I think it’s true that “economy picking” has a variety of different definitions, depending on which player you are talking to.
But “directional picking” is a term that I usually hear from people from the “Tom Hess school” or whatever it’s called. And it seems to always mean: go to higher strings with a downstroke, and to lower strings with an upstroke.
I never understood how it would work if there’s a string skip, though.
His students don’t do string skips 
Here’s my attempt to interpret the linked video through a CTC lens:
In the video, he uses the terms “economy picking”, “alternate picking”, and “directional picking”.
One TL;DR point: In the video, he says that the technique he refers to as “directional picking” was not invented by him, but he claims to have coined the term. The linked video doesn’t contain a demonstration of that technique (though apparently other videos on his channel do).
In the video, he broadly refers to “economy picking” and “directional picking” as (paraphrasing) “two different approaches to inside picking”.
General observation about his overall picking technique: when he plays at “fast” or “moderate” speeds he uses a wrist-oriented DSX approach, though for some licks he lets the pick stay trapped on both downstrokes and upstrokes.
“Economy picking”
TL;DR: He demonstrates a fully trapped version of “two-way sweeping”.
Says the economy picking approach requires planning number of notes per string in advance to eliminate hopping string changes;
Example lick is a loop of four notes descending: 2 notes on B string, 2 notes on G string, repeat. He starts with a downstroke on the B string.
He appears to have a DSX setup, but in the example, he does trapped strokes in both directions and the example lick gets “two-way swept” with no escape strokes, so maybe he means organizing licks so that no escapes are necessary; basically “two way sweeping” without the addition of escapes.
“Alternate picking”
TL;DR: He applies a DSX motion to the previous example, but appears not to realize that you can sometimes optimize a lick by starting with a DSX upstroke rather than of a DSX downstroke (or by using USX).
He discusses and demonstrates how what I’d call a “strict alternate” approach to this lick can be problematic (for him, DSX starting with a downstroke, with either stringhopping or a helper motion for intermittent upstroke escapes). He recognizes that “hoppy” motions are inefficent. Without discussing the concept of a “helper motion” explicitly, he observes that there are people who are able to make this version of “alternate picking” work, but argues (and I agree) that it takes a lot more effort to get good at that compared to the “economy” (i.e. “two way sweeping”) approach he discussed previously.
However, he either doesn’t recognize or doesn’t reveal that this lick can be played non-problematically with strict alternate picking (without hopping or a helper motion) if you use DSX starting with an upstroke, or USX starting with a downstroke. He only discusses what happens when he uses his fast picking motion (which happens to be either DSX or fully trapped) and starts on a downstroke.
Ironically, when he demonstrates this approach “slowly”, he ends the first four notes on an escaped upstroke (unlike when he plays fast), and from there still talks about having to “jump over” the string to get to the next stroke (that “jumping problem” is an accurate description of what would happen if you tried to play this with strict alternate picking with a DSX motion, starting on a downstroke; the first four notes descending would then end on a trapped upstroke; (Edit: for “strict alternate” you actually would have become “stuck” already after the second note of the phrase, unless you did something like a helper motion or a swipe to set up the third note).
He then spends roughly 10 minutes going through a series of examples that apply the “economy picking” mechanics from earlier to slightly different 4-note-descending 2-note-per-string phrases.
Example 2: one fretting difference, but same picking mechanics.
Example 3: more of the same picking mechanics.
Example 4 uses high E string and B string, but same overall picking mechanics as before.
Example 5 uses high E string and B string; same picking mechanics.
Example 6 uses high E string and B string; same picking mechanics.
Talks about mixing examples 5 and 6; same picking mechanics.
Example 7: uses B string and G string; same picking mechanics.
Discusses different fingerings for the fretting of example 7.
Example 8: uses B string and G string; same picking mechanics.
“Directional picking”:
Describes as another form of “inside picking”.
Claims to have coined the term in the early 1990s, though not to have invented the technique.
Says no “advance planning” of notes per string is required (in contrast to the approach he referred to earlier as “economy picking”).
This video contains no demonstration or explanation of how “directional picking” works.
