Fundamentals of the Rest Stroke Picking

Rest stroke picking – movements.

We have three important movements- down-stroke, sweep and upstroke. Please note to the
sighs I use here to mark each pick movement.

The down-stroke - uses your elbow to move between strings. It’s like each string has a
different elbow position. When you play the down-stroke, you should come to rest on the
string below. For example- if you hit your 6th string, you should “lean” on your 5th string with
your plectrum. This down stroke is very important and every first note on each string should be
played as a down stroke.

The Sweep - When you play down-stroke and then a note on a string above, you need to
continue with the same movement from your elbow to the higher string. For example: if you
play a down stroke on your 6th string and then move on to the 5th string, you just have to push
your hand further down from your elbow.

The upstroke- uses your wrist. Imagine you have a card inside your hand that you want to
quickly glance at and then immediately hide it again. The upstroke is fast and short- a flick of
the wrist.

afterwards.

1|Page
Copyright © 2015 GypsyAndJazz.com All rights reserved.
Double-Down and sweep exercise:

Picking Pattern

From Rose Room:

2|Page
Copyright © 2015 GypsyAndJazz.com All rights reserved.
Modern variation over Minor Swing:

Ornaments

Down – Up – Pull Off:

3|Page
Copyright © 2015 GypsyAndJazz.com All rights reserved.
Examples over Dm arpeggio:

4|Page
Copyright © 2015 GypsyAndJazz.com All rights reserved.