We probably don’t need to convince you of the benefit of alternate picking. For many guitarists, it’s a major feature of our practice time, and an efficient approach for the majority of situations.
However, it can be frustrating when the tidy efficiency of alternate picking meets the reality of most guitar parts. We encounter a burst of legato or a tricky triplet phrase, dive for the next downstroke... and realise we’ve totally lost the groove.
In his Guide To Picking at JTC Guitar, fusion maestro Martin Miller describes rhythmically dependent alternate picking (RDAP). It’s all about rhythms, and how they’re based on an underlying ‘grid’ (eighth notes, 16th notes, triplets etc).
Rather than trying to maintain down-up picking wherever the phrases land, your picking is guided by this underlying grid. If a part is based on combinations of eighth notes but nothing much faster than that, we can say there’s an eighth-note grid.
So downstrokes land on the beat, upstrokes on the half-beats, regardless of the actual phrasing. This removes the uncertainty, the risk of being derailed by unexpected rhythms.
Think of the picking motion as an ‘internal motor’, only engaging when you play a note. When you apply legato with the fretting hand, or when a note is sustaining, you don’t move the pick. However, the potential is still there, and you still know where you are on the grid.
In the full JTC package, Martin goes into great detail, covering pick motion, economy picking and methods for developing speed. There are lots of exercises and several long études. But for now, enjoy this taster!
Example 1
This simple scale pattern demonstrates the essence of RDAP. The consistent eighth-note ‘grid’ is there, but we don’t connect with a string when we encounter a rest or a sustained note. The challenge is to make this movement smooth and natural, not robotic or forced.
Example 2
Similarly, when adding legato, the pick doesn’t strike, but the ‘picking motor’ still runs. However, your fretting hand is now doing something diff erent; does this make it easier or harder? This cool altered dominant lick has lots of upstrokes, and is a great vehicle for demonstrating RDAP.
Example 3
Cross-picking takes the basic mechanics of alternate picking, but moving freely across all strings. It’s difficult, but allows you to access a much wider range of arpeggio-type lines. Steve Morse and Robert Fripp are particularly known for this technique. Here’s a longer exercise to really test your picking.