From another video on his channel, it sounds like “directional picking” is the term he uses for single-escaped picking mixed with sweeping. It’s not immediately obvious to me whether he recognizes that DSX is just one way of doing single-escape picking (i.e., not clear whether he ever applies what we’d call USX). It’s also not clear to me whether what he calls “directional picking” also includes the strategic use of hammer-ons and pull-offs (which would bring it in line with what we understand as the DSX approach of players such as Vinnie Moore; or the USX approach of players such as Yngwie Malmsteen).
I’m just saying, this is just how we have been using the term “economy picking”. If you’re saying there are too many other meanings floating around, and it would lead to confusion, then I’m fine with choosing other way of describing things to clarify. But for now, this is the best we’ve got.
To wit:
Just as a phrase, “economy picking” is a good general description of what happens when you combine sweeping and alternate picking. i.e. You economize on pickstrokes. It’s been in use for decades so far as I can tell, with no specific universal meaning other than referring to sweeping and alternate picking together in some form. So it seems like a good choice as the general term to describe any such combination.
Beneath that umbrella, you’d have one-way and two-way as the next hierarchy. Then beneath one-way, you’d have the dwps and uwps one-way economy approaches — or whatever other term might be better. Maybe “downstroke” and “upstroke” economy since the sweeping generally only occurs on those pickstrokes.
Beneath two-way you’d have, if you care to name them, the styles of individual players who have some idiosyncratic way of doing of sweeping in two directions. Frank calls his approach “Gambale sweeping”, so that’s the term we used in the feature. This dude says “directional picking”. It’s possible that Frank would see “directional picking” as just a ripoff of his own approach and not distinct enough to merit any sort of name.
At a technical level, Frank’s approach isn’t the same in both directions, with an emphasis more on the “UWPS” side of things, possibly because of the alternate picking motion. He wouldn’t describe it that way. But that’s what he actually does. So although we used his term “Gambale sweeping” mainly because that’s his brand and he liked the video features better that way, I’m kind of fine with that since in reality it does refer to something specific / distinct.
The “directional picking” thing, I haven’t looked at it, as to how it differs. Is there a whole class of two-way styles that work sort of the way it does? If so, maybe some general term to describe that.
Otherwise, I’m kind of fine with economy as the umbrella, and one-way and two-way beneath that. But open to whatever.
That would be strange if that’s what he means. Anyone who has ever used this term, and we used to get emails on this a lot in the pre-forum days, was always asking about two-way sweeping. Without looking into it, from the context of the questions I gathered that direcitonal just meant “sweeping in a given direction until you can’t sweep any more”. I assumed this would leave you with a bunch of inside picking situations at “directional” turnaround points where you would need actual alternate picking of some variety, albeit limited.
This is basically what Jimmy Bruno and Oy Noy do. Though interestingly both players have real escaped alternate picking techqnique and will do entire lines all-USX and all-DSX if it works better that way. They’ll also play the same fretted phrase two completely different ways, starting on an upstroke or a downstroke. Both Oz and Jimmy seem to be more “ambidextrous” in terms of alternate picking and how they mix and match than any other players we have interviewed. Whereas Frank only alternate picks DSX, Oz will literally change it up right in the middle of a phrase. It’s interesting.
I could be wrong about that part. I didn’t go very deep down the rabbit-hole. But because he had framed “directional picking” in the linked video above as an alternative to his definition of “economy picking” (which itself appears to be trapped two-way sweeping), I figured “directional picking” had to be more than that. The “directional picking” bits I did watch were heavy on the importance of sweeping in the direction of a string change.
This is what I learned ‘economy picking’ was as a teen - I posted a thread here about it a while back when the Gambale vids were posted where Troy clarified a lot of things. I’m guessing that this interpretation of economy picking spread around during the early 2000s guitar forum years, especially on the Ultimate Guitar where you could say basically whatever you wanted and people would believe you.
Playing this way does massive advantage IMO in that it is the most ‘set and forget’ picking technique in terms of improvising single note lines (apart from maybe crosspicking, but I simply do not have the chops to crosspick at the speed I can sweep); It feels like you can structure your playing more around pitch contour and the direction of the phrase rather than planning your licks around a specific picking idiom. I always found that Frank’s economy picking ‘rules’ felt too prescriptive and added another layer to an already extremely difficult style of music.
I remember that thread, and if I recall what you were actually doing is a little more complicated than what you thought you were doing. But I don’t remember if you ever filmed closer up to get a closer look at some of those sequences.
