Alt Picking vs. Econo Picking.

[trey85stang]

Does alt picking have any advantages over ecno picking when soloing?? I've decided to start alt picking on my soloing and I keep having some problems breaking free from my econo picking.

Is switching realy going to help me speed up or make some runs sound smoother.. or possible make those harder to nail runs easier to nail??

The only people I hear about that preach alt picking are the guitar soloing prodigies.. Im not interested in becoming a prodigy, but I'd like to try and speed my playing up.. so I thought this would be a good step

Also, when playing rythem.. do you guys alt pick on slower riffs? do you try and play exclusivly with downpicking, and only alt pick the fast stuff?? I've always done everything the James Hetfield way of downpick all 1/8 notes only uppick if their is a 16th note in the riff? I've heard his way is wrong when it comes to guitar technique??

Anyways.. what are your opinions on downpicking, alt picking.. and econo picking?

[mab8485]

Originally Posted by trey85stang

Also, when playing rythem.. do you guys alt pick on slower riffs? do you try and play exclusivly with downpicking, and only alt pick the fast stuff?? I've always done everything the James Hetfield way of downpick all 1/8 notes only uppick if their is a 16th note in the riff? I've heard his way is wrong when it comes to guitar technique??

I use downpicking for powerchords and stuff whenever I can, but alternate pick if it gets too fast. Downpicking will always sound tighter and more focused for playing powerchords. In regards to whether it's wrong or not, play however feels and sounds the best to you

[formulaet]

Alternate picking is wonderful. Noooo you don't need to be a prodigy to implement it. I even alternate pick rythm, tight rythm chords for very chugging type stuff.


Econo or what I call sweeping is great too! Alot of thought goes into it but I just use both depending on what I'm trying to get across. I also use lefthand hammeron pulloffs in combination.

Good Luck, Alternate is definately worth utilizing in all areas....it makes up a large percentage of Economy picking.

FormulaET

[Edenbridge]

it all depends on what feels good to you.......I only use Alternate picking.

[joeydahlia]

What is econo picking anyway??? I never heard of it..


JoeyDahlia

[Jeffery Bravo]

economy picking is -picking (well easiest way to explain) one of three or four notes (usually), but using up and down motion. It is also the basis for sweep pickin. eg.-you start w/ a downstroke on the low E, and up stroke on the high e.

neither is better, it's what a solo calls for zakk wylde pretty much uses alt. picking, yngwie tends to do economy picking as well as frank gambale.

legato is pretty muh just hammering and pulloffs-that's the one i suck at badly-lol.
It's good to pick a form of picking and strictly use it, learn a few tunes that have that style of picking, Just don't try to learn all three at once like me, or else progress will be slow (unless u have 8 hrs a day to do it...hmmm...some ppl on this site do practice that much LOL)

[trey85stang]

I dont plan on ever being a prodigy.. But I made up some practise licks that use string skipping and other small things to use alt picking. I've just been playing those riffs all weekend and its already rreplacing my econo picking (naturally of course) for the most part. So I'm going to stick with it.. I don't think it has made anything more fluid or quicker yet.. but maybe in the long run it will

[joeydahlia]

is this economy picking?




http://65.254.79.230/minor.wmv

JoeyDahlia

[trey85stang]

Originally Posted by joeydahlia

is this economy picking?




http://65.254.79.230/minor.wmv

JoeyDahlia

well its either alt picking or econo picking. It does show his hand long enough to really tell, but form the shots I saw it looked like alt picing.

Econo picking is the same as alt picking except... when you are crossing strings.. here is an example.

A-----------5-7--8-------------------
E-5-7--8-----------------------------
  d u  d    d u  d

Notice when you go to the a string, it is a down pick. That is econopicking.. if it were altpicking the a string would be udu instead of dud.

[sheikers]

Originally Posted by joeydahlia

is this economy picking?




http://65.254.79.230/minor.wmv

JoeyDahlia

No.

[Guitaristic]

economy picking is faster than alternate picking.
with alternate i think it allows you to have more feel and even picking power when picking different strings, but that can also be done with economy picking

but believe me it is extremely hard to revert from one technique to the other, because your muscles have been alreayd programmed to do it one way. So if you do try to revert to alternate picking, expect your muscles to lock up everytime you attempt fast alternate picking passages that youd otherwise attempt with economy picking.
To change, you'd have to slow down to whole notes at 100bpm and learn to play alternate picking with no excess mcules tension from then up. takes huge amount of effort.

for soloing, id say dont even worry about it, it makes little difference either way

for those master of puppet like metal riffs, try doing all down picks, it sounds better

[elecjoy]

If you want to see\hear the best economy picking technique Gambale aside, cehck out www.derrylgabel.com

He's got the coolest and smoothest sounding picking technique I've ever come across.

[Mr Mojo Risin]

I like alternate picking better, but I use both. For some songs, economy picking sounds better. It makes it sound more aggresive. But when a play really fast, mostly when its just on one or two strings, alternate picking is much faster, easier, and smoother sounding to me. Dont learn to alternate pick just because alot of good players use it. It economy picking works for you, use it. But it never hurts to practice both.

[strat78]

Use the pick to color and punctuate your phrasing, but for gods sake don't pick every note, for this robs a solo of its crescendo and exclamation points needed to take a solo from point A to point B. Legato is also crucial to ones pallet. To my ears nothing has more of an impact like a good legato run where the first and last few notes are picked deeply. There is much that the right hand adds to ones phrasing. Slightly muffling the notes with your palm here and there can turn a boring run into something wicked. You must learn how to alt pick! Without that technique you have lost a good third of your pallet. Of course pinching the notes is crucial too but, to my ears people like Zak Wild over use it. Pepper your solo and rhythm work with these techniques but don't over do it. Raking (sweeping) and string skipping sound out of this world, but they are very disruptive and usually detract from an otherwise good solo.

[joeydahlia]

very well said,

I like your logo...

Is that me in that chair?

JoeyDahlia