Learning Alternate Picking

When you play guitar with a plectrum, there are two possible ways to use it to pick a string. You can start above the string, pick down towards the ground, and end up below the string. This is known as a down stroke. Or you can start below the string, pick up towards the ceiling, and end up above the string. This is known as an up stroke. When most people start playing the guitar, they use down strokes exclusively. It takes most beginners a while to develop the dexterity and wrist strength needed to correctly execute an up stroke.

Alternate picking is when a player alternates between down strokes and up strokes. The resulting picking pattern is then obviously down, up, down , up. Many guitar virtuosos use alternate picking as their main form of picking.

Most people start out using nothing but down strokes. This is appropriate in some instances because down strokes can create a heavy, thick sound. Some passages call for down strokes exclusively. But for passages which are faster, you might not be able to pick fast enough with only down strokes. This severely limits a player's ability.

The solution to that problem is pretty easy to solve if you analyze it. When you use multiple down strokes in a row, you must bring your pick back above the string to execute another one. If you do an up stroke as you bring it back up, you will in essence double the speed at which you pick at. This is why many people use alternate picking. Also, apart from doubling your picking speed, alternate picking produces very clock-like, clean sounding riffs, and maintains pulsing accents in a passage.

Alternate picking is pretty simple if you are staying on the same string. When you move from string to string is where problems start to arise. There are two basic situations you might encounter when you change strings with alternate picking, outside the string and inside the string. In both, you must remember to keep the "down, up, down, up" pattern that makes it alternate picking.

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