Alternate picking Vs Economy alternate picking

[Bob From Accounting]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTxtInJnHFU&feature=related

This guy says you should always do complete alternate picking and that economy picking is bad because it ruins the synchronisation...

I feel economy p. is easier to get used to and alternate feels awkward...

what do you think?

Discuss

[Ben...]

I'm with you on the Economy VS. Alternate thing. Mostly because my guitar teacher has taught me Economy picking from day one. I find alternate to be too inefficient and to me, economy just makes more sense. Why make more work than you need to?

[Bob From Accounting]

if i just play that's what happens. I get lost with alt. "hmm is the next one up or down?"

look at racer x technical difficulties:

G------------------------------------
D-----4-----5-----4------5-----4h5--
A-3-3---3-3---3-3---3-3---3-3------ etc
E-----------------------------------

the only way i can play this with some speed is up-down-down...

[Ben...]

Precisely what I think. the dude in the video suggests that doing that will make you off time. I've done it so much that it's much more accurate for me and I never go off time. I strictly practice with a metronome so I'll know if I'm off time. I also have the issue figuring out the up-down thing too.

[<-Mitch->]

I've always used alternate, because I never knew any better. I can't do economy at all but obviously, people like Yngwie Malmsteen just randomly picked the notes anyway he could and built his speed without thinking of it, so he's got that completely down, Paul Gilbert/MAB have gotten AP down because it's what they focused on.

I didn't watch the video, but "the guy" obviously hasn't spent an equal amount of time practising both.

[shredmonster]

I do what is most efficient. There are no set rules.

[JacksonVHT]

Sometimes Alternate picking is Economy picking.

[VitaminG]

I've always had trouble economy picking on one string

[Bert]

I've been working through Troy Stetina's "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar" book and he's pretty adamant about learning alternate picking before economy picking. So even though I've been a long-standing economy picker I decided to give alternate picking a go. Unforutnately for the life of me I just can't get it. I can get up to about 120 bpm on non-trivial licks but then I just hit a wall and don't improve beyond that. with economy picking I'm at 160bpm+ no problem. Not sure what I'm doing wrong either. Too old to learn new tricks?

[Cygnus X1]

I have to get a metronome, no doubt.
My picking is my roadblock!

I used a lot of "chicken pickin" to get to a certain speed, along with pentatonic scales...for half a lifetime.
But I am stuck at a certain speed. I have spent months with Speed Mechanics, Intelli-Shred, and have had HM Lead Guitar 2 for a decade!

I use alternate right now, it makes sense, but I am stuck.
It seems my attack is just too hard. I hang up as soon as I run into the G string, then B...E. They get twangy and loose.
Should I just go ahead and go to a thicker string gauge?

What am I doing wrong?

[Bert]

If I'm not economy picking, my picking style tends to involve a lot of finger movement, whereas the Stetina book recommends picking mostly with wrist movements. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to work for me. I think once you've been doing something a certain way for a long time, it's extremely hard to change. My kids are taking music lessons now and even though their teachers are pretty lax about encouraging good technique, I am constantly on them about it. I know if they don't learn proper technique now it will be very difficult to improve later.

[Danno]

I think the whole idea with AP is that yes, it is difficult, but once you have it down, you never have to think about picking again, in many ways. For instance, with strong AP skills you can play whatever is coming out of your head right there on the spot (because everything is always D/U/D/U...) whereas with economy picking you kind of have to analyze the lick first to figure out who you are going to pick (i.e., which pattern of D/U or U/D is simplest for you to play). I'm not advocating either way (although I intend to go the AP route for myself), just saying that strict AP will free you up to improvise more easily. If you don't need to improvise to do what you do, then strict AP probably isn't that important.

[phill_up]

I do what is most efficient. There are no set rules.

Yeah but you have an extra finger!

[Danno]

Yeah but you have an extra finger!

Took me a bit, but I finally got it!

[phill_up]

the picture on his profile