a few minutes every day, you will start to use your
left hand way more economically.

If you descend on the strings (4-3-2-1) you put ALL the fingers in place immediately, and then slowly
remove each finger, playing 4th fret, 3rd fret, 2nd fret, 1st fret. Move the fingers to the next string once you
take them off.

Another cool net-effect of this exercise is that you are kinda forced to fret really accurately, bending your
fingers a bit to hit the string straight on without muting any adjacent strings...

Alright, thats the idea behind "supportive fingering"

The right hand

Keep your right hand relaxed, too. Have your pick slightly angled (one side of it being closer to the floor than
the other one). I discussed stuff like anchoring and "How many fingers to hold the pick" in my "99 Ways To
Pick" article here at iBreatheMusic, so check that out, too !

The metronome is your friend

Well, I dont think I have to elaborate on this quite a lot. The metronome is an essential tool for developing
speed and accuracy. So use it. Remember that even the coolest lick ain't worth a damn if it is not in time, "in
the pocket".

I also think it can be pretty motivating to work with a metronome. Set yourself some realistic daily goals,
like "OK, today I'm gonna take this lick and speed it up to 90 bpm". Maybe the next day, you can get up to a
100 etc.

Increase speed in small steps, and if you feel like youre stuck at a certain tempo, exaggerate. Turn the
metronome up like 60 bpm. Then try to play along with it. Youll most likely not be able to do so. But once
you skip back to your top-speed, you might be able to push it a bit more and improve a bit more.

One great exercise a friend told me about one day:

Weave a sheet of paper between the strings, like: put it over the high e-string, then under the B-string, over
the G- String etc. If you hit the strings now, they wont have any sustain or anything. you'll hear nothing
but a percussive attack, very much like a snare-drum. Now turn on your metronome, and try to play along
to it. Try to "erase" the beats of the metronome by hitting the strings EXACTLY in time. Do so at different
metronome-settings. This is a nice exercise to get used to working with it.

First exercises

Alrighty, in this first picking-article I am just gonna give away some basic exercises for your alternate
picking. Please do those with a metronome. don't cheat, because youre cheating yourself !

The basics of practicing alternate picking are exercises on one string. Once you get those up to speed
ACCURATELY, we can look at exercises incorporating more strings or string skipping etc.

Please understand that for every exercise Im gonna give away in this series, there are bunches of possible
variations. Try those exercises backwards, incorporate stretches, start with an upstroke instead of a
downstroke etc. Try those kinda variations, but ALWAYS pay attention to accuracy and rhythmic precision.
Slow down if something doesnt sound right, try to find the problem, isolate it and eliminate it (check out
my "Step By Step" article).

When practicing this stuff, dont overdo it. Take breaks in between, put away the guitar, take a rest. Then
return to it. Those kinda exercises work best if you do them for a few minutes every time. And do them on a
REGULAR basis. I noticed that often, it makes more sense to do this kinda stuff for a few minutes but EVERY
DAY instead of doing it for 12 hours straight once every month.

Here are some basic exercises that helped me a lot when I started out. Start practicing them at slow setting,
like 60 bpm. If you can play through each one three times in a row accurately, speed up the metronome a
bit etc. You can also play different variations, change positions, change the order of notes, change the pulse
etc.
OK, Ill leave you for now. But before Ill give you two more exercises (+ variations) for picking on more
than one strings, which is our next step. Do those after you practiced the ones above for a while. These last
exercises are essential ones and helped me quite a bit, cuz they focus on the difficult task of changing
strings while picking, and you can also use them with supportive fingering.

The first one (+ its two variations) is the infamous Paul Gilbert-exercise. Do it till your hands fall off.

The second one (+ variation) is our basic chromatic exercise. you can do dozens of variations on that one.
Try it with supportive fingering, also ! Move it up till you reach the 12th fret, then go back down.

Alrighty, see you next time, either in m second part about picking, or at the iBreatheMusic-forums.
And remember what Steve Vai used to say:
"5 good reasons not to practice: 1. There 2. Are 3. No 4. Good 5. Reasons"