Guitar Techniques: Picking

Motor Hand Guitar Techniques

• Picking
• Strumming
• Tapping
• Tap/Touch
• Fingerpicking...

Fretting hand

• Fretting
• Sliding
• Bending
• Slurs
• Release
• Vibrato
• Chord, Arpeggio, and Scale Playing

Guitar technique is the physical dimension of your hands working independently and together to provide the basis for self-expression. When you train with awareness and focus, the hands play what you 'think'.

In this practice routine, the main point is to make connections to all of your fingers, plus get them to work in different combinations- while linking those combinations to the motion of the pick.

Alternate picking (down-up) will be the preferred picking pattern for this routine. We want the pick on auto pilot, so practice down-up on open strings to get the motor moving. "What is the minimum effort it takes to pick and get solid tone?" What is the motion that gets this tone (both down & up in combination).

You could also fingerpick this exercise using i/m (index/middle) in a walking motion. Or m/a, i/a, p/i, p/m, pa, i/c, etc.

We are revisiting the chromatic exercises lesson, yet we are adding complete combinations of fingerings - every possible order. The types of exercises you can design for yourself are nearly endless.

Combinations beginning with the one finger (and the reverse)

We are selecting a fingering pattern (start with 1234). For the first half of the exercise, we play the pattern (1234) low to high in a fixed position, then shift one position and reverse the pattern (4321).

We will continue up the neck to p9 (9th position) in this manner, then for the second half of the exercise, we will go back down the neck on a single string (1st) using the same fingering and shifting (one position - down - at a time).

A good consequence of shifting using these fingerings is the last finger of the first pattern is the first finger of the next pattern (up a position), so...you can do what is called guiding. Guiding is where you keep a finger in contact with a string as you shift, but don't keep pressure (don't press) as you move up or down a string. Similar to sliding but without the pressing (and tone/sound).

After completing this cycle in 9 positions (up-full string set/down-single first string, alternating patterns ascending and descending, every other position), repeat the process with the next fingering pattern on the chart above: 1243 up, and the reverse - 3421 down, by position (all 6 strings), then descend on a single string position by position using the same fingerings.

Go through all 6 sets of fingerings.

The First Half of Exercise

The same exercise using tablature

Second Half of Exercise, Descending on Single Strings

As you practice this, you may notice it might be easier to think in sets of 2 fingers sometimes (2 sets of 2, say for 12-43 combination), and better to think in a set of 3 and 1 at other times (such as 1-432).

This is a subtle difference, but get a feel for the differences in approaches of thinking. You'll get different results. Compare those results.

Also, after practicing for a while, can you just say to your hand, "Do That Pattern?" What becomes automatic, how fast?

If you train your body in this way, when you play to express yourself, you have more depth and comfort.

You might try using an open tuning such as DADGAD. As you probably can tell, this exercise could be modified and repeated in myriad ways, so experiment.

Keep in mind that the main point of all of this is to make connections to all of your fingers, plus get them to work in different combinations.

Now, all the possibilities. This isn't easy to keep track of at first, but once you make all the connections, you will be amazed at your level of control.

Guitar techniques - Fingerpicking