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So after you've learned the basic chords and you know how to form them (in the case you don't, click link Basic Chords) it's time to decide if you want to do epic solos. If yes, then you have to improve your skills more. If you want to compose original songs you need to learn more about music theory. Since this series is about becoming great at guitar we won't go into the theory to much, so let's get started.
Alternative Picking
I think one of the greatest way to teach this technique is to give you some example, so here we go.
D|--------------------------------------------------------------|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------|
F|--------------------------------------------------------------|
C|--0-7-8-0-5-7-0-3-5-0-2-3-0-2-5-2-----------------------------|
G|--------------------------------------------------------------|
C|--------------------------------------------------------------|
|--D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-----------------------------|
Bullet for My Valentine - Hand of Blood (intro, part one)
The song is in Drop C tuning but you shouldn't care about it. Just play the notes showed above. Now if you're a totally beginner you will probably play every note with a downstroke.
Now for the alternative picking you pick in both directions: down and up. And repeat. So for the alternative picking you will have this kind of picking pattern: down, up, down, up, down, up and so on. How simple is that? So with alternative picking the Hand of Blood intro should be played like this:
D|--------------------------------------------------------------|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------|
F|--------------------------------------------------------------|
C|--0-7-8-0-5-7-0-3-5-0-2-3-0-2-5-2-----------------------------|
G|--------------------------------------------------------------|
C|--------------------------------------------------------------|
|--D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-----------------------------|
So every 2nd note is played with an upstroke. With this technique you can play much faster, because you don't have to make an extra movement: Bring back the pick to the start position.
Let's see another example.
e|-------------------------------1-2-3--------------------------|
B|-------------------------1-2-3--------------------------------|
G|-------------------1-2-3--------------------------------------|
D|-------------1-2-3--------------------------------------------|
A|-------1-2-3--------------------------------------------------|
E|-1-2-3--------------------------------------------------------|
|-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U-D-U--------------------------|
If you follow the picking pattern above, you may have some trouble to play it nicely, even through it's a simple exercise. Why do you struggle with it then? Because it's alternative picked.
Economy Picking
The economy picking technique is pretty similar to the alternative picking, only here we won't go simply down and up, sometime we do a picking pattern like this: down, up, down, down, up down...
So let's see the exam
e|-------------------------------1-2-3--------------------------|
B|-------------------------1-2-3--------------------------------|
G|-------------------1-2-3--------------------------------------|
D|-------------1-2-3--------------------------------------------|
A|-------1-2-3--------------------------------------------------|
E|-1-2-3--------------------------------------------------------|
|-D-U-D-D-U-D-D-U-D-D-U-D-D-U-D-D-U-D--------------------------|
It's much simple like this, right?
For me economy picking is much better than alternative picking. I don't want to use one schema to pick. And in Economy picking you pick form a way what is comfortable for you.
Next time, I will talk about tremolo picking. Until next time, keep learning and practicing.
ZixRyder.
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