hand remains the same. So I have to get used
to reversing the picking pattern every three
notes, in relation to the consistent left hand.
This is almost as confusing to play as it
sounds, unless you listen to it and practice
it a lot. Then it becomes simple and rewarding. Let’s check out the notes in Fig. 2.
Fig. 3 is a version of the phrase with a
little bit of string skipping added for some
wider intervals on top. The picking remains
the same. The next example, shown in
Fig. 4, still fits over our I–IV progression,
™™
Fig. 3
44 &## oenoe#oeoenoe#oeoenoe#oeoenoe#oeoenoe#oe Fig. 3
but uses wider intervals to make it happen.
Again, I’m using alternate picking.
Because there was a lot of string skip-
ping in that last example, I thought that
it would be a good place to show where
economy picking specifically does not
work—because of the danger of running
into the unwanted skipped string. But no
theory can stand up unless you test it, so
I dove in and tried to use economy pick-
ing to see what would happen. And I was
treated to a great surprise! The “unwanted”
notes sounded really cool. Actually, I
muted them with my left hand, so they
became percussive ghost notes. The new
rhythm that came out in Fig. 5 by adding
these ghost notes was groovy and unique.
Let’s check it out.
™™ oeoe n oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe
˙
™
™
™
™ 45
7
45
5
45
7
45
5
45
7
™™ &## oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe
™™ oeoeoe n oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe
™
™ 11 12
14
11 12
12
11 12
14
11 12
12
11 12
14
™
™ 9 11
13
9 11
12
9 11
13
9 11
12
9 11
13
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
4 4 &##
≥≤ ≥≤
oe n oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe n oeoeoeoeoe
˙
5
55
≥≤ ≥≤ ≥≤ ≥≤ ≥≤ ≥≤
4
44
5
55
4
33
6
77
10 10
9
99
10
10 10
9
8
8
11
12 8
11
10
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
4 4 &##
≥ ¿≤
oe¿
≥
oeoeoe
¿oe oe oe¿oe
oeoe¿oeoeoe¿
oeoe
¿≤
3
3
7
7
5
5
X
X
4
4
X
4
6
˙
5
5
X
5
X
4
5
oeoe
&
##
oe
¿ oen oe oe¿ oe oe oe¿ oe
oeoe¿oeoeoe¿
9
9
12 12
10
10
X
X
9
9
X
9
11
10 10
X
10
X
9