Which way are you referring to? If there is a “type” of economy picking that is worth looking at, and saying, ok, this is one particular style that has a specific set of, let’s call them, rules, and lots of people play this way, that’s worth knowing.
Otherwise, I’m not sure any of these techniques are really “set and forget”, since they’re all just using memorized patterns of some kind of another. What’s memorized for one person is not memorized for another. And vice versa. I find the EJ / Benson / Gypsy style to be completely improvisable, where there is this feeling of not having to think about things, because all the picking patterns are memorized. Of course, someone who didn’t learn those patterns is going to hate it and think they can’t play the lines they “want” to play. Etc.
Tbh, he is just trying to have his own brand of economy picking. HIs explanation of the “difference”, is that you don’t refinger things to suit the picking. If you think of two way economy picking, there is zero difference between directional picking and economy picking. But having your own “brand” of picking is a marketing thing. He also says that directional picking is proven to be the best picking technique and that other techniques are inefficient and not valid.
I did his online lessons for a longer time than I’d care to admit. Forcing thumb muting and directional picking on students right from the start and with very vague descriptions of the mechanics. “Use your wrist when on one string, use your arm to change strings”. If you challenged the thumb muting technique, you’d be lynched. That’s pretty much it.
I didn’t explain that very well.
Ok so, directional picking. Outside picking does not exist in directional picking.
When moving to a higher string, it’s always a downstroke, whether swept or inside picked.
When moving to a lower string, it’s always an upstroke, swept or picked.
No outside picking at all.
What really complicates matters is the thumb muting.
The thumb stays resting on the strings below the one you are picking no matter if you are ascending or descending.
Doing this means you cannot palm mute notes, you’d have to rotate you arm to get back into palm muting position.
It also means you can’t slant the pick. He says not to slant the pick for sweeps.
You can see a clear upslant in his clips, but this is due to the thumb muting. When doing thumb muting, I also had an upslant by default, which exists even when ascending a sweep.
Using thumb muting restricts how you can move your wrist. You can only really deviate as you need to keep the thumb on the strings. So no forearm rotation.
You can’t have your thumb overhanging on the pick or you will mute the note you are trying to play.
For me, this was an awful technique for so many different reasons that mounted up the longer I practiced it.
He didn’t create the thumb muting technique, but does force it on you as a new student.
Hey Troy, I wanted to respond when i had time to properly explain. I guess what I meant by set and forget was more that I would rather find a picking technique that is applicable to a variety of left hand positions rather than adjust the fingerings to fit the picking. There have been moments in my own soloing where I’ve heard a line in my head, and then screwed it up because im trying to adapt it in real time to a type of left hand fingering that enables a certain picking style. All learned techniques on the instrument are going to mediate your playing and improvisation of course, but I’ve worked with the philosophy that you try and organically develop your technical idiom from the lines you are hearing in your head, rather than learn a particular picking idiom and draw upon it as necessary (I think oz noy says a similar thing in one of the videos you did with him).
Here’s some videos explaining/showing the motion I’ve been practicing from a couple of angles (this guitar is strung w .13s so there’s some crap playing in there). Obv not perfect yet but I definitely think its a viable way of playing.
Sequenced diminished arpeggios where the inside string skip starts on an upstroke (U D D U repeat)
I saw one of Hess’ students with a video on the same subject and stated that pure (strict) economy or alternate picking is stupid.
I felt in a bit of a trolling mood so asked what he would do in the following scenario;
Hi, thanks for the video.
So if you want to play a 3-note per string lick (picked) with a string skip, for example the Paul Gilbert lick you showed here, but on the G and E strings, what would you do? Would you:
A) Play with alternate picking?
B) Pre-plan by to start the lick on an upstroke to enable directional picking? (which would technically be alternate picking but still fits the directional picking rules)
C) pre-plan by playing one note with legato to enable direction picking?
The response comment was that I should go back and listen to the description of directional picking and imagine I was my own teacher and answer the question.
So are there players that successfully play a downstroke on a G string, skip the B string and play the E string also with a downstroke? At fast tempos? Sounds like a nightmare!
Exactly!
I could literally spend all day talking about some of the ridiculous things he was preaching.
I asked about metal rhythms, in particular stuff that was obviously played and written with alternate picking, the answer, directional picking.
