Picking Individual Strings (Guitar Lesson BC-166) Guitar for beginners Stage 6

This is Stage 6, Lesson 6 of Justin's Beginner Guitar Course.

This video introduces the idea of playing up and down picks on individual notes, as preparation for playing alternate picking.

The Justinguitar Beginners Guitar Course, a series of over 100 lessons on guitar for beginners. Text support is on the web site and also in a proper old skool paper book which can be ordered from the web site of your local music store :)

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

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To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

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Have fun :)

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Hi, how are you doing, Justin here

In this lesson I'm going to be talking about a really basic picking exercise

to get you used to the idea of picking one string at a time

because we are about to start looking both at a strumming pattern,

that involves picking one note at a time

and also picking out your first scale

So, just as a a little kind of precursor to that I wanna show you a good little exercise

just to get used to the idea of picking one string at a time, because so far all we've done is strumming

So, what we are going to be doing is we are going to be doing a down pick on every string,

an up pick on every string,
then a down and an up pick on every string,

and then down, up, down, up on every string

Now, a really important technique that you want to get used to first, is this idea of an anchor,

which is putting your little finger down,

just at the bottom underneath the strings,
near the thinnest string

It doesn't have to be rigid,
it's not supposed to be straight,

it can a little bit curved,
it can be relaxed, it's just about the touching

Now, there's a lot of debate in the guitar community,

as to whether using an anchor for
picking is a good idea or not

I do it, most of the guys that I know
that I really like use a little finger anchor,

but there are some really fantastic guitar players that don't

So, a little bit is down to your preference

What I'd recommend is that you start
by using an anchor with your little finger,

see how you get on, and if you don't,
maybe try another method

But, I think this is the method that works for
most people most of the time,

but it's definitely not the only way, and so,
if you learned another way,

or you know a great guitar player, or your favorite guitar player does it another way,

then, feel free to do it whatever way you like

Just, I'd recommend this way as a starting point

So, put your little finger anchor down the bottom there,

and then what we're gonna do,
we are just gonna pick each string with a down motion.

Now, I'm gonna leave my hand covering the guitar neck like this, just so all the strings are dead

because I don't want them ringing out,
it sound horrible when you have all strings ringing out

and this way as well you can practice if your partner or your parents or whatever are watching television

you can probably get away with doing this picking exercise without giving them the heebie-jeebies

So, lets have a look at doing this exercise,
part one will be all down picks,

so just picking from the thickest string, fifth, fourth, three, two, one

back down, two, three, four, five, six

Maybe do that one again

. . .

Then all up picks, up, up (plays)

Just getting used to what it feels like to be doing an up pick each time

leaving your little finger anchored down all the time

Let's do that one again

You do this as slowly as you feel like to get it accurate,

because accuracy is the key here, not doing it fast.

Then we'll do a down and an up on each note, so down, up

down, up, next string, down, up, next string,
down, up, next string...

and down, up

if you can, try to do it evenly like I
'm doing here where you are going:

down, up, down up (plays)

You could do it with a metronome if you you wanted to,

but maybe at this early stage it's better
just to be doing it as an exercise

because all I'm trying to get you used to is the picking

And then last we are going to do four picks on each note, so:

1, 2, 3, 4,

.down, up, down, up,

..down, up, down, up,

. . .

down, up, down, up,

.1, 2, 3, 4,

..1, 2, 3, 4,

. . .

..nearly finished

. . .

Now, this is a really super simple picking exercise,

it's not one you are going to be doing for very long,

just maybe a few weeks are whatever,
until you get to the next stage,

and we start looking at more creative ways of
practicing your picking,

and learning a new scale at the same time

But it works as a really good introduction,
just to get used to the idea of using the anchor,

and of getting your picking single strings
kind of under your fingers,

so it doesn't seem too foreign when we start playing scales

So, I hope you found that a helpful little exercise,

and I'll see you for another lesson sometime real soon,
bye bye!