Convenience Picking

In my early days of guitar playing, one of the techniques that I found to be most difficult was alternate-picking. Alternate picking is characterized as an alternative pattern of down stroke, upstroke, down stroke, upstroke, where the down strokes fall on the beat, and the upstrokes lie between he beats.

This technique is intended to synchronize the movement of your pick and your tapping foot, i.e. when your foot is down, use the downstroke, and when your foot is up- use the upstroke. Its intention is to assist the beginner in keeping a steady rhythm. If there is no note on the offbeat, then wait for the beat and revert back to the downstroke and continue the pattern.

Alternate picking is a very useful technique to familiarize you with basic rhythm and to maintain a steady footing in confusing or disorienting rhythms. However, as you begin to venture into lead guitar, the practicality of alternate-picking greatly diminishes. For example, playing across the thick-E, A, and then D strings would not be accomplished best with alternate picking; on the other hand, a combination of sweep picking and alternate picking would be the most practical. I would suggest playing the E, then A, both with down strokes and then use an upstroke to pluck the D string.

Using More than a Pick

To achieve the widest dynamic range on the guitar, I would suggest using more than just a pick. I would recommend using all of the fingers of your dominant hand for picking. This will allow you to command a wider range of pitch because your wrist will not have to move nearly as much. Also, the sound qualities of a pick plucking a string versus the sound of a finger plucking a string are completely different. Using both, you will have, at your disposal, a wide range of picking intensities, volumes and textures.

Hold the pick with your thumb and index finger. Place your wrist around the Low E and A-strings. Use your other three fingers to control the high E, B, and G strings.

Your pick will still shift up and down the strings, but with the added support of your remaining fingers, it will not be required to move nearly as much.

When my entire hand had been trained to pick, I planted the pinky of my right hand on the body of the guitar, by the high E-string. This allowed me to pivot my right hand off of a single point, giving me spatial reference, and thus more flexibility within a fixed radius; In other words, my right hand could do all sorts of crazy things without losing my place. It also allowed me to mute the high-E string (and sometimes even the B) for those unfortunate instances that I accidentally plucked an extra string.

Combined picking technique

I would suggest blending convenience picking and finger picking to maximize your playing speed and flexibility. They will take quite some time to implement, and they will take much longer to master. However, whence your picking hand is free from restraint, you fill find yourself playing much more complex and interesting melodies and rhythms.