Alternate picking

millponddave
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Tue May 10, 2011 5:08 pm

OK, at the risk of sounding like a idiot, I have to ask if someone could explain just what is alternate picking and cross picking. I'm pretty happy to just be able to hit the string that I want. I'm afraid that I don't worry too much about how I do it. Maybe that is why my playing sucks so bad!

Dave


Lavallee
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Tue May 10, 2011 5:20 pm

sws626 wrote:
Lavallee wrote:
...
Salut Suzi, I am not sure of the real definition of cross picking. I know alternate picking is simpler approach than cross picking. I tried to find some definition over the internet, but everybody has a different opinion .From what I can see it seems rather than DUDUDU for alternate it is DDUDUU kind of thing and it is better for emphasis and syncopation. How did you start learning crosspicking?

Marc
Hi Marc,

I'm not completely certain about this, but I believe cross picking refers to successively striking different (often adjacent strings) in the same direction. I seem to recall an examples in Neil's lesson on "From the Beginning." So cross picking over the four highest strings might well look like UUUU DDDD. In alternate picking, the downs are typically, but not always, on the beat, but any number of "patterns" is possible.

-Stuart
Hi Stuart, that was great that you point out a song with crosspicking. I went and watch the right hand section. Neils refer to a 6 note pattern (the first 3 are down the next 3 are up) if you look at the music sheet of in the beginning, they are written as a series of 4 triplets each alternating in direction. This might mean that the group of 3 is fairly common but there are all kinds of patterns. Maybe?

Marc


Lavallee
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Tue May 10, 2011 5:33 pm

millponddave wrote:
OK, at the risk of sounding like a idiot, I have to ask if someone could explain just what is alternate picking and cross picking. I'm pretty happy to just be able to hit the string that I want. I'm afraid that I don't worry too much about how I do it. Maybe that is why my playing sucks so bad!

Dave
Hi Dave, no such thing as silly question, This is all have been asking in this thread. Alternate picking is to pick any string (not necessarily neighbor strings) required but you change stroke direction at each string. So it it always be alternating up and down. So if you pick 4 strings in a row on a chord it will DUDU or it could start on an up stroke and be UDUD . As for crosspicking this is what I am trying to figure out as well.

Marc


sws626
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Tue May 10, 2011 5:53 pm

Lavallee wrote:
...
Hi Stuart, that was great that you point out a song with crosspicking. I went and watch the right hand section. Neils refer to a 6 note pattern (the first 3 are down the next 3 are up) if you look at the music sheet of in the beginning, they are written as a series of 4 triplets each alternating in direction. This might mean that the group of 3 is fairly common but there are all kinds of patterns. Maybe?

Marc
Hi Marc,

It's been a while since I worked on "From the Beginning," so I'd forgotten that these were described as triplets. But I think that crosspicking is quite a common approach to playing triplets. Look, for example, at the openng riff in Neil's recent lesson on "That'll be the day" -- however, elsewhere in that song, there are triplets that definitely work better when picked alternately.

The more I think about this, the more I realize that I don't really make much of a distinction and haven't ever thought about it in terms of patterns. There are phrases I may be working on that are essentially picked alternately, but because of the the timing, the strings that are played, the beats certain notes are on, what preceed or follows them, I may elect to play several notes in succession as downs or ups. Once I settle on this, it is usually for a good reason -- or, at least, for a reason I've thoght about -- and I tend to play that phrase with the same hand movements every time.

-Stuart


Lavallee
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Tue May 10, 2011 9:34 pm

Stuart, I did not mean to say that triplets had to be played in cross picking. It was just this song In the beginning. I guess it depends on the song and the tone the author wanted to give when choosing the picking method (or maybe the authors just do what is natural for them) . As you said though, it is our choice on how we play a song because we are doing interpretation.

Marc


suziko
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Wed May 11, 2011 6:19 am

Ok, guys, now I'M confused!! I thought cross picking was where you vary the direction you are picking as you move from string to string: DUDU. Alternate picking was where you pick the string in the direction that you are moving toward the next string. That is to say, if you are picking the G string with the intent of next picking the B string, you pick it down. But now i'm wondering if I'm confusing the terms or maybe not even using the right term! I'm quite sure Neil discusses the different styles in his overview of the intro to Wanted: Dead or Alive. I'll check that out later today.


wiley
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Wed May 11, 2011 6:47 am



suziko
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Wed May 11, 2011 7:28 am

I just went and re-watched Neil's video on the intro to W:DoA. And I must apologize because I did have the two terms confused (adding more confusion to an already slightly confusing subject!!). That is to say, cross picking is where you pick in the direction of the next string you plan to hit (eg. DDUU) and alternate is where you switch your stroke direction (eg DUDU). I learned to pick using alternate picking, and have only recently started trying to use the cross picking technique.

So, sorry, guys!!!


Lavallee
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Mon May 16, 2011 12:10 am

Sorry for the late reply.

Hi Wiley, good to hear from you. I have not read you for quite a while. I did not know there was a name for starting up or down. I also read about the banjo roll for cross picking. Now Chicken Picking, this is a challenge.

Hi Suzi, don't worry about being mixed up , it is still grey a bit for me too. It seems to me that alternate picking is constantly alternating . Cross picking seem to be changing direction once after hitting at least 2 strings in the same direction. So in WDOA as you said it is DDUU but the strings needed are not all contiguous and " in the beginning" it is DDD UUU DDD where the strings are all contiguous. But looking at this and your explanation of picking in the direction of the next string you plan to hit that Neil points out in WDOA is starting to make sense. I am starting to see some light, thanks.

Marc


wiley
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Mon May 16, 2011 7:05 am



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