Inexperienced guitar players will typically overlook their right-hand to pay attention to all of the activity in the left. Yet the picking hand holds the keys to a variety of textures and styles. This review of various picking techniques will help you to discover some of those textures and integrate them into your guitar playing.
Downstroke
It's the first one everyone learns. With the pick you will stroke downward, towards the ground, then allow it to come to rest against the following guitar string (called a "rest stroke"). Be certain that that you do not pick out from your guitar into thin air. This makes a extended space to reach the next note and there's a greater risk you'll come back to the wrong string. Using the rest stroke makes it possible for your pick to move inside a limited space every single time, training your muscles to go back properly for the next note.
Double Stroke
Double stroke or "alternate picking" means alternating down strokes with up strokes. It's usually used for 8th notes and faster. Although every now and then you'll use all downstrokes for 8th notes depending on just how much aggression the tune needs. Exactly like the downstroke, your pick should come directly back upwards and not away. For you to accomplish this, be sure you're moving sideways from your wrist rather than rotating your arm at the elbow. Make sure you're alternating: down - up - down - up. There are picking styles that can sometimes repeat a down or up motion, nevertheless, you want to learn this even double picking initially to make sure you don't create bad habits.
Sweep Picking
This kind of picking style is used for speedy arpeggio runs. It will involve stringing together all downstrokes and / or all upstrokes on adjacent strings to sound a fast set of notes. Imagine it in this way: Hold a barre chord and, as opposed to a typical strum, pick through each one of the guitar strings using a down stroke in a single smooth motion towards the ground. Then perform the very same with up strokes. The most important distinction will come in the left hand. For a sweep picked melody your left hand won't hold down all the notes simultaneously, only one at a time, just like a regular single note melody. Your important mission here will be to have clean articulation between your notes and don't let them ring together. All using this steady single motion of your right hand.
It isn't really a technique that everyone really needs, but it is an impressive tool in the guitarist toolbox. It can also be used in a more simple approach, for a couple notes rather than a giant flurry.
Guitar Players to listen to: Yngwie Malmsteen, Herman Li (of Dragonforce), and Frank Gambale.
Fingerpicking
This approach will involve putting the pick away altogether and simply using your fingers. It's prominent in classical music and various folk and world music genres, but can also be used for just about anything you would like. For the most part, your thumb is going to manage the bottom two or three strings and your 2nd, 3rd, and fourth fingers can manage the highest three strings. You can also experiment with a rest stroke, which is actually similar to the picking option above in which the finger comes to rest against the next string. Or you can use a free stroke in which your finger tip completes the movement hovering above the guitar strings. Free strokes are generally used for chord arpeggios where you want the notes to ring against each other. Rest strokes are used for melodies in which you prefer cleaner articulation between your notes.
Guitar Players to listen to: Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits), Andres Segovia, Merle Travis, and Joao Gilberto
Hybrid Picking
This technique uses a pick, held as normal between your thumb and second finger, along with your additional fingers used bare. You'll find it's good for articulating clean bass lines while playing chords or melodies on the upper strings with the fingers. You can also use it together with normal picking methods whenever you have to hit notes on non-adjacent strings.
Guitar Players to listen to: Buckethead, Brad Paisley, Albert Lee, Brian Setzer
Finger Picks and Thumb Picks
These are typically guitar picks that can be attached to each finger (excluding the pinkie) and thumb using a plastic band. The guidelines are generally basically the same as the ones for fingerpicking. The main difference is the fact that picks make a sharper, louder sound in comparison with standard fingerpicking. A lot of guitarists use just the thumb pick as a replacement for a conventional pick. Finger and thumb picks are generally used by banjo players, yet also by slack key, Dobro, and slide players.
Guitar Players to listen to: Nils Lofgren, Chet Atkins, Robert Johnson
All these picking styles have customary purposes in particular genres, however don't let yourself be scared to try to use them all of them in whichever style you are playing. Each and every strategy is simply another tool for getting at the ideas you hear in your head.
Downstroke
It's the first one everyone learns. With the pick you will stroke downward, towards the ground, then allow it to come to rest against the following guitar string (called a "rest stroke"). Be certain that that you do not pick out from your guitar into thin air. This makes a extended space to reach the next note and there's a greater risk you'll come back to the wrong string. Using the rest stroke makes it possible for your pick to move inside a limited space every single time, training your muscles to go back properly for the next note.
Double Stroke
Double stroke or "alternate picking" means alternating down strokes with up strokes. It's usually used for 8th notes and faster. Although every now and then you'll use all downstrokes for 8th notes depending on just how much aggression the tune needs. Exactly like the downstroke, your pick should come directly back upwards and not away. For you to accomplish this, be sure you're moving sideways from your wrist rather than rotating your arm at the elbow. Make sure you're alternating: down - up - down - up. There are picking styles that can sometimes repeat a down or up motion, nevertheless, you want to learn this even double picking initially to make sure you don't create bad habits.
Sweep Picking
This kind of picking style is used for speedy arpeggio runs. It will involve stringing together all downstrokes and / or all upstrokes on adjacent strings to sound a fast set of notes. Imagine it in this way: Hold a barre chord and, as opposed to a typical strum, pick through each one of the guitar strings using a down stroke in a single smooth motion towards the ground. Then perform the very same with up strokes. The most important distinction will come in the left hand. For a sweep picked melody your left hand won't hold down all the notes simultaneously, only one at a time, just like a regular single note melody. Your important mission here will be to have clean articulation between your notes and don't let them ring together. All using this steady single motion of your right hand.
It isn't really a technique that everyone really needs, but it is an impressive tool in the guitarist toolbox. It can also be used in a more simple approach, for a couple notes rather than a giant flurry.
Guitar Players to listen to: Yngwie Malmsteen, Herman Li (of Dragonforce), and Frank Gambale.
Fingerpicking
This approach will involve putting the pick away altogether and simply using your fingers. It's prominent in classical music and various folk and world music genres, but can also be used for just about anything you would like. For the most part, your thumb is going to manage the bottom two or three strings and your 2nd, 3rd, and fourth fingers can manage the highest three strings. You can also experiment with a rest stroke, which is actually similar to the picking option above in which the finger comes to rest against the next string. Or you can use a free stroke in which your finger tip completes the movement hovering above the guitar strings. Free strokes are generally used for chord arpeggios where you want the notes to ring against each other. Rest strokes are used for melodies in which you prefer cleaner articulation between your notes.
Guitar Players to listen to: Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits), Andres Segovia, Merle Travis, and Joao Gilberto
Hybrid Picking
This technique uses a pick, held as normal between your thumb and second finger, along with your additional fingers used bare. You'll find it's good for articulating clean bass lines while playing chords or melodies on the upper strings with the fingers. You can also use it together with normal picking methods whenever you have to hit notes on non-adjacent strings.
Guitar Players to listen to: Buckethead, Brad Paisley, Albert Lee, Brian Setzer
Finger Picks and Thumb Picks
These are typically guitar picks that can be attached to each finger (excluding the pinkie) and thumb using a plastic band. The guidelines are generally basically the same as the ones for fingerpicking. The main difference is the fact that picks make a sharper, louder sound in comparison with standard fingerpicking. A lot of guitarists use just the thumb pick as a replacement for a conventional pick. Finger and thumb picks are generally used by banjo players, yet also by slack key, Dobro, and slide players.
Guitar Players to listen to: Nils Lofgren, Chet Atkins, Robert Johnson
All these picking styles have customary purposes in particular genres, however don't let yourself be scared to try to use them all of them in whichever style you are playing. Each and every strategy is simply another tool for getting at the ideas you hear in your head.