Types of Guitar Picking Techniques

Beyond the Basics: Exploring Alternate Guitar Picking Techniques

When you’re first learning how to play the guitar, you’re going to focus on a couple of guitar picking techniques to get you started. Starting with standard flatpicking and approaches like sweep picking (sweep picking (dragging the pick over multiple strings at once) and finger-picking (playing all the strings with your fingers) are great options as you’re establishing a foundation for chords, rhythm and single-string play.

Those basic picking techniques will only take you so far, too. If you want to sound like your favorite band or create a unique sound, you’ll need to learn some more methods. This overview looks at several types of guitar picking techniques that are found in music ranging from bluegrass to jazz blues. You may well discover the secret sauce you’ve been searching for to bring the house down at your next show.

Downstroke and Upstroke Picking

Let’s start by quickly going over two of the most common flatpicking methods as they are the building blocks to further development. Downstroke picking is when you strike every string in a downward motion while upstroke picking is when you strike the strings going upward. It doesn’t seem like much of a difference, but it greatly changes your sound. Downstrokes give the music more of a driving force, adding power and aggression to genres like metal and punk. Upstroke picking has a lighter and more relaxed off-beat sound for reggae and folk.

Alternate Picking

Next in our rundown of alternate picking techniques is the method that bears the name. Also known as tremolo picking, this involves playing the same string (or multiple strings) while alternating between downstrokes and upstrokes. Guitarists typically divide this as a downstroke on downbeats (odd-numbered beats) and an upstroke on upbeats (even-numbered beats). Alternate guitar picking allows you to play successive notes faster, more efficiently and with a cleaner tone. It’s common in almost every genre when you need to play up-tempo songs with complex riffs and solos. The only downside is that it doesn’t work well for arpeggios.

Economy Picking

Now we’re getting into some of the more advanced ways to pick a guitar. Economy guitar picking is a blend of the alternate and sweep picking techniques to produce maximum efficiency. It specifically refers to the pattern one uses when switching to another string; you use a downstroke to go from a higher string to a lower string and an upstroke to go in the opposite direction. Doing so reduces the total pick movement for faster transitions that conserve your energy. You’ll hear a lot of economy picking in metal, alternative, jazz fusion and other genres where you must be fast and precise.

Cross-picking

Most often heard in bluegrass and jazz, this is when a guitar emulates the sound of finger-picking while using a plectrum. When playing a chord, instead of sweeping the pick across all the strings at once, you play each note individually to articulate the sound. Doing so gives the lick the same precision as finger-picking with a much brighter and louder sound. Cross-picking tends to involve two or three strings (though it can be expanded to more) and uses rolling patterns whether for rhythm or lead. It’s most effective at slower tempos; for faster songs, you’re usually better off with economy picking.

Hybrid Picking

One of the most intricate ways to play a guitar, hybrid picking combines the use of a plectrum and your fingers. The guitarist holds the pick between their thumb and index finger to pluck certain strings, then plays the remaining strings using their middle, ring and pinky fingers. Though very difficult to learn, “chicken picking” opens countless possibilities for rhythm and tone. You can play multiple strings at once without any muting, and you can smoothly switch between strumming, standard flatpicking, full finger-picking and other techniques. Jazz guitarists use it to simultaneously play chords, melodies, solos and even bass lines. Hybrid picking is also common in bluegrass and country to mimic pedal steel guitars on a regular axe.

Palm Muting

Let’s close with a couple of guitar-picking sub-techniques that can be used in combination with any of the techniques discussed above. Palm muting is when you place the side of your picking hand (not the palm, despite the name) lightly on the guitar strings near the bridge. This muffles the sound while making it chunkier and more bass-heavy. It’s a fixture of music that uses distorted guitars and is also found in classical music and even disco. You can control the dampening effect by how close your hand is to the bridge and how hard you press on the strings.

Pick Scrapes/Pick Slides

You can do more than just pluck and strum with a pick. A pick slide is when you take the edge of the pick and scrape it along one of the wound strings. The edge will catch on the windings and create vibrations that create a grinding, textured note. You can change the sound by switching the pick angle, direction, speed and pressure. Note that pick sliding won’t be effective on nylon strings or any other strings that don’t have windings. You’ll also need a durable pick as slides will quickly tear up the edges on cheaper plectrum materials.

Guitar Picks from Strings and Beyond

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