Guitar Lessons - Economy Picking Essentials

Bobby starts things off by showing us the mechanics of this great technique and explaining the difference between economy picking and alternate picking.

Next, Bobby shows us a few cool licks that share the same picking pattern. Dorian, blues scale and chromatic licks are covered and demonstrated up to speed using a metronome.

Now we look at the first of our fast economy picking runs.

Next, we take a look at playing fast scales using economy picking.

Now we look at a fast picking lick that races up the neck on the B and high E strings. You can play this type of lick on any group of 2 strings in any key, using any scale you wish, so there’s plenty of milage you can get from this idea.

Here’s a cool, fast picking run that swirls up and down, using a mixture of the blues scale and the dorian mode. Again, you can apply this kind of run to any scale in any key.

Next, we look at a cool, fast picking run spanning 3 octaves and shifting positions up the neck.

Here’s a cool ascending run which is mostly economy picked, but ends with a fast flurry of pull-offs and a slide for a smooth finish.

Next, we look at a fast ascending run that uses a pattern of 5 notes per string. However, it’s still possible to play this run over a 4/4 beat.

Now we look at a fast ascending run that uses a pattern of 7 notes per string. You may have encountered a similar lick in Bobby’s legato series, but this time we’re picking every note for a more aggressive sound.

Now it’s time to look at “Inside Picking”. One of the main reasons many guitarists favour economy picking over regular alternate picking is because “Outside Picking” (literally picking outside the strings) presents a bigger challenge when crossing strings. However, inside picking allows you to cross from one string to the next with a smaller range of motion. When mixed with sweep picking, inside picking makes it possible to play previously outside-picked runs with maximum efficiency. Here, we look at a fast ascending run that utilises this approach.

Continuing on from the previous lick, we now look at a decending run that mixes sweep picking with inside picking. We’re still picking every note (as we would do with regular alternate picking), but we’re now able to do so with a smaller range of motion from the picking hand, allowing us to play faster.

Now it’s time to look at several exciting licks that combine economy picking with hammer-ons, pull-offs, legato playing, string skipping and pentatonic ideas. These are stand-alone licks, so you don’t have to use economy picking to be able to play most of them. If you’re already an accomplished picker and you just want to dip into this series to learn some more tasty phrases and ideas, the last 3 lessons of this module are for you.

Now it’s time to look at several exciting licks that combine economy picking with hammer-ons, pull-offs, legato playing, string skipping and pentatonic ideas. These are stand-alone licks, so you don’t have to use economy picking to be able to play most of them. If you’re already an accomplished picker and you just want to dip into this series to learn some more tasty phrases and ideas, the last 3 lessons of this module are for you.

Now it’s time to look at our final lesson and learn more exciting licks that combine economy picking with hammer-ons, pull-offs, legato playing, string skipping and pentatonic ideas. These are stand-alone licks, so you don’t have to use economy picking to be able to play most of them. If you’re already an accomplished picker and you just want to dip into this series to learn some more tasty phrases and ideas, the last 3 lessons of this module are for you.

Have fun and happy picking!