Question To all expert Pickers.Please Help

[xilofe]

I, I'm Marco from Italy, I'm new to this forum, hope someone would gently clear my doubts about picking technique. I've always used some sort of economy picking and legato approach, anyway not caring so much about my picking technique.I decided to develop my picking starting with alternate picking, but while excercising I noticed that as speed increases I couldn't be able to accent properly scale runs consisting of odd grouping of notes.Not much trouble with groups of 4 or 6 notes on a single string because each group starts with the same picking direction, but when 5, 7, or even triplets are involved each group starts with a different picking direction so ,as speed increases ,two adiacent groups tend to sound , like "joined" (5 becomes 10 and so on).. i.e. as speed increases I cannot displace the accent once with a downstroke and then with an upstroke.I tend to accent always the same picking direction.Is it normal ?How I should solve it?
Thank you very much.

[phantom]

hi marco!

welcome to ibreathe!

i suppose your prob is normal, and i guess you know which answer to expect:
practice slow an perfect, then speed it up with the metronome.
you have to get your fingers used to play accents in different picking directions.
if you practice concentrated and with open ears, you'll get rid of the prob for sure ;) .

[DemonSorcerer]

As usual, my friend Sven is right...

It's easier to accent the notes with a downstroke, just because that's what we usually do...also, because it's a lot easier to push against the string (downstroke) than pull the string upward (upstroke) As J. Petrucci, says, you just have to "practice the motion" till you get used to it...

Now, invert all your picking patterns...i'd suggest a chromatic, 4 notes per string that starts with a harder upstroke an alternate...practice that small sequence on any string yo prefer, and then apply it to the whole set of strings without stopping...get your metronome, set it on an easy tempo and DON'T FORGET THE FIRST UPSTROKE!!! as you take the sequence to the next string, you'll note that you have to be careful, as there's some cross picking involved....1string - 1up2dn3up4D - next string 1UP2dn... the thing here is to be careful not to hit as you pass the pick over the string to start with the accented upstroke...a la Paul Gilbert lick...

Godd luck with those upstroke accents, kiddo...

David