Also, so many vague absolute statements with no video examples of how to do it. Things like “the pick must never stop moving”, when pressed for more information, he meant no rest strokes… so slowing the pick down and trying to not have it rest stroke… who does this!!? As I said, never really any video examples of this sort of stuff.
In three years I only got one video example from him and that was for the thumb muting technique which was explained very briefly.
Absolute statements such as “Many guitar players think all picking techniques are valid, this is not true, directional picking is PROVEN to be the best picking techinque”
I’m actually quite angry with myself that I stuck with him for so long. That’s my fault. I really wanted to believe he had the answers. Eventually I started to cop on to what he was really doing. Which is stringing you along as long as possible using his “geometric” teaching approach.
And yes, it that situation, with “directional picking”, which is no different from a strict economy picking approach. You would have to do a down stroke on the G and then the same on the E. There literally is no outside picking in this approach at all. It has to be swept, inside picked or that sort of skip sweep you are describing here. Ridiculous!
Unbelievable, really. But the sad thing is that it’s true. Got a nice spam message some time ago from one of his priests, he talked about what Petrucci would not do, and why people are practicing the wrong way.
I sent him a reply saying: Petrucci also wouldn’t economy pick everything. He replied: that’s true.
Its the age old marketing ploy of “make it sound like you will never be good any other way than my way”. It is a shame as economy/directional picking is a great thing and you may never need anything else, but to say that its the only way is just stupid. I can see how people fall for this marketing pressure though.
One thing that definitely kept me away from a lot of these so called teachers was the simple fact that they never played anything that I considered desirable. I remember seeing on with a “how to play with great phrasing” or something like that. It was a textbook example of someone with good technical facility, but zero musicality and phrasing. It was as if he learned guitar playing without ever having listened to music or even to himself! Now don’t get me wrong I know that music appreciation is subjective, but I have a hard time accepting a low standard coming from someone that thinks they are on the top shelf…
I have a very similar impression. Anything Mr Tom Cruise of guitar has played, ever, has never made me feel like I want to play the guitar that way. It was rather off-putting.
There’s nothing wrong with economy/directional picking (copyright, trademark, your soul sold for $1, or any other nonsense). My all-time favourite guitarist is playing everything with economy picking. I never felt like it’s a limiting factor but neither that’s the only way to approach the instrument.
I’m trying to add some elements of economy picking into my playing, but I find it very difficult - my brain can’t cope with anticipating the sweeps and when I’m alternate picking… it sounds great when I nail it though!
Just to make sure I’m clear, I think economy picking is great!, or I would, if I could do it 
But I cannot agree with crazy statements such as “Many guitarists think all picking techniques are valid, this is incorrect, directional picking is PROVEN to be the best picking technique” (Not the exact wording but something very similar)
Where exactly has this been “proven”? I don’t remember any clinical trials on picking technique 
Just because Tom Hess is running a pyramid scheme based on ‘directional picking’ doesn’t mean the technique itself can’t be useful. As I’ve been saying, there are cases where it’s extremely useful if you want to preserve CAGED/3NPS left hand fingering and you don’t want to play alternate (or gypsy repeating downstrokes). Sure it’s a niche idea, and I wouldn’t teach it as the basis of a picking technique because it’s the timbrally worse option for 95% of guitar music – but IMO exploring the limits of what you can do with musical technique in general is worth trying because it often leads to musically novel approaches. Hell, from what I’ve seen Troy has done way more crazy 1NPS alternate picking at speeds I thought would have thought to be completely impossible before I knew about CTC.
Also, if you can economy pick already it’s not THAT difficult to do Paul Gilbert style string skipping licks with the technique
and an actual lick I’ve been practicing with it which is something like 3NPS string skips but sequenced in 3s
I remember a lesson in, I think it was guitar techniques magazine, probably about 20 years ago. I think it was by a guitarist called Shaun Baxter.
He was teaching economy picking regularly at that time in the magazine. One lesson in particular he referred to as skip sweeping. So that would basically be the idea that @PickingApprentice was asking about, only it was more elaborate exercises dealing with this idea of skipping over a string with a down or upstroke, depending on which direction you were going.
I do remember I wasn’t able to do it and this was before I had internet and there were no videos to reference from.