Picking and Downstrokes Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (05:29) Downstroke Picking Technique This lesson is primarily geared towards beginners. However, it is very important to watch this lesson carefully regardless of your current ability level. This will help you eliminate any bad picking habits that you may have picked up in the past.

Brad demonstrates some basic picking exercises designed to get your right hand acquainted with playing downstrokes. As its name implies, a downstroke is a picking motion made in a downward direction. Upstrokes will be discussed in a future lesson in this series. Before you dive into the exercises presented in this series, be sure to review the picking rules discussed in the previous lesson.

In order to practice the picking exercises presented in this lesson, you will need a metronome, drum machine, or some other reliable type of timekeeping device. Brad suggests playing along with one of your favorite records. Playing along with a record allows you to practice valuable technical material while still keeping things fun and interesting. Find a song that is played at a suitable tempo for what you are currently working on. Then, find the tonic note of the song. Pick this note within the context of the rhythmic exercises outlined below.

Picking Exercises

Note: Open "Downstrokes" under the "Supplemental Content" tab for tablature to all of the exercises discussed in the lesson video.

Brad begins with the largest note value, the whole note. First, set your metronome to a relatively slow tempo. Seventy beats per minute is probably a good place to start. Then, pick any given note on the guitar. This is the note that you will be picking throughout the course of each exercise. Open strings work the best, because they enable you to focus all of your attention on your right hand. When practicing this exercise, you want to vary the string on which you play to ensure that each string receives an equal amount of picking practice. Once your metronome is on, practice playing whole notes in perfect time. If this tempo is too fast for you, slow it down. Remember that it is impossible to play fast until you first learn how to play with perfect accuracy and rhythmic feel at a slow tempo. Also, you must make sure that all picked notes are identical in volume and tone.

The next division of the beat is the half note. Repeat the same process outlined above to practice playing half notes with downstrokes. You will pick once for every two clicks of the metronome.

Next, practice picking quarter notes using all downstrokes. Pick your chosen note every time the metronome clicks. You may find it helpful to tap your foot along with the metronome. Then, do the same with eighth notes. Count "1+2+3+4+" as you play these note groupings.

Brad Henecke continues in the lesson by demonstrating how to play sixteenth notes. In the lesson video, Brad accidentally plays sixteenth notes as eighth notes. The counting syllables that he uses are correct. However, four sixteenth notes should be picked using all downstrokes for every one click of the metronome.

Finally, Brad demonstrates how to pick eighth note triplets. Triplets are usually something that beginners struggle with. Most beginning players get so used to playing notes in groups two or four. As a result, playing three notes to a beat may seem quite awkward at first. If this is the case for you, try counting "tri-ple-let" or "1 and ah" aloud with each group of three triplets that you play. Also, like Brad suggests, you may need to slow your metronome down a few notches to ensure that you are playing perfectly in time.

John McLaughlin Picking Exercises

Note: Open the "Supplemental Content" tab for tablature to these exercises.

Guitarist John McLaughlin is well known for his virtuosic right hand abilities. John argues that the best way to develop a fast, accurate right hand is to pick a single note at one tempo with all possible note groupings. Brad Henecke discusses about half of these groupings in the lesson video. However, he purposely leaves out some of the rhythmic groupings that beginning and some intermediate players struggle with.

For advanced players who want to challenge their right hand as well as their rhythmic abilities, Matt Brown has included a basic transcription of McLaughlin's picking exercises in the "Supplemental Content" area. The appropriate counting syllables are listed above each note grouping. Notice how there are no syllables listed for the quarter note triplet exercise. You'll have much more success playing this rhythmic grouping if you simply "feel" it out. Once you reach the groups of quintuplets, you will most likely need to switch from strict downpicking to strict alternate picking.

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