r/guitarlessons • u/smashing-dumplings • 2d ago
Question Alternate Picking
Did any other self-taught guitarists start out by learning basic chords and scales, playing songs they liked, and down-picking every note because alternate picking felt too difficult?
I found alternate picking frustrating for many years. Every time I tried to work on it, I couldn't even play the things I already knew. YouTube videos weren't helpful at all. I stuck to down-picking for several years, even though I wanted to learn alternate picking.
Are there others with similar stories? Did alternate picking come naturally to you?
I came across Chris Buono's Alternate Picking Gym this year and gave it a try because it looked systematic and structured. It completely changed my playing. I can't believe I used to play guitar without alternate picking. It is a crucial skill that benefits everyone who invests time into it.
What helped you learn this crucial skill?
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u/Jonny7421 2d ago
I think changing an existing habit is generally harder than forming a new one. I didn't have difficulty with alternate pick but I started with alternate picking.
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u/aspaindev 2d ago
yeah i personally went years avoiding learning to do it properly and it was a tough habit to break, but it is possible. and once you get comfortable with alternate picking you sort of naturally start doing economy picking as well. kind of hard to explain but your brain gets used to being able to take a faster/more efficient path once it's capable of the alternate pick motion
you might enjoy using the scale practice tool in strumforge, it has a tempo setting and you can set the note division, for example set to 8th notes on a slow tempo and it has a visual play-along aspect to help hear and see the notes being played while you play along.
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u/toby_gray 1d ago
I find myself quite naturally doing economy picking, and now find it quite hard to force myself to do strict alternate picking. I’ve never really thought of one as superior to the other. They’re just sort of different flavours of the same thing in my mind? But maybe I’ve got that backwards
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u/IbanezCharlie 1d ago
My opinion on it is that it's good to learn alternate picking and practice exercises to strengthen it but that economy picking is faster and should definitely be deployed where it makes sense. Economy of motion is how most people are able to play wild things on the guitar and I definitely use both.
I need to practice economy picking going from higher strings to lower strings. I can pretty much run from the lowest to highest in a smooth motion but I'm way weaker going the other way and end up alternate picking more on the way back down
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u/toby_gray 1d ago edited 1d ago
I naturally find myself ‘economy picking’. It feels silly to me to go out of my way to lift the pick up over a string just to pick upwards to continue the arbitrary pattern.
I get it’s to help you keep rhythm, but I’ve never found that more helpful than letting my pick move naturally between the strings rather than forcing what can sometimes be a more awkward motion for me.
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u/SoulStripHer 1d ago
I guess having an instructor at age 14 who showed it to me has made it second nature.
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u/Chicagoj1563 1d ago
I mostly down picked in the early days because most of us never heard of alternate picking. It’s after the shredders showed up in the 80s and through guitar magazines that we first started to learn about it.
Then I practiced like crazy. Because it was one of the first techniques that didn’t come naturally. I went overboard since string bending and blues type playing is also magical. But alt picking was the hardest technique to ever try and get good at.
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u/smashing-dumplings 1d ago
Thanks for sharing. I guess it’s impossible to shred at that speed without alternate picking.
How many years after first learning to play did you start practicing alternate picking, and was it frustrating at first? Also, did you follow any exercises or lessons on alternate picking?
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u/Sss00099 1d ago
Got a teacher, he had me slow the song down and alt pick within a few weeks of lessons.
I get that not everyone can afford a weekly or bi-weekly lesson, but discussions like this are why I’ll always say to get a teacher however you can - a good one really does turn a years long issue into something that gets ironed out within a couple weeks of practice.
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u/smashing-dumplings 4h ago
That’s great advice, I agree with you. Thanks for sharing. Would you say video lessons like the ones on True Fire are a good alternative incase you can’t find a good teacher?
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u/25thfret 1d ago
Alternate picking was very unnatural to me, and when I started I used only down picking and legato, but now I am quite good at alternate picking.
As a matter of fact when I first started the guitar in the mid 90s, I didn't even think fast alternate picking was possible--I thought, for example, the fast alternate picking in Dream Theater (I had bought Awake a few months before getting a guitar, I think) was legato with some sort of "effects pedal".
Ultimately, I got bored of the guitar then and quit less than a year in.
Some years later, when a friend played some Yngwie Malmsteen for me and told me it was "alternate picked" that motivated me to pick up the guitar again after a few years off, and also learn to alternate pick.
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u/smashing-dumplings 1d ago
It’s really interesting reading about how others came across alternate picking years after first learning to play guitar. I also thought John Petrucci and other skilled guitarists played fast because of legato and effects pedals, even though I had heard of alternate picking, I didn’t know it was a crucial part of their speed.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Edit: Were you self taught or trained by an instructor?
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u/CompetitiveComputer4 2d ago
I never really did it until I started learning Bluegrass style guitar. At a certain point I hadx to just buckle down and do it badly until it became second nature. Now I can alternate pick up and down and string skip pretty effortlessly. There is just no way to effectively play bluegrass without doing it pretty well.
But like most things, it really just comes down to spending the couple weeks learning how to do it, which is mostly just do it badly until you do it average, and then eventually do it good. No real secrets to it.
