Alternate picking question

[DepressedNazgul]

Hey, I've noticed that I pick much slower on the lower strings than the upper ones. For example, I can play the 1-2-3-4 chromatic exercise in more than 160 bpm on the upper strings, but on the lower strings it's less than 150 bpm.
Is this natural? If not, how can I improve it?

Second question - Is the pick's distance from the bridge supposed to affect the ability to play certain things? I mean, I feel that in some runs, I need to change my right hand's position like mad to keep with the picking.

Last thing - do you have any good inside/outside picking exercises? I don't want complicated string-skips, just some finger twisting (and pick twisting) runs on adjacent strings which can improve the picking mechanics.

Thanks :D

[Francious70]

A good outside/inside picking exercise that I've found is the intro to the Metallica song "Call of the Ktulu." It involves string skipping, but nothing to complicated.

But I'm just a novice, look around the site and check out some of Eric V's articles. He always had good exercises.

Paul

[Unhorizon]

Good tip Francis, Call of Ktulu's intro is a great picking exercise. Anyway, check out Difficult picking exercises and the Art of Picking articles on this site.

[Alan(Lost)]

Doing loads of exercises is great work, mainly if done with a metronome. All the articles on this site are great for this. But put it to use with actual music.

"Gilberto Concerto" by Paul Gilbert really gets the alternate picking working. It's a nice tempo so the outside picking isn't too difficult. It just takes a lot of learning, and the whole piece takes your through a huge variation of picking in a musical situation.

"Technical Difficulties" (Racer-X) is a great one for picking also. It's technically more difficult (:p) than Gilberto Concerto, but I really suggest working on it if you want to get good with picking.

As for your actual query about string thickness affecting picking, well if you understand that you have to make a greater movement to pick thicker strings, so it takes more time to cross over and back upon it which, when played among thinner strings, is just a different effect. To get the same attack, you have to just make a greater movement.

[metalisfun]

in reference to the last post i dont think thats his problem...
i have the same problem i think its more of a hand position thing, it seems like i have to move my wrist up so that the pick will be 'south' of the top of my wrist - if i pick with the pick 'north' of the wrist then there is much less speed and control. a solution, although one i dont like as its slow if you must return to the low string alot, is to rotate the wrist towards the guitar instead of having it parallel to the strings as you would when picking on higher strings.

[Alan(Lost)]

I think I know what you mean. I suggest using the forearm to direct your wrist to the strings you're playing. For me, I try to have the wrist angle to be the same while approaching all strings (unless it's on adjacent strings, where it's just quicker to focus on only the wrist).

[Gunnan]

I used to have a very similar problem with getting out of time when i would head into the low end of things, but then I read some article to do with relaxation of my hand, now at the time I didnt have the slighest Idea but after just sitting around playing some of the the first things I learned I relised that I had some serious muscle tension in my hand, upper back, neck, and brain.. So from that I conclucded that sounding like SRV had nothing to do with slamming the fretboard and getting all worked up in my head when it sounded like ..... Have a nice day. So just relax and dont think of them as thick strings is my advice..

[MSH1601]

This works for me


E-------------------------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------9-10----------
A---------------8-10-----8-10-----8-10----8-10-12-------12-
E----8-10-12--------12-------12-------12----------------------

E-------------------------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------9-10-----9-10-----9-10------
D----9-10-----9-10------9-10-12--------12--------12-------
A--------12--------12--------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------------

ETC up the scale and in different scale positions and back down in all scale positions.... As triplets' Demi semi's etc.