with KevinDowning
Economy
Picking
hereare many differenttypesof picking
techniquefor guitar playersto master
and economypickingis a common one
used by many top players. Economy
pickingis a combinationof two pickingtypes,
the first is alternatepicking,where a player
plays continuousdown and up strokesno
matterwhat stringthey are playingon. The
secondis sweep picking,a more advanced
technique,where a playerwill sweepacross
the strings in one seamlessaction always
changingstringswith a pick motion in the
directionthey are moving. The benefitsof
economypickingare that it reducesa lot of
picking hand movementwhen playing;you
can playfast(er)passages when you want,and
it requireslittle effort to keep up once you
havemasteredit.
It is importantto understandthe concept
beforecommencingthe practical abilities.
The
conceptisyou playdown and up strokeswhen
playingon the samestring,but whenchanging
stringsin an ascendingmotion - going from
thickerto thinnerstrings- the pickwill always
trage 36
be a down strokeand shown with a symbol.
When changingstringsin a descending
motion- goingfrom thinnerto thickerstrings-
the pickwill alwaysbe an up strokeand shown
with a symbol.Justrememberthe openend of
the symbolis the way the pickistravelling.
It is bestif you usea thickerpickand pickat
a slightangleto the string.Manyprofessionals
I k n o w u s e a t l e a s ta l m m p i c k a n d a n g l e
theirpickbetweenabout30-45degrees,
resultsin a smooth and fast picking action.
Usingthicker picksand playingat an angle
might take sometime to get usedto so allow
for that. lt is alsocrucialto only pickusingthe
top l mm of your pick insteadof 'digging in"
and using2-3mm,which resultsin a slow and
inefficient technique.
You will also need to take it very slow
to begin to get the action and coordination
correct. You will find it is the right hand
that gives the most trouble. Alwaysuse a
metronome to keep track of your progress
and nevermovethe tempo up too quickly.lf
thereareanyflawsyou aregoingtoo fast- so
slowdown
Example 1 is an A minor pentatonic
scaleplayedat the 5th position.lf you have
been playingthis scalefor a while with the
alternatingpickingtechniqueyou would have
done a bit of economypickingalreadyas it is
Example I
Example2
Example3
n V n - V n n Vn n V n n V n nV n V n V V n V
NZM Dctober/Navember ZOO9
in a naturaleconomystyie. By observingthe
pickingindications you canseewhenchanging
stringsyou are playingdown strokeswhen
ascending and up strokeswhen descending.
The G majorscalein secondpositionis the
focusof Example2. Thisone is a bit trickierto
get rightthan the previousone becausethere
arethreenoteson somestringsand two notes
on others. Makesureto observethe picking
which directions and takeit veryslow.
Example3 is more advancedand usesthe
popularthree notesper stringused by many
of the worldt top players.Whenplayingthree
notesper stringthe frettinghandcan useany
fingeringyou arefamiliarwith like 1,2, 4 or 1,
3,4 on each string. When you havean odd
number of notes per string it makesit very
easyto usethis economypickingtechnique.
Thereare many other ways a playercan
useeconomypickingin theirplaying;however,
they will be the subjectof future GuitarCool
Onceyou havegot the aboveexercises
articles.
in your brainand fingers,then it istime to start
usingthe economypickingstylein your own
licksand riffs.
Kevin Downing is a guitarist, teacher,and
author. Hecan be contactedthrough hiswebsite
at www.guitar.co.nzor P O Box4586,Palmerston
North.4442.
V n V V n V V V
n V n V