Check out this “Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercises” from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to click the link to get the tabs for this free Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercise.
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I want to show you guys three Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercises that you can do that are easy to play and they’re a great workout for not only for your picking hand but for your fretting hand as well. So we’re gonna get all four of our fingers in there we’ll be doing this in a variety of different tempos and stuff like that. So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tab. So let’s get close up and take a look at this Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercise.
Fretting Hand
All right so I’m gonna go over the three Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercises. Now they’re all kind of based off of the same the same sequence so it’s more or less kind of variation. So exercise number one we’re going to come up here starting on the ninth fret of the B string and you want to use your first finger and then the next note is the 10th fret and you’re going to want is your second finger and then the next note is the 12th fret; these are all on the B string and then the next note is on the ninth fret of the high E. So these are the only four notes that are in this exercise, so we have 9, 10, 12 and then 9 on the first string, so the sequence goes 9 10 12 9 and then descend back down 12 10 9 10 12 9 on the first string back to the 12 and back to the 9 back to the 12 back to the 9 back to the 12 10 and then it just starts over again, slowly and then it would just repeat so you’d want to practice it as a loop like this.
Alternate picking is a guitar playing technique that employs strictly alternating downward and upward picking strokes in a continuous run, and is the most common method of plectrum playing.
Picking Hand
Okay now as far as your picking hand, the whole idea is alternate picking so the first thing you want to do for Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercises is just memorize the sequence on you’re fretting hand. If you know your left hand you don’t have to worry about what’s happening, you can play it. So it’s not one that’s starting there on the ninth fret you go down up down and then when we’re going to go to the next string, it’s an up so you don’t do two downs in a row or two ups in a row, alternate picking is just down up down up down up down.
So this is where a lot of people mess up, including myself this is a huge mistake I made when I was young is that I would go down up down and then another down stroke because I’m thinking I’m moving in that direction, that makes logical sense, but it doesn’t work well, I mean it works obviously but it’s not alternate picking.
So after you get the sequence memorized and you can play it comfortably you know with both of your hands then you want to start working with it with using a metronome.
Using A Metronome
A metronome is a device that produces audible “clicks” that are measured in beats per minute that help musicians keep in time. The metronome dates back to the 19th century when it was patented by Johann Maelzel in 1815.
Now the metronome a lot of people are afraid of it or they don’t like it you know, it’s a necessary evil, so I really recommend that you practice this Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercises with a metronome. So the first thing you do is you set it up so you’re playing like this, quarter notes, if you’re playing it as quarter notes each click would be a note. Now we’re gonna do it as eighth notes, there will be a note on the click and then one between the clicks and then back to quarter notes. So what I recommend that you do is you practice playing it his quarter notes and his eighth notes and then just alternate back and forth. So that right there I believe was 60 beats a minute, so that’s like a really good place to kind of start off and then work your way up from there.
All right so now let’s look at Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercise number two. So exercise number two is in the same place. It’s got the same notes but we’re going to add in two more. So we’ve got on the B string 9 10 and 12 and now on our first string our high E we’re also going to have 9 11 and 12. So this sequence we go on the second, your B string you go 9 10 12 and then up to that nine and then descend just like we did before and then once you descend back down to the ninth fret of the of the B string then you’re going to go to the 12th fret of the high E 12 11 9 and then back to the B string 12 10 so now your using all four of your fingers, again all alternate picking so down up down up down up down up down up down up down.
One way you can know that you’re doing it right is that this first note will always be a down, this one will always be an, up this one will always be a down and then on your high E. This will always be up this will always be down and this will always be up so if you notice that you’ve faltered from that then you’ll know that somewhere you’ve made a mistake, and no big deal just fix it and continue. So we do the same thing with this one with the repetitive.
Final Exercise
All right so now let’s look at the third Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercise. So for the third exercise it’s basically just combining the first two together. So we’re gonna start off again at the ninth fret on the B string, it’s going to be like the first exercise and then we go to 12 on the high E, 11, 9 and descend down just like that, so again with both of these you know I really recommend that you work at it with the metronome. If 60 feels too fast for you, slow it down, there’s no shame in doing it really slow, you’re better off to do it really slow and accurately than to try to play it faster than you’re ready to. But if you work on this I’ve watched my students for years now go with this and if you spend about five minutes a day on it and you will see really drastic improvement like within 30 days if you religiously practice this Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercises daily.
Conclusion
All right so I hope you enjoyed these Remarkably Easy Alternate Picking Exercises and you got something out of it. If you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below if there’s something you’d like to see covered by either myself or one of the other instructors at GuitarControl.com in a future lesson.
Well that is all I’ve got for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
