LICKS & TIPS
Ex 2: As you can no doubt tell we are using our old chum the Pentatonic minor scale here (in this case in the key of A minor). Once more we are using strict alternate picking on two notes per string and this time we also employ some string skipping to help your now floating right hand to get its bearings.
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Ex 3: This slight variation involves reversing your picking pattern half way through. Remember to stick to strict alternate picking here. Don’t be disheartened if your right hand now feels like it has no clue what’s going on. If you’re used to anchoring your fingers it really can feel a lot like you’re all at sea but stick with it because it truly does allow for more independence and accuracy in your picking. Next month we’re going to take our picking practice up another level. See you then! PM
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PICKING A WINNER
Hayden Hewitt introduces a new series of Licks & Tips examining ways to help you boost your picking power…
Picking is sometimes often overlooked because many of us guitar payers concentrate more on making our left hand fingers wiggle around as fast as possible! Over the next few months we’re going to work on improving picking technique beginning with the basics and gradually bringing in more advanced picking techniques like economy and sweep picking. Naturally we’ll pick up some cool licks and tricks along the way too and our accompanying videos will demonstrate the various techniques in more depth. Let’s start off with the absolute basics...
Ex1: Figure one is an A minor arpeggio played from the A through to high E strings. What we want to do here is alternate pick the pattern (that’s a strict Up and Down picking pattern) without anchoring our right hand fingers on the guitar. Start slowly and keep movements to a minimum. Your left hand will get the hang of this one note per string pattern pretty quickly (and you’ll be glad of that when we get around to sweep picking!) so once it’s ‘locked in’ focus on your right hand. Try not to allow the knuckle on your thumb to move at all unless you consciously wish to change the angle of your pick. This exercise can feel decidedly odd, almost as though your right hand is ‘bouncing’ across the strings to some degree. This small bounce is something you want to minimize but you’ll never completely eradicate. It’s either that or you push your pick through your strings in contravention of the laws of physics!
Ex 2 Moderate h = 80 1
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Ex 1 Moderate h = 80 1
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Ex 3 Moderate h = 80 1
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