Tap with right hand middle finger. Left hand fingering should be pinky, middle, first. Play fast. Glitch picking is just economy picking relegated to two strings. It's a great precursor to sweep picking. Here is an easy Etude in Emin. Start out slowly with the metronome and keep the note values even. If we could just play everything on one string we would all be capable of playing Yngwie tunes and starting up Dream Theater cover bands. Unfortunately, to cover an appreciable amount of ground we have to change strings while playing descending and ascending passages. This is where problems can arise. When using strict alternate picking, we either approach a new string from a downstroke or an upstroke, which means we either have to pass the string with the pick before playing it or catch the string while we approach it in the same direction. This is the nature of Inside and Outside picking and you need to be proficient at both if you want to fly across the fretboard with any degree of accuracy. Example 1 demonstrates Inside Picking using 1 note per string. We play the first note with an upstroke and the cross over to the next string and play it with a downstroke. In this example the pick jumps over the string it previously played to the next string, then jumps over that to return to the lower string. With Inside picking you jump over the previous string to get to the next. Example 2 demonstrates Outside Picking using one note per string. The first note is played with a downstroke and the pick continues to travel past the next string and changes direction to play it with an upstroke, it then travels past the lower string and changes direction again. With Outside Picking you jump over the next string before playing it. Examples 3 and 4 are a 3 note per string pattern to be practiced with both types of picking. Example 3 starts with a downstroke and uses outside picking to approach the notes played on the high E string. Example 4 starts with an Upstroke and uses Inside Picking to approach the notes played on the High E. The goal is to be able to cross over to the next string without accidentally picking the former or latter while making the jump. This is difficult and requires a certain amount of looseness in the wrist. At first you may feel like your picking hand is bouncing all over the place with the outside picking so get your thumb joint on your picking hand involved and use it to retract the pick a tiny bit while crossing over strings. A move of one millimeter can make all the difference. Example 5 demonstrates how Inside and Outside picking breaks down while using strict alternate picking on even amounts of notes per string. The first string change uses an up, down Outside Picking motion while the string change that repeats the sequence uses up, down in an Inside Picking motion. The same thing would apply to patterns of 4 notes per string, 6 notes per string etc. Next we have a descending, three note per string sequence in Example 6 and 7. The left hand pattern remains the same for both exercises, the only difference being what pick direction each sequence starts with. Example 6 starts with a downstroke and will result in Inside Picking whereas Example 7 starts with an upstroke and results in Outside Picking. Which one feels more natural to you? Is the Inside Picking technique cleaner and faster or is the Outside Picking easier? Whatever your answer is, it's probably best to practice the more difficult technique at least twice as much as the one that feels more comfortable for now. Also, try doubling up the sequences to build up speed and help memorize the patterns if they are new to you. Examples 8 and 9 use the same sequence in an ascending format and are to be practiced with Inside and Outside picking as well. That first fret to fifth fret pattern is a bit of a stretch, keep your thumb behind the neck, somewhere around the middle to help spread those fingers out. Again, try doubling up the patterns once in a while. Example 10 is a long sequence in the key of G that is designed to combine both Inside and Outside approaches with string skipping. The string skipping presents a new problem to the realm of Inside and Outside Picking considering that you are now trying to jump over an extra string to make it to the next. It's easy to get sloppy on this one, try not to let it happen. Does outside picking make string skipping easier to you at all? Do you find that you end up hitting the string you are supposed to skip with Inside Picking? Pay close attention to these things, troubleshooting is an under rated ability amongst musicians. Playing with strict alternate picking at all times is fine if you're John Petrucci or Al Dimeola. I am not. I had people tell me when I was starting up to alternate pick everything at all times, it's the only way to play fast and clean. That's fine for picking on one string, but you have to change strings eventually, and that's where things