Picking exercise 1
The guitar pick, or plectrum, is the small piece of plastic that we use to strike (or strum) the guitar strings in order to produce notes.It is held in the hand we would normally use to write with (right if you're right handed or using a right handed guitar), between the first finger and the thumb. The closer you hold the plectrum to the tip, the more control you will have over the notes produced and the faster you will be able to play.
There are two main ways that the pick can be used, stumming upwards (with an arm motion towards yourself), or strumming downwards (with a motion away from yourself and towards the floor). A downward strum (known as a "downstroke") is stronger and more emphasized than an upward strum (known as an "upstroke"), and so downstrokes are generally used to play stronger, more accented beats.
Exercise 1 16th notes 160bpm
This is true of our first exercise. It is in 44 time (which is said "four four"), this means that there are 4 beats to a bar, and the value of each beat is a quarter note (or crotchet). To help remeber this, think of it as 4/4 (four quarters) and then you'll remeber that there is four quarter notes to a bar. Each quarter note is then split into eighth notes for this exercise (so there are 8 notes in each bar).
The little symbols under the TAB signify which direction to pick the notes in. The first one in the exercise is a downstroke, and the second symbol means an upstroke. Thus we have alternate down and up strokes (known as "alternate picking"). The exercise should always be done to a metronome- starting off at a slow speed and then gradually increasing untill you can play at lightning fast speeds.
The important thing with this is your co-ordination between the fretting fingers and picking hand. I say fretting fingers for a reason. Don't struggle to reach the notes by moving your hand. This is bad, which is obviously a problem if the frets are so far apart that your fingers can't reach!
Try starting at a place where you can reach each fret by moving your fingers only (so your hand stays still, and your fingers are over the frets that they're going to play). This may be the 10th or 12th fret to start with, where the frets are closer together. Then gradually work your way down the neck. As soon as you reach a position where you find yourself moving your hand to be able to reach from the first finger to the little finger then stop.
Gradually, by doing the exercise this way, you will find that the amount you can stretch your hand increases- until you can play the distance from the first to the 4th frets just by stretching out your fingers.
Click here to go back to previous page
