“40 Developmental Alternate Picking Exercises”

Copyright © 2016 Alfred Potter

Rights reserved. While the individual exercises herein are free for the reader to use and share for learning
purposes (for example with friends, bandmates, students etc), the publication as a whole may not be
reproduced, redistributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying or other
electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Alternate picking for the lead guitar is where the picking hand executes alternating
pickstrokes to play passages of notes. This down, up, down, up pattern is kept constant no
matter what pattern the fretting hand is fingering or how many strings may be involved.

This technique, while very tricky to master, can lead to a powerful sound and blistering high
speed playing.

The exercises in this publication cover all of the challenges of alternate picking, such as:

- Accuracy
- Synchronisation
- Inside picking/Outside picking
- Single string articulation
- String crosses
- String skipping
- Sequences
- Playing on thick and thin strings

Each and every exercise will have a title, a brief paragraph describing why you should
practice it and what it focuses on.

My personal favourite exercises are the ones that have helped me the most and are marked
with gold stars!

Remember these practice tips

Lightly touch the strings near the bridge with your palm mute. This fleshy underside of your
picking hand will quieten the thicker strings you have played. Meanwhile mute all thinner
strings with the fleshy underside of your fretting hand’s index finger. The only string
sounding should be the one you’re playing.

Practice all exercises both ways evenly: starting with a downstroke and starting with an
upstroke. Most exercises will yield different challenges depending on your starting stroke.

All 40 exercises loop so just keep repeating. The ones in brackets are no different, I simply
added in some slide instructions to get you back to the starting note.

Slow, clean, perfect notes are infinitely more valuable than fast sloppiness.
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The first six exercises are what I call PHIs. These are where you mute the strings by resting
you fretting hand across them. You then put your entire focus on perfecting the motion and
accuracy of your picking hand. These exercises may be boring but they really work to clean
up any problems you may not even know you have.

1. PHI#1 – Single notes all Strings

This is a basic PHI where there is one note per string. This well establishes the synergy
between the forearm and wrist: the forearm glides across the strings while the wrist is
responsible for the actual picking motion. Notice how each string is played with a different
pickstroke?

2. PHI#2 – Double notes all Strings

The same as the first but with two notes per string. Starting on a downstroke you’ll notice
that all string crosses are played with downstrokes. Start the exercise with an upstroke to
invert this and keep challenging yourself.

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 3. PHI#3 – Triple notes all Strings

With the introduction of a third muted note per string the picking returns to an alternate
fashion as with PHI#1. I tend to play this one with a triplet feel.

4. PHI#4 – singles skipped all Strings

This is a trickier version of PHI#1. Go as slowly as you need to in order to hit every string
correctly. And I’ll say it again because it’s so important: start each exercise with an upstroke
just as often as you’d start it with a downstroke to keep balance.

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 5. PHI#5 – doubles skipped all Strings

The same as before but double picking each string.

6. PHI#6 – triples skipped all Strings

Triple notes again and still skipping strings to make things tricky. The three notes again tend
to make me play this as triplets.

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Work on these single string exercises to develop your single string speed and accuracy
before venturing on to 2 string exercises and beyond. Work slowly through these tricky
fingerings to really establish some solid synchronisation and coordination between your two
hands. Remember to try on all strings, not just the one shown in the TAB… Playing on the
low E string is a lot different to playing on the high e.

7. Fast fingers

The tough back & forth between the 3rd and 4th fingers makes this one tricky but well worth
the effort. Sounds great up to speed. Can be moved sideways throughout scale positions to
make frightening buildups. Play as groups of 4 (16th notes) or as triplets.

8. Blues shifts

Keeping synchronisation between the hands while executing slides is a useful skill. And this
sounds pretty cool when played fast. Note that these aren’t legato slides so pick every note as
usual.

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 9. Chromatics forward

What kind of exercise guide would this be without a little chromatics??

10. Chromatics Backward

This is the same but reversed. Practice both!

11. Nimble fingers

Yes this is similar to “#7 Fast Fingers” but the finish before looping again is different and
adds on to the original challenge. Don’t trip up! Play as groups of 4.

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 12. Index Finger Anchor Slides

This is in the E Harmonic Minor scale. I suppose it sounds somewhat neoclassical and
reminds me a bit of one of my favourite bands “Stratovarius”. This exercise is called “Index
Finger Anchor Slides” because it is your index finger which continuously shifts up and down
to anchor for each position change. Once again these aren’t legato slides – pick every note.

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I place a huge emphasis on two-string exercises because you get the benefit of working on
string crosses without covering much of the fretboard. You can knuckle down in one area
and really get that wrist movement developing. Over the years it has largely been two-string
exercises that have helped my alternate picking technique. Remember to alternate your
starting strokes. Don’t always start these exercises with a downstroke. Practice both equally.
Don’t allow yourself to be worse at one way. Imbalance cripples alternate picking.

13. Neoclassical

This sounds great on all string pairs and could make a cool riff on the low E and A strings. It
features a classical style fingering pattern to start and then goes into a short diatonic 3 rds
(what I call skipped 3rds) sequence before returning to the start.

14. Combination Back and forth

An absolute favourite of mine. It contains ascending and descending groups of six with parts
changing direction. So many useful movements are encountered in this exercise.

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 15. Vinnie Moore pivot point

Inspired by one of my favourite guitarists ever, this neoclassical pedal tone exercise is sure to
put your string crossing to the test. As a rule, the more often you cross to a different string,
the more difficult the picking passage. Starting with a downstroke means that all crosses will
be outside picking. Starting with an upstroke will make all the crosses inside picking.

