Guitar How-To

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Alternate picking means you alternate between up strokes and down strokes when you play single note solos. This means you keep alternating even when you change strings. If you move from the D string to the G string, your hand is moving down to play the G string but if your last note on the D string was a down stroke, you maintain the alternating pattern by moving your hand down and over the G string and picking upwards. To save time and energy when changing from one string to another, you can adopt a technique called economy picking.

Economy picking is a method of changing from one string to another quickly while playing a solo using alternate picking. If you are moving from the low E string to the A string your first note on the A string will be played down stroke even if your last note on the E string was a down stroke. If you are moving up to the E string from the A string, your first note played on the E string will be an up stroke. This eliminates the time and effort needed to maintain the alternate picking sequence when you are changing strings

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