Alternate Picking Exercises

In another lesson on alternate picking we covered the basic patterns. This lesson is for players who want to really exercise their alternate picking and advance to a higher level.

The basic alternate picking exercise uses four notes on consecutive frets with fingers 1-2-3-4. This is great because it’s perfectly alternate (down-up-down-up) while also allowing for an occasional string change. But now we’re going to mix up the patterns to prevent your muscles from doing all of the thinking. This can really help get the hands coordinated. To keep it simple, we’ll always start on the first finger and we won’t include any stretches.

Patterns – Starting With First Finger

Picking Pattern 1

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Descending

Picking Pattern 2

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Picking Pattern 3

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Picking Pattern 4

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Picking Pattern 5

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Picking Pattern 6

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More Exercises

• Repeat all exercises, this time with the 1^st finger stretching one fret lower. For instance, frets II-III-IV-V becomes frets I-III-IV-V, with a first finger stretch.
• Repeat all exercises, with the 4^th finger stretching one fret higher where possible.