WORKSHOP ONTHE CD TRACKS 21-27 ~~ GT RATING nial tt improve your: aria Learning to choose your notes wisely and well while applying a minimum “'Musclemen’ players get maximum results with the minimum of effort, rather than brute force.” YOUR G!'TUTOR Seepl6 for more info ECONOMY DRIVE 68 Ghitar Techniques Novertser 2002 sarily ph oping skills ‘get maximum vesults with the 1 Boonomy picking isa combination of sweep picking an alvernate picking, where these techniques are used gether to give the most econotaie picking patter possible. You dontt understand alternate and sweep picking? Lets look at how each works individually of force will yield faster playing and easier picking. ECONOMY PICKING PRIMER ALTERNATE PICKING Alvernate picking i han on 1 the same string between downstrokes and u different stroke for each note) OUTSIDE vs INSIDE Lets take an A and an) P note on te 6th fe on the Bt fret of the high of the B string. Ifyy two notes (A, F, A Pete), iti @: SOUND ADVICE GETTING A PICKY SWELL FOR THIS MONTH'S demonstration, | used my cream Fender Custom-shop Relic'S7 Strat through 2 Corelord mic 50H valve head and a Palmer speaker simulator. ‘The Cornford was on the following settings andthe ‘overdrive button was on!possible to alternate pick this pattem in two ways, tly, vou could use a downstroke for the A note and an upstroke for the F note, Secondly, you could do the ‘opposite. Both methods use alternate picking, but one Is more economic than the other The first ofthese methods demonstrates that old ‘adage: “The shortest distance between two points salght line”. Here, the pick works within the gap between the two strings (ths is known as ‘inside’ picking) whereas, inthe second example, the pick has to ass over each string in order to pick fram the ‘outside ach time. This outside picking requires far more work with the right hand So, from this, we can see that there isa simple rule maximum economy when pickin that ensure @ Always move the pick directly to each new string, Inother words, always move from a fat string toa thin string with a downstroke and vice versa, In order to apply this rule, you need to be able to sweep pick SWEEP PICKING ‘Sweep picking is a technique that involves picking more than one note with a single continuous stroke of the pick. This action ean only be performed when ehanging from string to string, In the future, we will see that sweep picking can also bbe used with scales, but for this issue, we ave goin to confine our stu to arpesios. EXERCISE I When trying to get to grips with a particular technique, its often a good idea to keep things short, so you're not distracted from the job in hand — we're to master a mechanical movement, at piece of music This first exercise looks like it has three strokes for each of the three notes being repeated - one dovensiroke and two consecutive upstrokes, However, each consecutive pair of upsirokes should be played as fone continuous stroke (sweep), so that you play all three notes of the repeated pattern using only two WORKSHOP strokes. Remember, when you try this, you should only hold one note down at any one time when changing, from string to string, in order to prevent the notes from ‘running into each other "There is a common trap into which many players fall shen trying to learn this technique for the Birst time "The problem starts when trying to sweep mote than ‘one note with a single continuous piek-stroke, Until the ‘correct degree of control has been developed, the notes sn question tend to be rushed, Ivan effort to keep everything in time, its common to end up playing each sweep as separate strokes, It's vital that you commit to the sweep, because f you don't, you won't be able to practise it andl therefore rofine it as.a technique. (CHECK LIST Ifyou are not sure whether you are using on continuous sweep movement oF not, You could try a few different things # Check your pick action in the mirror “# tush the sweep in EXERCISE f with one unashamed up-strum, This stiouldn’ feel any different to what you ‘were doing before. IFit does, vou weren't sweeping. © Try cranking up the tempo. With sweep picking, if you encounter a point on the metronome, which is medium paced, and yet feels lke a brick wall, its usually an indication that you have been splitting all of ‘your swueps into separate strokes, The ‘brick wall’ is ‘the speed at which you can no longer play the sweep as separate strokes. (Often, the secret here isto speed up the metronome ‘even further stil. At the faster speed, you have no ‘option other than to sweep pick!) Some