First Exercises, Pt. I - Open String Picking

       For a number of months I have been discussing basic concepts that guitar teachers should be able to incorporate into their first lesson with students. These concepts included: parts of the guitar, seating position, naming the strings, how to hold the pick, picking hand position and the three main types of picking. This month I’ll begin posting a series of effective exercises guitar teachers can use with their students to help develop picking technique and finger independence.

     The exercise below is used to develop pick technique and proper movement of the picking hand. The exercise is simple enough as it utilizes only open strings, the emphasis however, is not on “what to

 

 

do” but “how to do it”. Meaning, the palm should remain lightly anchored, moving from the wrist when picking and adjusting hand placement while moving from string to string. Additionally, the pick itself should be held straight to the string when picking and not angled.

                                                                                    Pick Held Straight to the String    

     The picking exercise above uses both down (1) and alternate-picking (2); make sure the student is comfortable down-picking before tackling alternate-picking. Moreover, regarding alternate-picking in this exercise, clarify with the student that when playing each string the first pick is always down and the last pick is always up. 

     The videos below show a cupped hand approach, the back of the    palm lightly anchored on the strings and the picking motion deriving from the wrist. As a player moves from one string to the next the hand slightly adjusts to accommodate picking that string. The palm remains lightly anchored on the strings the entire time, adjusting as needed until it reaches the 5th and 6th strings. At this time the palm will shift from the strings to the top of the guitar where it is again lightly anchored in order to maintain a continuous hand position on the lower strings.  

 

                                                Video #1: Open String Exercise Done with Down-Picking

 

                                                                                     Video #2: Open String Exercise Done with Alternate-Picking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building a Foundation, Pt. VI – Types of Picking

     In the June and July posts I discussed how to hold the pick with the fingers and various hand positions when picking. This month I’ll continue the topic of picking by outlining the three basic types: down, up and alternate. Of course I am aware there are other forms of picking such as sweep and hybrid, but these are technical aspects of playing beyond the scope of this post which are geared toward beginning students. 

     Down-picking as its name implies, is when the picking hand moves in a downward motion toward the floor.

 

 

 Conversely, when up-picking the picking hand moves in an upward motion toward the ceiling.

 

 

Alternate-picking is a combination of the two starting with a down-pick followed by an up-pick creating an alternating motion – down/up. 

 

 

Below are the symbols associated with each form of picking.

 

  

Next month I'll be discussing some simple picking exercises to give to beginning students. Enjoy!

Building a Foundation, Pt. V – Picking Hand Position

      Last month I discussed the different variants of how to hold the guitar pick; this month’s post will discuss hand position when picking. No matter how the student holds the pick, their hand position is generally adjusted over time for maximum effectiveness. To clarify, a picking hand position differs from a strumming hand position as the picking position is one the hand assumes when playing things such as individual notes, power chords or palm muting. Whereas, a strumming hand position is one the hand takes when playing multi-string chords such as the open “E” which requires all six strings. A player will need to master each position and easily switch between them depending upon the musical situations.     

      As an advanced player, my picking hand position leans back onto palm of my hand. The hand is anchored so that it has a stable base from which to play from resulting in an accurate pick attack and clearer, well defined notes. If the hand is not anchored and

Anchored Hand Position - best for individual note picking



 floats above the strings when playing, picking will become inaccurate and notes will not sound clearly. Although the floating hand may not be optimal for single picking and the like, it is the hand position of choice for strumming.

 

Floating Hand Position - more suited for strumming 

 

      For many students anchoring the hand from the palm is not a desirable position when they first start to play; therefore, I have them adopt a modified anchor position. In the modified anchor position the hand is anchored by the “extended” fingers of the

 Modified Anchor Position

 

fan formation (see June post on Pick Basics) as opposed to the palm. Then, over the course of weeks as a student develops picking facility the hand is gradually adjusted to the anchor position. Next, month I’ll be discussing the three basic types of picking that  beginning students will need to be familiar with– til’ then!