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Hi Neil,

Joined the Target members a couple of months ago. Was attracted to the site from stuff I saw on YouTube plus you do a lot of my favourite songs (how about some Yes/Steve Howe in the future...Wurm?)

I played for a couple of years when I was young but just picked up the guitar again, aged 48! I consider myself a beginner and have probably relearned some bad habits. I have never had any lessons.

So here's my question. When I pick on a single string I naturally alternate pick, when I move to adjacent strings I naturally cross pick. You seem to say this is bad and I should alternate pick only at first. Is this just to keep the rhythm going or are there other reasons?

Even more weird...When cross picking (e.g From the Beginning, Wot's the Deal etc.) my natural instinct is, when going up to the high E string I hit this still picking down and then reverse picking back up on to the the B string. From what I see on your lessons, you say I should be hitting the top E string upwards. What is the advantage as you have to change direction at some point? I do the same thing when reversing direction from lower stings to higher...ie. I will up pick the lowest string and then downpick the higher string. Hope my description makes sense!

Cheers,

Mark (UK)

Mark- Big welcome to the program from Oregon! Could I trouble you to more formally introduce yourself on the Please Introduce Yourself thread? Where do you live in the UK? What are your musical interests? We've all done it before you so you can see how everyone has responded.

As far as your picking question is concerned there are no hard and fast rules. But there are reasons why we pick the way we do.

When picking From the Beginning, for example, the reason you up-pick on the last stroke is because it's much easier to change directions at the bottom of the run. If you didn't do this you have to down-pick the last note of the arppegio and then jump back over this same string to hit the second string. This both slows you down and decreases accuracy.

Speed and accuracy are the primary reasons for both alternating picking and cross picking. Cross picking is huge with the National Flatpicking Championship guys like Steve Kaufmann and Pete Huttlinger. There is a reason these speed pickers do it the way they do. Because it makes them damned fast pickers!

If you are a beginner it makes perfect sense to learn to pick correctly. It's so much harder to unlearn a bad habit than it is to learn correctly the first time. That's why Neil stresses these techniques so much.

Good luck with your picking and let us know how it's going!

Cheers! :cheer:

p.s. If you can play From the Beginning correctly you aren't a beginning guitarist!

I didn't say I could play it correctly! I can play it but with a lot of short cuts and a slower pace on the intro cross picking. Even Neil did that to some extent!

In the strumming section, you can play a chord on the 5th fret which sounds, near as dammit, the same as the one on the 10/12 fret, but much easier to change to. There are some other 'short cuts' as well with the cross picking chord progressions.

No doubt, i'll be banned from here after this outrage! Just being honest, I can't play it how Greg plays it!

You should play it the way that works best for you. Neil wants us to make these songs ours and not just play them rote.

If you look at some of the lessons on YouTube on From the Beginning you can tell that not everyone plays it the same way. Check out the video from Fretkillr, he plays it very differently and it still sounds great to me.

But I do believe Neil's version is the most accurate to what Greg Lake plays although Lake plays it differently in every video. But who cares, it his song!

Good luck! :cheer:

Cheers BigBear,

That is certainly a proficient rendition of the said song, although it be in a somewhat Flamenco syle! Wish I could play like that though...

Mark

Still plucking on.

BigBear,

I just listened to that a few more times and after the intro, he seems to be rushing it a bit. The guitar work is faultless but it doesn't work with the lyrics at that pace. It's a sad song...just my opinion? If in doubt, slow it down?

Mark