Basic Alternate Picking
Alternate Picking
I break my own rule in the video and don't play with a metronome. I highly recommend you watch the video and play along, then work on the exercises again with a metronome.
These are the exercises I mention in the video, in tab form, with more musical formalism. If you don't know how to read tabs and music, read this lesson.
Let's quickly review the musical notation in exercise 1, which will also cover the notation in exercises 2 and 3.
Each note in exercise 1 is a quarter note, so you play one note per beat. The parallel, vertical lines at the right with the colon-like dots means you need to repeat everything to the left of the dots, once. In this case you will play the exercise twice.
The half-squares indicate a down-pick, while V's indicate up-picks. Give this exercise a shot with the first finger on the 5th fret and third finger on the 7th fret. If you aren't playing along with the video, use a metronome and play at a reasonable place, say 60 beats per minute (bpm).
Exercise 2 is virtually the same as exercise 1, but with the addition of a third note. Place the 1st and 3rd fingers on the 5th and 7th frets as before, and also place the 4th finger on the 8th fret. With the fingers in place (don't cheat!), play the exercise at 60 beats per minute.
For exercise 3, you will place your 1st, 3rd, and 4th fingers on the same frets as before, but this time you will play across two strings. Follow the instructions in the video. Again, play at 60 bpm.
Extra Exercises
I'll give you some flexibility on these. What you certainly shouldn't do is downpick every note. Find a way to minimize finger movement and picking movement.
Special thanks to the following people for their contributions (organized by first name):
Kezia J.