16. Pentatonic

This is a standard pentatonic picking riff. Alternate picking pentatonics at speed can be very
tricky for most players because, as I said, the more often you cross strings, the more difficult
the passage is – and pentatonic scales are usually 2-notes-per-string.

17. Double Back

This is similar to #11 “Nimble Fingers” as there is a pair of notes which go back and forth
briefly, but right at the end of the loop there is a string cross to play a single note and then to
return immediately to the beginning. Very reminiscent of Paul Gilbert picking exercises
where he’d break away to play just one note on another string.

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 18. High e returns

This is a pretty one with a somewhat bouncy, neoclassical sound to it.

19. Diminished scale section

The frightening diminished scale. Not only does this sound metal, it will also help your
sideways position shifts, both left and right. A seriously helpful exercise.

20. Riff Developer Ascending

Will do as the name suggests. I think I got this from a Jeff Loomis riff. The great thing
about this is that it doesn’t matter which pickstroke you begin with – all 4 ways of crossing
strings will be encountered: outside away, outside towards, inside away, and inside towards.

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 21. Riff Developer Descending

Same as above but flipped upside down for a slightly different challenge.

22. Classic repeating sixes forward

If you’ve ever watched any old Vinnie Moore instructional videos then this will be familiar
to you. It may be anyway as it is quite common and extremely useful. 3 notes ascending on
each string of the pair. Keep changing which pickstroke you start on – I’m serious!

23. Classic repeating sixes backward

The same as previous but your fretting fingers are going in reverse. Do you find exercise #22
or #23 more difficult? Whichever it is, practice that one more than the other.

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 24. Minor arpeggio

Sounds and feels great when you get this one cranking. With these sudden string crosses
make sure that you only hit the string you intend to.

25. E minor string skipped sequence

You must be precise to cleanly execute string skipped passages/patterns. This exercise will
help to develop that precision. Focus hard on keeping that b string dead silent the whole
time. By the way, I call this sequence “Linear 3rds” or “up 3, back 1”.

26. E Dorian Blues sliding sixes

Think of this as a combination of #22 and #23. Works really well with them too! This is
another exercise to help you move sideways through scale positions.

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 27. five and three

Excuse the unimaginative name. This features 5 notes on one string and 3 on the other and is
remarkably effective at increasing alternate picking speed. Seriously give it a go and see
what I mean.

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PHIs, single-string, and two-string examples are all checked off now. This last section
contains exercises with 3 or more strings involved. Remember to focus on clean and perfect
notes rather than speed, and keep your muting tight. Here’s a bonus tip. If you ever get in a
rut when practicing these, try starting the exercise halfway through to keep your fingers
guessing.

28. Offset Chromatics

Sometimes a good way to improve is to readopt old material and practice it in a new
way. Instead of playing three strings of 4-note chromatics as is ALWAYS done, take
this version. 3 notes on the first string (fretted with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers), then 4
notes on the next, and then just 2 on the last. Then return. A great exercise!

29. Jumping Neoclassical Repeats

Feels like a 2 string exercise except for the sudden string skip to the high e string. Is sure to
get your wrist accuracy even more precise. And this sounds great too.

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 30. Blues All string crosses

This is another exercise that is designed to include all 4 ways of crossing strings regardless
of which pickstroke you begin with. Don’t just keep this on the bass strings. Try it out on the
e, b, and g strings too. This exercise will improve multistring playing drastically.

31. 3-string Diminished scale

Exercise #30 is the ideal precursor for this exercise and both are two of my most favourite
exercises of all time for multistring alternate picking. Oh the months I’ve spent with this.

32. C Harmonic minor pattern

I would often practice this one in the same session as exercises #30 and #31. This one sounds
so cool and is exhilarating to bust out at high speed.

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 33. A minor pentatonic skippy Sequence

Get a load of this 3-notes-per-string pentatonic monster. Not only will this catch the attention
of everybody who hears it, this is also a highly technical sequence. The string skips are
demanding, as is the actual sequence itself. This would usually be considered a diatonic 3 rds
sequence (or “skipped 3rds” as I call it) if the scale was straight up and down. But the string
skips change it up. Be super careful with muting with this one. Go really slowly.

34. MaJor 7 picked arpeggio

Cover some ground quickly here with this wide Maj7 arpeggio. This will certainly improve
your string skipping abilities.

35. B Bluesy skip and return

This alternates between an adjacent string and a string skip and is probably a good exercise
for blues and hard rock lead playing.

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 36. F6 skipped arpeggio

This outlines an F6 chord. Apart from sounding cool, this forces you to cross to a string, then
back, then skip over a string. All one after another. And will further improve your accuracy
and string crosses.

37. Fmaj7 fractured 4-finger arpeggio

Take this one very slowly. It’s an absolute minefield of potential mistakes. But that’s good,
because once you get comfortable with it… that means you have improved! This is all string
crosses and skips. If you can develop skill with this then most other exercises will seem
much easier by comparison.

38. major/diminished arpeggio

Alternate picking arpeggios is a fantastic way to quickly develop an accurate and relaxed
picking hand. This one goes between a major arpeggio and a diminished one.

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 39. Dim7 alternate picked arpeggios

Another very metal sounding idea. Is your picking feeling better from arpeggios already?
Then keep going! This one is a little trickier than #37.

40. Finger rolling Pentatonics

Play the pentatonic scale in an unusual way. You will often have to rest your fretting fingers
on two notes at a time and only roll/press one down as you need it. This gets very messy if
played too fast too soon so take great care.

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