Guitar Uni

Sweep and economy picking are usually treated as different techniques, but I prefer to group them together. I find sweeping is just an extension of basic economy-picking.

For the uninitiated, economy-picking simply means that you play any consecutive strings in the same direction.

For example, if you play a G on the 6th string followed by a B on the 5th string, you would play both with a sinlgle downstroke. As opposed to alternate picking, where you would play the first with a downstroke and the second with an upstroke:

The tricky part is to keep the rhythm steady while doing this. It’s very easy to make everything sound lopsided if you’re not careful.

The best thing to do, as usual, is to start out very slowly with a metronome and make sure that you’re hitting each note accurately. This is why I recommend to get really good at alternate-picking before moving on to this.

Here’s a simple exercise to get you started. Play this slowly and with a steady rhythm.

I always try to get my students to practice alternate picking. For those that don’t know, alternate picking simply means that you’re alternating between upstrokes and downstrokes while playing.

Some people prefer economy/sweep picking, but I find alternate picking to be important because it helps students develop a strong sense of rhythm. It also helps improve the postioning and movement of the right hand.

Once you build a solid foundation with it, you can move on to economy picking and other techniques.  Ultimately, you’ll want to combine these different elements, and use whichever is needed to best play the music at hand.

If your new to alternate picking, you can start out by simply playing scales, like this:

Make sure all movement comes from the wrist. You can also play this simple exercise (great for warming up):

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