Alternate Guitar picking Are you new to playing the guitar? And you wish to improve the accuracy and speed of your guitar playing; alternate picking is one of the beginners essentials then first learning the guitar. So what is alternate picking? Well it is a technique used by guitarist that allows you to shorten and improve the accuracy of your picking. So how does it work? Well you begin with the 6st string on your guitar which is top string and simply perform a downward stroke and then followed by an upward stroke or pick. But thats not it to become a good guitarist you must be able to do this without thinking about it, it should become second nature to you. So what are some drills to perform so you can master alternate picking and move on to learning your favorite songs? A simple drill is to start with something easy like performing the downward pick followed by an upward pick and repeat that again on every string all the way down the 1th string or the bottom string. Keep practicing this until you feel comfortable then do it down the six strings and then backup them, to improve your movement. Once you are feeling confident I would suggest picking the string up and down the string but this time only 3 times and on each new string perform the opposite string movement on each. So to clear this up you start with the first string with a down, up, down then on the second string you alternate with a up, down, up, and the 3rd string will be the same as the first and the fourth the same as the second and so on. Again make sure you get comfortable with doing these exercises so that you can perform solo performances and improvise. Because if you just keep practicing the same alternate picking you will become robotic and boring and nothing will feel second nature. So remember keep practicing and change these up once you get a basic grip on what youre doing so you really get a feel for all the strings and how to alternate pick them all without even thinking about it. What more Guitar lessonsAbout the Author: