Music
Guitar Lesson 10: Picking Tricks
I have a few little picking tricks in my arsenal and I thought I would share them with you. I’m sure none of them are unique and I didn’t invent any of them. Nevertheless, they’re handy to know and fun to use. Plus, I’m sure you can take what I’ve done and embellish to make them even better. It’s been a while since I’ve done a guitar lesson, so I thought I might as well make this one fairly accessible to players of all levels. Not that that’s logical.
Fake Double-Pick
I didn’t realize I was going to have to come up with names for these little techniques, so please forgive the lameness of what I’m calling them. The “fake double pick” is a lack for a better term, as I’m sure the rest of the names I come up with for this lesson will be when I get to writing about them.
I call this trick the “fake double pick” because it sounds like you’re doing a lot more with the pick than you really are. This is the first of a few tricks that implement such a strategy. It’s quite simple and uses a timing offset between the two hands to make four physical note fingerings sound like six separate notes. Here’s the tab.
* = pickstroke * * * * * * |-0h4h7-7p4p0-|-------------|-------------| |-------------|-0h4h7-7p4p0-|-------------| |-------------|-------------|-0h4h7-7p4p0-| |-------------|-------------|-------------| |-------------|-------------|-------------| |-------------|-------------|-------------| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| * * * * * * |-------------|-------------|-------------| |-------------|-------------|-------------| |-------------|-------------|-------------| |-0h4h7-7p4p0-|-------------|-------------| |-------------|-0h4h7-7p4p0-|-------------| |-------------|-------------|-0h4h7-7p4p0-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-|
It might seem confusing as to why this works, but essentially, we’re taking the third note and doubling it by playing it with a hammer-on and then picking the note. It’s not much work, but you can turn a simple fingering exercise into a sextuplet, which ALWAYS comes in handy.
Triplet Hammer
This one I stole from Michael Hedges. In the song Aura Muunta off his album Oracle (an absolute essential album to own if you’re a guitar player), there’s a lot of this trick going on. At about 0:38, he does something along the lines of the following (in a non-standard tuning):
Exercise 2 (7) = harmonic @ 7th fret |--------------| |-------(7)-7\-| |-------(7)-7\-| |-------(7)-7\-| |--------------| |-0h5h7--------| |-3-|
Again, a simple trick with lots of effectiveness. Feel free to hammer the 7th fret notes at the end with your finger instead of picking it out. It’s fun.
Triplet Chord
Another trick stolen from Michael Hedges, possibly off Aura Muunta again, is something I like to use a lot. First, you’re going to need to implement a triplet/swing feel with your plectrum by picking the first and third notes of triplet eighths and then your left hand does the rest of the work:
Ex 3 * * * * * * * * |-------------|-----------0-| |-------------|-----------0-| |-------------|-----6-----6-| |-------------|-----7-----7-| |-------------|-----7-----7-| |-0h5-5-0h5-5-|-0h5-5-0h5-5-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-| |-3-|
You can do a whole lot with this trick. In fact, I’ve written the following chord progression, which incorporates this trick:
Alternate Slant Picking
Alternate slant picking is perhaps something I do due to laziness, but it’s quite helpful for me when I’m playing fast, repeated eighth/sixteenth notes. It’s the same as alternate picking, except you hold the pick at a fairly extreme angle so as to not strike any incorrect strings. It’s hard to explain verbally, so maybe this video will help:
Ex 4 |-----------------------------------|-- |-----------------------------------|-- |-----------------------------------|-- |-----------------------------------|-- |-----9-9-8-8-9-9-10-10-9-9-8-8-9-9-|-- |-7-7-------------------------------|-- |---------------------------------|-- |---------------------------------|-- |---------------------------------|-- |---------------------------------|-- |-----9-9-8-8-9-9-----9-9-7-7-9-9-|-- |-7-7-------------5-5-------------|-- |---------------------------------|-- |---------------------------------|-- |---------------------------------|-- |---------7-7-5-5-4-4-------------|-- |-----5-5-------------7-7-5-5-4-4-|-- |-3-3-----------------------------|-- |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |-----5-5-4-4-2-2-1-1-2-2-4-4-1-1-| |-3-3-----------------------------|
The key is that the pick is held at such an angle that the downstroke (when this technique is honed) will only hit the intended string and on the upstroke will not hit any other strings. It’s also very easy to palm-mute notes while playing in this technique. Noted scientist Victor Wooten would call this technique an efficient use of “economy of motion.”
Petrucci Sixes
This technique probably came to me when I was trying to learn The Glass Prison off Dream Theater’s album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. The guitar solo begins with a similar picking pattern and I’ve found it useful for all sorts of different things. Like most of the aforementioned techniques, this trick allows you to throw in some quick sextuplets with minimal picking. Perhaps it’s my physiology, but this technique came quite easy for me. Your mileage may vary.
Ex. 5 |----9-11-14p11p9----9-11-14p11p9-| |-12--------------12--------------| |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------|
Remember, start slowly and move your way up with this one. The above example is a very limited use of this picking technique. Essentially, you pick four notes and use the pull-off to get the last tuplet.
Generic Atkins
The generic Atkins technique is named after Chet Atkins who made this form of picking popular. There are two or three generic rhythms I’ll show you and you can venture from there.
|-----------------|-----------------------| |-----------------|---5-------5-----------| |-----------------|-------5-------5---5---| |---4---4---4---4-|---4-----4---4-------4-| |-5-------5-------|-5---------5-----------| |-----5-------5---|-----5-----------5-----|
You may recall, I’ve done a guitar lesson on hybrid picking before. This is one of the most basic hybrid picking rhythms you should absolutely have down pat before trying to learn stuff by Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel. Seriously. This pattern is the gateway to learning lots of complicated solo guitar pieces from players in that vein.
Tips
As always, start slow with a metronome and increase the tempo as you perfect these techniques at slower speeds. Soon enough, you’ll be shredding and throwing these tricks into your scorching leads.
I know this guitar lesson is pretty short, but it’s been such a long time since I’ve posted anything, I thought I would start small and work toward something bigger.