Downbeat=downstroke

Playing Technique
#1

“Downstrokes ends up on downbeats”

Trying to come to grips with my technique and figure out why it a lot of times fall apart in real live/life situations.

Thinking I preferred inside picking. Thought I switch between up- double escape motion.

Now I wonder. Could it be that I simply need the downbeat to be on a downstroke.

On stage after playing mostly rhythm, switching to lead, certain things always falls apart. Things I worked on for years. Not even improv. Not even that fast.

Does anyone else have thoughts or experience with this, that the natural picking technique fights with certain licks because if the tendency to want do play downstrokes on downbeats.

#2

It’s a viable approach. Whether it works for you depends on what kind of sound you like and what kind of lines you like.

This approach is pretty much the default for bluegrass players. There are exceptions, of course, but that’s what the majority do. It’s not just bluegrass, though. When I studied with Garrison Fewell, this was the picking approach he wanted for playing Pat Martino lines.

I think this approach really lends itself to those sort of relentless, machine-gun 8th note lines. There’s a consistency to it.

You can imagine the downsides, though. The more syncopation you add, the trickier it gets. And if you start adding triplets or other rhythmic groupings… well, good luck figuring all that out on the fly.

Your lines also sound very gridlike, almost quantized. For some kinds of music (like bluegrass) that’s perfect. For other kinds, it’s perhaps less ideal. Many jazz players think Pat Martino sounded a little stiff. The next generation of jazz guitarists (Metheny/Scofield/Frisell and then later guys like Rosenwinkel, Moreno, Kreisberg, Monder, etc) actually tend to do the opposite of Pat Martino: they put downstrokes on upbeats (the “and” of a beat) and either use upstrokes, or even more commonly use a slur (hammer on, pull off, slide) to land on downbeats. It sounds closer to the articulation that sax players use when playing 8th notes.

Bottom line: give it a shot, and see if it helps. It’s not a magic bullet, or a one-size-fits-all solution, but if it helps you then go for it.

3 Likes
#3

Is it impossible for a downbeat to always equal a downstroke? For example, won’t a triplet followed by a quarter note suffice to cause problems? :face_with_monocle:

#4

I wouldn’t focus too much on the inside/outside thing. Ascending “outside” lines become “inside” when descending and are just as easy to play, so I think that aspect alone debunks the whole inside/outside idea.

Also, do you practice with emphasis on accents? Personally, that has helped me big time and now I can start lines on an upstroke or a downstroke quite effortlessly.

#5

Thank for your response.

I didn’t mean to say that I intend to always play downstroke on the downbeat.

But I wonder if that can be an explanation why solos fall apart live… after playing extended periods of rhythm.

That the natural instinct of playing downstrokes on downbeats screws it up when one is in the zone and plays without analyzing.

#6

Hi. Do you want to elaborate on how you practiced with accents. Thanks.

#7

For me always playing downstrokes on the downbeat help a lot with the time/rhythmic aspects!
A while after I started practice funk guitar, with the focus on keeping my right hand moving with the 16th-notes like a machine (even between the notes), I noticed my alternate picking technique changed to do the same.
What I previously had believed to be the best picking alternative for certain phrases no longer made sense because they didn’t match with the groove. So now I always keep the subdivision in my right hand and use that as my guidance!

Of course it gets trickier when subdivisions are combined in one phrase, but I feel it’s easier to be “out of sync” for a while if I’m in the groove right before and find a target beat to get back right after :slight_smile:

#8

I have trouble starting lines on an upstroke - I haven’t put enough work into it to have really good guidance here, at the end of the day it’s rarely THAT big a problem, but you can certainly “modify” lines so that you either start with a pickup note downstroke on the last 16th note or whatever of the prior measure so your second note is the upstroke, or you can adjust the line so that your downstroke is on the downbeat of 1 but is a pickup note itself, to a lick that needs to start with an upstroke to escape cleanly.