Part 4 - Right Hand Movement - String Crossing

Now that we have correctly created the right hand movement for alternate picking on a single string, we can look at string crossing.

This is once again a very personal thing and on investigation, you will see many people applying a variety of approaches.

For the sake of this discussion, we will assume that you have been practicing the techniques laid out in previous installments of this article and as such, we will look at string crossing being done at the elbow:
Your wrist provides the picking for a single string, while your elbow moves the wrist from string to string.

If you are able to follow the natural arc made by moving your hand (from the elbow) from the thickest string on the guitar to the thinnest string, you are already well on your way to understanding the motion. It is as if your forearm is a pendulum, pivoting from the elbow.

There is the first basic concept.

Now keep in mind that based on the playing situation, the pendulum movement may have to be modified. To facilitate a palm muted run for example, where instead of moving in an arc, you will have to move your hand straight down to keep the mute sounding good. Here you will bring a bit of shoulder movement into the equation to keep the hand straight. The point being, that adaptability is key.

Having the fundamental knowledge that the picking is created by the wrist, and the string crossing is created by the elbow, lets look at a practical application, and the thought process behind practicing this.

Study the following example:

Firstly assume that we will be alternate picking throughout, lets look at the first section:

Picking will be:       down, up down, up, down, up etc
Movement will be: wrist, wrist, arm,wrist, wrist, arm etc

Lets look a little closer: the 3rd stroke (down) is made with the ARM, to facilitate moving to the high 'E'
The 6th stroke (up) is made with the arm moving upwards, to facilitate getting back to the 'G' string.
The strokes made with the arm in this example pick the string as well as move the hand.

Now lets look at the descending version. It's a little trickier. assume alternate picking and starting on a downstroke: The third stroke is down with the wrist, then you immediately follow with an upstroke from the elbow to bring the wrist up to the 'G' string. The 6th stroke is an upstroke made with the wrist, followed immediately by a downstroke from the elbow to get from the 'G' to the 'E' string. Your arm downstroke here sounds the note too. Slightly different economy to the ascending version.

I would suggest practicing the ascending version first to get used to the concept. It is the simpler of the two.
Say to yourself in your head while picking this: 'Wrist, wrist arm, wrist, wrist, arm' Very simplistic advice, but it gets you going.

Once you have a handle on both exercises, practice them without the skip of the B string. Play six notes phrased as three notes per string in ascending and descending order. This will allow you to make the elbow movement smaller.

REMEMBER, keep your elbow (and entire arm for that matter) relaxed. It is very easy to hurt the elbow by doing these exercises in this way. If you feel pain, STOP.

That wraps up this 4 Part article on alternate picking. Try the concepts outlined here and apply them to your situation. If they work, great, if they don't, no problem, adapt your technique to a method that does.

Please remember that we have looked at very simple mechanics of picking, but in reality, your shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist and fingers are involved in some way, shape or form, and it is your job to make sure they work in relaxed synergy to accomplish your goals.

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