The "even" string note method - Q's

Playing Technique
#1

Ok, so I’m halfway through the primer, and this one point flies in the face of everything I’ve been taught, and I’m a bit lost. I’ve always been taught, and it had improved my playing many years ago, that ODD was the way to go for efficiency of motion. For an ascending lick, I play D-U-D, the pick is now past the string I WAS on, and is ready for a D-U-D on the next lower (height) string. (Granted that’s not true alternate picking.) It seemed more “ready” and natural, as it feels like a two string sweep (one fwd motion of the wrist). If I played a 6-note phrase D-U-D-U-D-U now the pick is above the string I was on, at which I have to SKIP OVER to go to do a Down-pick on the lower string. This doesn’t help me get over my “bouncing” or U motion, since I have to raise up and over. Conversely if I play a 6-note phrase ascending, the first string works (D-U-D-U-D-U) as it’s ready for an (U-D-U-D-U-D), but after I’m having to skip again.

Now I noticed the primer lick examples, on a descending lick, the pick on the last UP stroke seems to already above the next string. Thus easy to do downward first pick and keep the picking patter perfect, but my movements don’t take me that far. When using UWPS (preferred) or DWPS, my motion still doesn’t go that high, at most 1/2 between strings! (Again another teacher taught me to MINIMIZE pick movement past the string, so reversals could be quicker.)

Sooo, what am I fundamentally mis-understanding? I wan’t to KILL my bouncing!!

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#2

If you do downward pickslanting and starting on downstroke then you don’t have to ‘bounce’ since your pick is above all strings after last upstroke - so all you have to do is to choose which string you want to pick.

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#3

Overall, the driver behind Cracking The Code isn’t that “alternate picking is always the best thing to do”. The driver is “if you want to alternate pick something, here is what we’ve learned from closely examining how great players do it.” There are a few different approaches that get discussed in CTC, but a major one is the use of a reciprocating linear picking motion that alternates between the tip of the pick being above the plane of the strings and below the plane of the strings. Also note that in the case of someone like Yngwie Malmsteen, a lot of his licks were created around even numbers of notes per string, so trying to adapt those licks to a fingering that uses odd numbers per string won’t always be practical.

The video below is probably the best introduction:

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#4

@ASTN When I watch your video (right at 0:26) your doing exactly what my concerning point is…exactly…you are above the Low E string, and have to move up and over. This movement or “hop” / “jump” is what I call my “bounce,” Then you switch to DWPS and this is less of a problem, got it…but what about descending? Seems, from watching different artists, this doesn’t seem to be an issue if one uses DWPS for ascending and UWPS for descending licks with EVEN notes, opposite for ODD?

@Frylock Ooo I hadn’t seen that video yet (still trying to go through the primer in order), and I’ll check it out. My current approach isn’t really alternate picking either, since it’s an ODD numbered based that repeats. So it’s ascending D-U-D then D-U-D on next string, or descending U-D-U then U-D-U on the next string. This way I don’t have to skip…but your point is VERY true in that such methodology has always kept me away from playing certain guitarist’s music, Yngwie being an excellent example!

#5

There is no “one size fits all” approach when it comes to picking technique. Sweeping is great, works very well, and lots of players use it for three-note per-string passages. If you are a playing a three-note-per-string scale that moves continuously in one direction, by all means, do it this way. That’s what Yngwie does when he plays ascending scales and it is some of the fastest scale playing ever. As you point out, you can also do it backwards with upstrokes. Yngwie does not do this, but it works plenty well and you are welcome to do it too.

If you want to use pure alternate picking, or if you want to use combination of sweeping and alternate picking (aka “economy picking”), then that’s where it’s necessary to understand how alternate picking works. And the big thing we weren’t taught back in the day, mostly because nobody knew it, is that when you use alternate picking to move from one string to another, you need to make a hand movement that goes up in the air. This is what every great alternate picker does, and these movements can be learned.

So… since both methods work, and one is not better than the other, the thing you really need to ask yourself here is what it is you are trying to accomplish and/or play, and go from there. And once you do that, post a clip in “Technique Critique” and we can tell you what you have to do next to get closer to that goal.

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#6

Thanks for the response Troy (and great site BTW!). Thanks for the reassurance that what I’ve been doing isn’t completely wrong, and can work in some situations. I’ve gone ahead and posted a vid in the critique session, along with what I’m trying to accomplish! Tks!

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#7

Yeah man I’m a sweeper. I’ve learned to alternate pick pretty good. So I do both depending on the lick. lol. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with economy picking. You don’t have a string to get over but it’s not as easy to keep it in time when you’re sweeping usually.

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#8

Descending is the same. Instead of doing two different motions: one for pickstroke and one for moving to next string, you do one motion - upstroke which prepares pick for hitting the next string. One for price of two.

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