Alternate Picking Exercises Please

Playing Technique
#1

Hello,

First time poster here. My picking has always been stuck at the 120 bpm 16th note region because my technique is flawed. I can not play faster without using hammer ons of pull offs. I’ve been a member of Cracking The Code for many years. I’ve watched many videos and understand the concepts. What I can’t find are any solid play through exercises.

Here’s an example of an exercise I found today, but it makes no sense. The picking starts on a down stroke on the E string then an up stroke on the B string then a down stroke on the G string. My pick gets stuck between strings. It goes against everything that Troy teaches. This guy can play it fast somehow though.

The Frank Gambale chop builder exercise is fun, but Frank doesn’t seem to follow any of Troy’s rule’s either.

Can anyone recommend some alternate picking exercises that promote proper technique?

#2

Can you explain that more? What time in the video does he do that?

I have an alternate picking exercise might help?

#3

It doesn’t go against what Troy teaches. It doesn’t fit the Eric Johnson Yngwie Malmsteen system but Troy’s researched plenty of guitarists who play things where the pick would be ‘stuck’ in just a place or 2 (but otherwise conform to either USX or DSX). One way to use a small helper motion at just the right place (I think this is what Bernth is doing).

Again, I think you may be over generalizing Troy’s ‘rules’. Troy doesn’t really have rules, he’s just researched what great players do and he has various categories or profiles of these players. Troy interviewed Frank and got great views of his technique. It’s totally different than some like EJ or YJM BUT he’s got plenty of places when he plays lines that don’t use economy picking and in those cases he’s usually a DSX player.

That might be putting the cart before the horse :slight_smile: “Proper technique” is a really vague term. Many players have drastically different techniques and sound incredible so it feels weird to say one is proper vs the other.

Is there a genre you’re interested in playing? To me, it’s way more fun to cherry pick sections from pieces of music that I like than it is to play exercises that may or may not be useful, given my strengths and interests.

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#4

I’m a little confused by what you mean by the rules?
There aren’t really any rules, more explanations. People often stick close to their primary motion, but with the help of secondary motion, mixed escapes, double escapes, swipes, sweeps etc etc , there are many ways to get around obstacles.

#5

Indeed, the code is more what you would call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules

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#6

lol! Bonus points for that reference!

#7

He demonstrates slowly at 3:55 and quickly at 5:30

#8

parlay?

#9

I’d like to concentrate on fast downward slant picking technique ala Ynvwie. I know that Troy shows one like in the Yngwie chapter, but that’s one single lick.

Are there any play through exercises that go up and down the neck vertically and horizontally that I play for 5-10 mins straight to a backing track?

Thanks.

#10

If I’m playing it right, 7 notes on each string, it’s the same thing as I posted, An alternating, alternating patten. Have a go on just two strings. You can get a feel for it and then drag it across the other strings.

#11

Look at Troy’s USX stuff if thats what you’re after.

Yngwie almost always does downward pick slant escape. He uses a lot of pulloffs to fill in the lack of alternate picking

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#12

I’d say just make up your own. You could do a minor scale with 6’s ascending and descending. For example, in A minor:

E|--------------------------------------------------------------7-8-10-7-8-10
B|------------------------------------------------6-8-10-6-8-10----------------
G|------------------------------------5-7-9-5-7-9------------------------------
D|------------------------5-7-9-5-7-9------------------------------------------
A|------------5-7-8-5-7-8------------------------------------------------------
E|5-7-8-5-7-8------------------------------------------------------------------

Every note changes strings after an upstroke and you can move it around, come back down etc.

A big caution is to make sure you actually have a USX motion going. A lot of people get excited and want to do USX to play Yngwie or EJ licks but lack control of the mechanic required to move their pick the way USX requires. They are often good at DSX instead. No real problem in that case, you can always alter the pattern slightly (above example, but only play three notes on the first string, that way all the other string changes happen after down strokes) OR play the above start each string on a down stroke.

It all depends on your goals though. Some people legitimately have fun just messing around with techniques. If your goal is playing music that sounds awesome ASAP, there are probably faster and more productive routes than just wanting to learn some exercises that are USX.

Anyway, best of luck! You’ve definitely come to the right place for some help. I’m just a little concerned based on the request that the bigger picture of Troy’s work is getting missed. That’s neither a criticism of Troy’s work nor your request :slight_smile: A lot of people show up here with bits and pieces of things they’ve seen from one YouTube video or another, and there is SO much more to Troy’s platform than just “Downward Pickslanting”. In fact, that term is nearly deprecated because the more Troy researched the more he realized that a slant is often a byproduct of other things and that the most important aspect of cleanly changing strings is really more about pick trajectory, than if it looks slanted.

#13

I have shared these a few times before:

#14

Well so before you start heavily investing in this, I would make sure a USX only escape is what works best for you. If the only reason you settled is because you want to play Yngwie licks, You can play Yngwie licks with a number of different escapes. I wouldn’t just box yourself in to doing one thing if it may end up being a set back later.

2 Likes
#15

Bernth describes what he does as the old two way pickslanting on the last note deal that Troy used to mention back in the day. It’s not something I would really recommend unless you really want a brain teaser with your lick, and I don’t think Troy recommends this anymore either.

#16

Thanks gys,

I’ll check out all of your insider tips.

#17

Meat with a bit of garnish, yummy :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

1 Like
#18

Hi! Thanks for posting. By “rules” it sounds like you’re referencing the downward pickslanting stuff. In the original animated YouTube series, where we talked about Yngwie, we did refer to him as having “rules”, and we even animated them written on stone tables. We were just trying to be entertaining!

As others have pointed out, these aren’t really rules, they’re just a description of Yngwie’s “upstroke escape” playing style. Not all players play this way. The first video you linked to is a different playing style, so I understand the confusion.

This is the real problem. I would not do anything with exercises, or trying to find phrases you can play for ten minutes like you’re asking about. If you can’t pick faster than 120bpm, there is a problem with your picking motion, and exercises are not going to help.

You’ve mentioned being a member for a while. Do you have access to the latest version of the Primer? I hate to be like, “watch our videos”, but we’ve spent a lot of time addressing these more basic issues in trying to get your motions working correctly.

If you haven’t taken the table tapping tests in the Primer, I highly recommend doing that. This is becauase the first step is to understand that your actual playing speed is much higher than 120bpm, so you don’t waste time on motions that are wrong.

After that, the next step is getting your tremolo working, using any motion that you can do fast. And then moving on to hand synchronization. And so on, and so on.

Don’t do exercises until these basic issues are sorted out!