players out there might find it easier to think of a sweep as a succession of classical-stylerest-stokes, whereby every stroke follows through and comes to rest on the next string ‘This way, it becomes easier to see how sweeping can also be done very slowly, not just fas EXERCISE 2 ‘This exercise allows you to focus on playing two notes with one continuous downstroke Down-sweeps are more difficult than up-sweeps, and so most of you will find this exereise more challenging, than the last, Yes, [know that it starts on an upstroke and that you're already thinking to yourself, “How aan I supposed to know which stroke to use atthe start of ch lick when Tm improvising?” Good point! However, I can assure you that there's nothing to worry about ~ as Iwill explain next month Until thea, youl just have to ha the strokes Hat are written in the Lranseription, J flth, and follow EXERCISE 3A & 3B ‘This exercise comprises two thiee-note arpegsios, Remember, as with the previous exercises, you should only hold one note down at any one time when changing from string to string, so that you don’t sound as though you are just strumming a couple of chords Here, each six-note repeated figure is played with ‘wo continuous sweeps and vet, to the listen, should sound like evenly spaced sinlle notes. - ‘NOVEMBER 2002 Guitar Techniques 69Follow these tips to make maximum progress @ PICK ANGLE ‘The pick should be angled on should be held straight for eac stiould show a very smu string when picking (ab sweeping, the fingers and t sch down-sweep, but up-sweep, Ideally, you amount of pec ut 2nuu), ‘Then, when, king hand ‘ean act like stabilisers om a child's bike ~ allowing you to lean on the back of the fingernails during down-sweeps fand on the side of the thumb during up-sweeps. This hols to angle the pick in th that if you show too much of the pleetrum to the strings, te change of pick ang and upstrokes will become too pronounced. between downstrokes ROTATION It you are experiencing difficulty with playing this evenly (or infact, any of the other exercises), apply 1 that. we've studied in the past re six potentially practise each of the te ‘totation’ meth This is a six-note lick, so there different startin licks in this manner, you will find that leven our. The important thing is that you commit yourself to the sweep and try not ta chieken out feffort to keep things in time, Once you've had a go at EXERCISE 3a, try EXERCISE 3b ints. I yc y wll start to it's simple the reverse o EXERCISE 4A & 4B This example effectively comprises two four-note arpeggios. Paying groups of four lik tree, as in the previous two examples) will put ‘uming and contol under more serutiny — i this (instead of EON SS (60) (20) (100) gt away with a badly plaved triplet than any group of four, Again, EXERCISE 4b is the reverse of EXERCISE 4a, Remember to try all eight potential rotations of both exercises On the €D, ve workouts, each arranged these exercises as two done to three different tempos The first workout comprises exercises 1, 2, 3a and b, and the nad workout comprises exercises da and b. If yo ‘can play along to the fast workout speeds satisfactonly. aim to push each of the exercises by another 20-40 bpm. Eventually, by practising sweep will be able glo as ‘cause its 4 c9-ordination problern, not a eI just takes time to acquire the ‘knack. pleking,y uiekly as you lke speed proble CHANGING OVER Finally, don’t mourn of the days/weeks/months/vears that you will have devoted ta altemate picking. You need to altemate pick, Sometimes alternate picking is ‘the most economical wa thing (seh as ‘when you are on one string). No violinist would expected to learn how to y Lo play 5 consider it unreasonable play mote than one nd a single ec ‘of the bow. On guitar, sweep picking should be viewed nuous stroke {in much the sam As a teacher, ve been in the job of trying to convert anlened alternate pickers to the virtues of econony picking for along time, You should expect about th fr four weeks of consistent practise before things start to feel natural, Once you have changed, there is no ‘uurning back ‘The right hand will start to work logically ancl consistently without you even thinking about i Next month, we're going to continue with some more economy picking workouts a Repeat four times 5014 Repeat four imes 70 Guitar Techniques NoveNBeR 2002Eee TSE (60) (€0) 100) SCN AA ED (60) 20) (100) Repeat tourumes ECONOMY PICKING PRIMER EXERCISE 4A (0) (100) (120) Repeat out times SONS T (20) (100) (120), Repeat our times Repeat four times ovens 2002 Gitar Racuiaaes 71