The three main picking styles are alternate picking, economy picking, and hybrid picking.
Alternate Picking.
Players like Steve Morse, Paul Gilbert and John Petrucci use alternate picking as their preferred picking style. It’s an easy system. If you pick down, then you pick up. If you pick up, then you pick down. No two down picks in a row. No two up picks in a row. The trick part is when crossing strings. If I play a string with a down stroke and then intend to play a note on the next string, it makes a lot of sense to use another down pick. With economy picking you would continue on the next string with the same picking direction. Where economy picking can be tricky is if you’re using a sequence like 3 note groupings. While economy picking will still work, it takes more planning out. Alternate picking is more machine like. It can be tricky crossing strings, but the picking direction is already planned out.
Economy Picking
Players like Frank Gambale, Marty Friedman, and Zakk Wylde use economy picking. Since economy picking uses economy of motion, blazing fast licks can be played with a lot of ease. Sweep picking is economy picking. Frank Gambale even came up with a way to play pentatonic scales with economy picking by taking the even numbered scale and altering it to an odd number of notes on each string making economy picking possible.
Hybrid Picking
While use a little by many, players like Brad Paisley, Johnny Hiland, and Jerry Donahue use it constantly in their style of playing. Hybrid picking makes crossing strings much easier and at the same time allowing a dynamic snap to the string if plucked hard enough. Hybrid picking is also another way to play chords. You can play fragments of it together or arpeggiate the chord.
Thumb Picking
Player like Brent Mason, Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Scotty Anderson and Tommy Emmanuel use a thumb pick. Playing with a thumb pick can be quite fun, but awkward if you’re use to a regular pick also known as a flat pick. The thumb pick can be used just like a flat pick, but you are able to let go of the pick to do finger style licks. Herco has a thumb pick that looks like a regular flatpick molded with a thumb pick. Fred Kelly has pick called a Bumblebee where the thumb bridge has been attached instead of molded. Chris Broderick uses a device called a pick clip which almost turns any pick into a thumb pick. I prefer Fred Kelly’s heavy slick pick.
What’s In The Video.
I go over all four picking styles listed above using a three note per string C major scale. In thumb picking section, I demonstrate some ideas commonly used on a thumb pick like open string licks, double stops, and my arrangement for the banjo part in “Rocky Top.”
