Directional picking

Monster Lick

Directional picking represents the most modern approach to picking and it is arguably the most efficient way of guitar picking. I am not going to debate the claim to supremacy of this style of picking, but I just want to point out that if you need to pick every note of your phrases and aim for a fluent sound characteristic to jazz and / or rock or fusion, directional picking is the style for you.

But what is directional picking? It simply is alternate picking combined with sweep picking every time when you cross strings. It is as simple as that, but in practice poses some problems which we will discuss in the present article.

The first problem which arises is in fact the very same thing that differentiates this style of picking from the so called economy picking as presented in the Gambale method. The Gambale scales are very conveniently arranged so as to always assure that the last motion executed on one string by the right hand is the same as the one executed on the adjacent string. But the point of a technique is to allow you to fluently play any kind of material, no matter how it is arranged on the fretboard. I think it is important to practise exactly the difficult aspects of this technique.

 

As you notice, the difficult spots in the exercise above are those where the pick is forced to execute one motion on one string and the exact opposite motion on the adjacent string. This is the case with notes four and five in the first example as well as for notes sixteen and seventeen. This situation calls for an extremely short motion of the pick in the first direction so that the hand can recoil, avoid the string that has just been picked and continue the motion on to the adjacent string. The two problems presented above refer both to the case in which a higher string is picked with a downstroke followed immediately by an upstroke on a lower string. In the next example we will cover also the case in which a lower string is picked with an upstroke followed by a downstroke on the adjacent higher string.

The first type of problem I will call the down-up problem, and the other one the up-down problem. In a very Gambale fashion I call the above phrase the monster lick of directional picking. It features both down-up problems as well as up-downs. The up-down appears when you try to play the phrase in a continuous form. This will lead to the picking of the very first note of the lick with an upstroke thus constituting a down-up problem followed immediately by an up-down problem (the last note of the lick in conjunction with the first two)

This two problems are often called "inside the strings picking" and are dealt with usually with exercises that repeat the problematic motion over and over again on the same set of adjacent strings (line in the example below)

 

This is a great exercise, but I wanted to treat these problems in the broader context of directional picking and to address the other problem that usually occurs with this type of picking - right hand movement. To preserve the same angle of the pick attack on all the strings the right hand should move up and down the strings, depending on the string that is currently picked. You could also move the hand in a slightly diagonal fashion thus effectively muting the lower strings under the palm of the right hand.

Exercise number 2 should be practiced very slowly at first focusing on freeing the tension that inevitably builds into the right hand shoulder. Pay attention to the evenness of notes, on the articulation and on muting. If you feel that this exercise is too difficult, try warming up by using the other two exercises, played still at a slow tempo. Play this exercise at a very slow tempo (~ 60 bpm) for at least 5 directional picking practicing session. Then raise the metronome speed a bit (10 bpm) and practice for 3 sessions. Do this again until you reach a speed that is no longer comfortable. Then you go back to a lower speed and start the process from the beginning. Of course I also recommend you play the exercise above through all the modes of the major scale, and also through the modes of melodic minor and harmonic minor.

I usually practice directional picking 15 minutes a day and I recommend you do the same. Of course, if you put more time into it, you will see result faster.

Creative Arpeggios

How to get more creative while using only simple 3 note arpeggios? I have been asking myself this question ever since I realized that by using complicated (and complex) musical statements, I don't often get the intended musical outcome. I also had before my eyes the example of many talented musicians who were able to use simple triad arpeggios to much effect. Especially pianists are able to manipulate easily this kind of forms by using the wide range of their instrument, repetition and variation.

The simplest idea that we can use in regard to triad arpeggios is the repetition of one triad in different registers (fig. 1)

 

Pianists are able to employ this idea of repetition in more than one or two octaves, but we guitar players are somehow limited by the range of our instrument and of the difficulty of covering a lot of the fret-board, especially at high speed. Here comes into play the second idea: variation. The simplest form of variation, while keeping the idea of playing in multiple registers, is to omit one note of the arpeggio in one register, but play it in another. As we can see in fig. 2, we are omitting the root of the arpeggio in the second octave when we are ascending, but play it when descending whilst omitting the third.

In example 3 we are omitting the root of the arpeggio in the lower octave as well as the third in the second when we are ascending, and then the fifth in the higher octave while resting the phrase on the fifth of the lower octave, omitting both the third and the root. Notice the rhythmic displacement occurring on the first beat of the phrase. By combining these two tools - the omission of one note (or multiple notes) and rhythmic displacement we are able to create a considerable number of variations for our triad arpeggio. You can use the permutation of multiple parameters, such as: the number of notes omitted, the number of consecutive notes omitted, the quality of the notes omitted (root, third, fifth), as well as the value and position of the rhythmic displacement (where do we insert pauses and of which value). The values of the notes played can be also manipulated.

In the next examples I will show you how to bring this variation idea a little further. The main idea is to integrate these arpeggios ideas with linear phrases and sometimes with different quality arpeggios (7th arpeggios, major 9th, minor 9th etc.) Also try to use more than one technique when integrating the arpeggios with linear phrases. I use directional picking most of the time, but legato and alternate picking might be better suited for your purposes.