fall apart. Playing a downstroke on one string and then an upstroke on the other always caused me to "trip over" the string in a way. My right hand never could do it very well, I always just kind of played whatever felt comfortable. I found out later on that what I found comfortable was referred to as "Economy Picking". Basically, economy picking is alternate picking, the only difference is the way you change strings. Play the three note per string scale in Example 1 to get a feel for it. The picking hand is going "down up down, down up down" changing strings with the same picking direction. Same thing applies to example 2, descending with the opposite picking direction. This makes all the difference in the world. Watch guys like Tal Farlow when he's playing an up tempo tune and it looks like he's dragging his hand all over the strings, like he's "wiping" the notes out. This is also the method Frank Gambale uses. The trick with economy picking is odd number note groupings. Any pattern with 1,3,5,7 etc. notes per string will allow you to change strings picking in the same direction, thus saving you from alternate picking hell. Examples 4 and 5 are an A major scale in note groupings of 7. This is a John Petrucci Style lick that can go by in a flash. When playing these odd note groupings it is important to practice with a metronome. The accents are all over the place and unpredictable so it can be easy to lose track of where the "one" is if you're not careful. What about pentatonics? Good question. Pentatonic scales usually lie on the fretboard in two note per string shapes, an even number. how Eric Johnson can play these the way he does has always baffled me. Anyhoo, remember the "Extended Pentatonics" lesson I posted earlier? Changing the scale to three notes per string helps get the economy going. Example 5 is a pentatonic lick in E minor using economy picking and a five note grouping. Remember the metronome! These odd numbers aren't what we are used to hearing in western music, keep the rhythms tight. Let's look at the next extension of pentatonic, combing the second position from the previous lesson with a third position. It's a little easier to stretch out in this area of the fretboard since the frets are closer together as well. Examples 1 and 2 show the two positions as they are normally played and Example 3 is the three note per string combination of the two positions. Example 4 is a descending four note sequence using both positions. Use alternate picking on this one. It's much easier to perform a pattern like this using a three note per string scale on guitar than the standard two note per string scale. The fourths can make the fingers trip over themselves sometimes, stretching out to a higher position alleviates some of the awkwardness. Example 5 is the same pattern in ascending form. Example 6 is a legato three note per string scale with some string skipping. Real easy to fly through this one, but not so easy to keep everything rhythmically smooth. USE A METRONOME! Example 7 combines all three positions of Pentatonic covered so far by using left hand tapping for the upper position. Again. timing is key. Start with the metronome slow and gradually work up the tempo.
Breaking out of the box one position at a time. Example 1 is the old pentatonic scale position we all know and love, example 2 is it's next door neighbour. When we put them both together we get example 3, a three note per string pentatonic pattern. It's interesting the way certain notes repeat themselves. A little unpredictability. Next are a few licks to use this extended scale with various forms of right hand picking. Example 4 uses a descending pentatonic with sweep picking. Performed quickly is sounds very much like an Eric Johnson lick, just a lot easier to execute. Example 5 is the same idea only ascending. Example 6 is a seven note sequence that sounds great over 7/4 or a 4/4 time signature. When played in 4 the accents end up in strange places throwing the ear off a little bit. This one can be alternate picked or economy picked, whatever seems easier. Try this with the metronome and count to four while playing the pattern. Example 7 is the same odd note sequence in an ascending pattern. Example 8 and 9 (on the PDF) use hybrid picking and a more angular, intervallic approach. This one sounds pretty modern as far as pentatonics go, almost like an Allan Holdsworth lick. Both ascending and descending versions of this pattern use the right hand forward and reverse roll patterns covered in Crosstraining for Guitarists Part 2 http://jeremyrouse.weebly.com/1/post/2012/09/crosstraining-for-guitarists-part-2-banjo-rolls.html
This lick is from Toronto guitarist and session ace Giordan Postorino. It's a clever use of intervals to spell out the half whole diminshed scale, starting with two major thirds into two perfect fourths. Too good not to share.
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