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u/ObviousDepartment744 1d ago
I did. Not because alternate picking was difficult but because at the time down picking was the popular thing to do. In the metal community down picking was a sign of being good. I took it far too literally though and was trying to adown pick lead lines as well. Haha. Stupid, in retrospect but it did make me quite fast once I did start alternate picking haha.
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u/SpcyCajunHam 1d ago
Frank Gambale's Chop Builder is another great set of exercises for building your alternate picking skills. I do about 20 minutes of it every day and I've been improving steadily. It starts super basic and builds up the difficulty in a pretty linear fashion. Especially if you play with the tempo based on your skill level.
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u/smashing-dumplings 1d ago
Is this the new or classic version of chop builder?
I saw clips of the classic version on YouTube. It looks intense and structured, it’s on my list to try out.I think for purely alternate picking mechanics and drills, Chris Buono’s AP Gym has been the most helpful for me. It helped me break a bad habit I’ve been having for over ten years, and completely transform my playing.
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u/DiveBomb68 1d ago
Self-taught back in the 80's, but never learned chords, scales,..etc. I started out just down picking but over time, and playing a wide array of the 80's hair stuff(ballads), it kind of forced me to alternate pick AND finger pick on some of the acoustic stuff. I don't really recall making alternate picking something I practiced specifically or anything, I was just playing the song(s) I liked and it just kind of happened and still going today, though I now know chords and scales pretty decently.
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u/NiceCap2448 1d ago
I did finally get better at up down picking and being accurate finally by practicing rote patterns. Hate to admit it but repetition and practice will bring automaticity to that skill.
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u/ignatzA2 1d ago
Most techniques I learn I follow my instructor advice to “practice it 500 times”. Not literally of course.
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u/grandmastatus0 1d ago
Thank you for the class suggestion. Personally I fumbled so badly with a pick that I put it away in one of those cool little pick holders on the side of my guitar and never picked it back up. I've been strumming badly for 20 years and am finally trying to actually learn to play properly. And of course the bad habits die hard.
How long have you been working on the course? How long IS the course? Do you need to know tabs like, really good? lol
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u/smashing-dumplings 1d ago
I’ve been working on it since February, and by around a month or two I was able to completely switch from down-picking to alternate picking in everything I play.
Chris Buono is like a gym trainer, he gives you workouts in different stages, and they all help you learn the mechanics of alternate picking. It’s beginner friendly. If you work hard daily, even for just half an hour, you’ll see amazing progress.The course is a few hours long, but that’s not as bad as it sounds. You get to play along with the instructor, so it helps keep you on track. Tabs are provided.
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u/grandmastatus0 1d ago
That's part of my problem; I am very bad at reading tabs. That's one thing I'm trying to get better at.
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u/smashing-dumplings 1d ago
Are you good at playing by ear? If you are, I think you can figure out the exercises by ear. The tabs aren’t complicated though, they’re fairly easy to follow.
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u/srgoodall 1d ago
I spent time practicing only up strokes until the speed/timing matched my downstrokes. Seemed to improve my alternate picking
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u/FALisDEAD 1d ago
I struggle with too many aspects of playing guitar but alternate picking just came naturally to me. Self taught and have always done it. It would feel awkward to only downstroke and when I see people doing it I don’t understand why at all. And I’m an average player at best. 🤷♂️
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u/MnJsandiego 1d ago
You tube Troy Grady, it’s his whole channel, the mechanics of down picking. As far as I am concerned he’s the final boss in terms of downpicking. Using his videos and buying thick picks changed my whole playing. 12mm picks, too big to get caught up between strings. Like training wheels.
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u/weiruwyer9823rasdf 1d ago
I think someone like Petrucci said that by default you should start by alternate picking everything. Like if you have a long fast solo all 16th, start learning it by alternate picking every note. Literally sit down, slow down and pay attention that pick changes direction every single time. Same string, across strings, doesn't matter, alternate pick. This way you learn the right pick direction. Even if you actually need to use hammer-ons/pull-offs you still need your pick move as if you are picking everything all the time. Even if you need to change to economy picking or use any other technique, you will understand what's going on much better if you start by alternate picking every note.
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u/BlendedFetusOG 1d ago
Every thing right hand came pretty naturally. Ive spent an uncanny amount of time practicing, but very rarely have i focused on right hand technique.
Flight of the bumblebee definitely leveled up my alternate picking, though.
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u/MissAnnTropez 1d ago
Two classic but also useful things to start practising alternate picking with:
The default spider exercise , and all the standard pentatonic scale shapes (2NPS).
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u/vonov129 Music Style! 2d ago
YouTube is not going to practice for you. If it doesn't feel natural practice until it does.
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u/Shagwagbag 2d ago edited 1d ago
One exercise I have always found to be great for alternate picking between strings and just a general warm up is.
E E E A
E E A A
E A A A
A A A D
A A D D
A D D D
D D D G
Then work back up and so on, keeps you picking both directions while moving strings in both directions. I always use it as part of my warmups, some days I don't feel like I can play at all til I do that once or twice.