i seem to gravitate toward ecomony picking. it just happens. is this going to be speed limiting, versus alternate picking across strings?
i dont want to start developing a bad habit that I have to unlearn.
thanks!
Check out guys like Rick Graham and Spiro Dussias. You can do some incredible things with economy. It does have limitations, but so do most strategies. The general thought around here is to exploit strengths instead working up weaknesses. Not that we ignore weaknesses, but getting excellent at something provides a great baseline.
Here is a small taste of Rickâs destructive power
Obviously saying âyes, I choose economy pickingâ isnât going to magically make you play like that, but that is an extreme example of the speed potential.
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Well, sometimes alternate picking is easiest, e.g., when there are even numbers of notes per string. Wonât one alternate pick in that case?
If being an âeconomy pickerâ means that somebody will sweep if itâs easiest, then arenât most people here âeconomy pickers?â Indeed, whatâs the actual definition of it? 
I guess the real question comes down to 3nps and asking, âwill I HO/PO and make that 2nps,â or, âwill I conveniently sweep?â
Economy picking isnât speed limiting at all, given many (most) cases itâs the opposite.
The limitations with economy picking, the way most people understand the term, is that it can be harder to accent certain things. Not that it canât be done. Itâs just more difficult. It can be a more âbig pictureâ cram a bunch of notes in speed technique for that reason,
The term in itself as it applies to a technique is mostly a use-case situational one. To those who use it, It is generally understood to mean something very distinct in certain instances rather than how it is literally described often, but others tend to take a very literal interpretation of what it means, which should just go away.
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This is a good question, thanks for drilling into the details.
So 3nps is the exact scenario I am talking about.
Letâs say I am on the low E, and I pick 3 notes, the movement is down,up,down.
When moving to the A string, I continue the down movement from the previous E down, thus repeating the d,u,d sequence.
Repeat across the remaining strings.
The limiting factor for me is the wrist/forearm movement that moves the pick from string to string.
It starts getting janky at speed.
What I donât know is whether this is just learning hump I need to work thru, or is it a technique that shouldnât be used frequently, rather in limited scenarios such as between two strings.
Sorry this is so long winded, but I have some more information/questions about this scenario.
If I am doing 3nps across 3 or more strings, it becomes really difficult to move my picking hand up and down in an elevator fashion, parallel with the pickups and bridge. My forearm grabs the body of the guitar and doesnât slide, and so I resort to a radial, circular motion, which still only comfortably lets me pick across 4 strings at most.
Is elevator motion(parallel with bridge) what I should be shooting for, rather than a circular motion?
Iâve seen this mentioned in one of the videos, but it wasnât clear which was the correct technique
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I appreciate the clarity, thank you.
So if you have USX, what you describe will work perfectly well going from thick strings towards thin strings. However, it wonât take you back.
Another way to do exactly what you did is D HO U, then on the new string, D HO U, âŚ, e.g., just turn the 3nps into a 2nps.
Both ways are insanely fast, but theyâll sound different, and it depends on what you like.
I think that it might be time for you to post a video, and because youâre a member, you can get an expert like Troy or Tommo to review it!
Well, your shoulder can slide your hand up/down to make sure itâs reasonably placed as you move around the strings, so not too much wrist movement will be necessary.
From what you describe I would wager this is most likely. HoweverâŚ
I would say this is entirely valid too depending on how you end up determining the technique is most useful to you.
Well this is where you may need to experiment a bit. Keep in mind 4 of 6 is 60% there, so it may just take making conscious minute adjustments for a while when transitioning to the b and e strings for example. Also if your forearm grabs the body so tightly that you canât make even small adjustments, this may be an area of focus to explore in general because I canât see this will bode ideally for more than just eco y picking. You may want an anchor point like that or feel comfortable with one, but there could be too much of a good thing too.
There isnât really. Itâs what ever works for the person doing it. Thatâs the correct one. Not everyone is going to have success adhering to a single unified way of doing something.
I use economy picking exclusively now. I havenât come across any limitations as such. It really depends on your definition of economy picking. There are a few different âversionsâ.
The two way economy stuff that players like Rick Graham use doesnât really have limitations. It is difficult to control the timing and can be hard to accent in certain situations, but many players have shown it can still be done!
It can be a little harder to clearly place each note to the beat and subdivisions with economy, but I think thatâs mostly psychological. While economy picking, people are tempted to play the string changes really fast and forget to practise in time. What that causes is the single string alternate picking to be evenly spaced followed by a shorter space between the string changing notes. Doesnât really matter at high speeds because few if any people can actually hear if the subdivided notes are evenly spaced, but at moderate tempos you can definitely tell.
Way more advantages than disadvantages imo.
The only real disadvantage (to me) is that it makes playing even numbers on each string more challenging as you need to switch between economy and alternate depending on the situation.
It can also be harder to emphasise / accent sometimes as others have said.
I really love the smoother sound of it versus strict alternate, it also open up unique âpatternsâ for things like the pentatonic scale, playing 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3 âpatternsâ instead of two note per string for example. It turns the pentatonic scale into a beautiful arpeggio style line.
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