# AI Wiki - Music - Picking Technique ## Overview Picking technique is everything the pick hand does with a plectrum: what pick you use, how you hold it, where the hand rests, which joint moves, and how the pick gets from one string to the next. It decides how clean, even, fast and dynamic single-note lines and riffs sound. This is the hub for pick technique. The individual systems have their own articles: | Topic | Where | |---|---| | Alternate picking basics, bends, slides, vibrato | [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Lead Techniques]] | | Economy, sweep, 3NPS alternate picking, tapping | [[AI Wiki - Music - Shred Techniques]] | | Pick plus fingers | [[AI Wiki - Music - Hybrid Picking]] | | Downpicking, tremolo picking, gallops | [[AI Wiki - Music - Metal Rhythm Guitar Techniques]] | | Palm muting and string noise | [[AI Wiki - Music - Muting Techniques]] | | Strumming with a pick | [[AI Wiki - Music - Strumming Patterns]] | What's here is what they share: pick choice, grip, anchoring, motion, string changes, accuracy drills and the faults that stop progress. ## Choosing a pick Picks vary in thickness, shape, tip and material. Wikipedia lists the usual thickness bands: | Band | Thickness | Typical use | |---|---|---| | Extra light | 0.44 mm or less | light acoustic strumming | | Light | 0.45–0.69 mm | strumming | | Medium | 0.70–0.84 mm | all-round | | Heavy | 0.85–1.49 mm | single-note lines, lead, metal riffs | | Extra heavy | 1.50 mm or more | jazz, fast lead, some bass players | A thin pick bends as it hits the strings, which smooths strumming but delays and softens single notes. A heavier pick doesn't flex, so its attack is immediate and its timing predictable: most lead players use 0.8 mm or more. **Shape.** The standard "heart shaped plectrum is pretty ubiquitous, and sometimes referred to as the 351 after its manufacturer number" (Roadie Music); it's the default starting point. The **[[AI Wiki - Music - Jazz Music|Jazz]] III** is smaller with a sharp tip and "allows for increased speed and precision", at the cost of a smaller surface to hold. The **teardrop** is rounder, "good for softer, mellow strumming". **Triangle** picks have three identical tips and a large grip area, popular in [[AI Wiki - Music - Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar|bluegrass]]. **Tip and bevel.** The bevel, "the sloping edges around that tip", "affects the plectrum's attack": sharper tips glide through the string with less resistance; rounded tips sound mellower. **Material.** Celluloid (the first plastic used, warm and vintage), nylon (flexible, often with a grip coating), acetal/Delrin (Tortex and similar: matte, durable, the most common today), plus metal, wood, stone, glass and others. Wikipedia notes metal "produce[s] a harmonically richer sound than plastic" and that wood usually sounds warmer. **What to buy as a returning player:** a mixed pack (one standard 351 at 0.7, 0.88 and 1.0 mm, plus a Jazz III type). Use a lighter one for strumming acoustic, a heavier one for single notes on electric, and give each a week before judging: a new pick always feels wrong at first. ## Grip The usual grip: the pick lies on the **side of the index finger's last joint**, the pad of the thumb presses it flat, and the pick points roughly at right angles to the thumb. Variants exist: Wikipedia mentions Eddie Van Halen holding it between thumb and middle finger, and three-finger grips (thumb, index and middle). - **Show little pick.** Two or three millimetres past the thumb is enough for single notes; more exposure means more flex and more chance of catching neighbouring strings. Strumming can use more. - **Grip pressure**: just enough that the pick doesn't rotate. A "death grip" spreads tension into the forearm and makes fast playing tiring. Many players grip harder for loud passages and looser for soft ones. - **Closed or open hand.** Curled spare fingers (a closed fist) keep them out of the strings and stabilise the pick; fanned fingers that brush the guitar body give a reference point. Both work. - **Angle.** Tilting the pick edge slightly in the direction of travel reduces scraping and resistance; a pick hitting the string flat sounds louder and fatter but catches more. ## Anchoring vs floating Where the hand touches the guitar changes accuracy and comfort: - **Forearm contact** on the body edge is almost universal; it sets the hand's position over the strings. - **Palm or heel of the hand** resting on the bridge or the strings near it: stable, and gives [[AI Wiki - Music - Muting Techniques|palm muting]] for free. - **Finger anchor** (little finger planted on the pickguard or body): a fixed reference that many players find helps accuracy, at the cost of some tension in the hand and a reach problem when moving across strings. - **Floating** (no contact except the forearm): freedom of movement and good dynamics, harder to keep accurate at speed. There is no consensus: fast players are found in every camp. A practical rule: some light contact (forearm plus the heel of the hand, or a light finger brush) gives a reference without locking the hand. If an anchor presses hard enough to whiten the fingertip, it's adding tension. ## Where the motion comes from The pick can be moved by several joints, alone or combined: - **Wrist**: the usual starting point; small, quick and controllable. Can move side to side (deviation, like waving a hand while the forearm stays still) or up and down (flexion and extension, like knocking). - **Forearm rotation**: turning the forearm as if turning a doorknob. Common in fast picking, often combined with wrist motion. - **Elbow**: the whole forearm moves from the elbow. Larger and less precise at slow tempos, but very fast and tireless for tremolo picking and some fast single-string lines. - **Fingers**: the thumb and index flex and extend the pick, alone or added to a wrist motion; common in jazz and "circle picking" styles. Troy Grady's Cracking the Code project, which films "exceptional players and researchers in close-up slow motion", found that players often use "movements the players themselves did not know they were making". Two practical consequences: what your hand feels and what it does may differ, so **film your picking hand** with a phone's slow-motion mode; and the motion that works at speed is often different from the one you use slowly, so test fast as well as slow. ## Picking systems | System | Strokes | Strength | Article | |---|---|---|---| | Alternate | strict D U D U | even rhythm, downbeats on downstrokes | [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Lead Techniques]], [[AI Wiki - Music - Shred Techniques]] | | Economy | alternate on a string, same direction across a string change | fewer motions with 3 notes per string | [[AI Wiki - Music - Shred Techniques]] | | Sweep | one stroke across several strings, one note each | fast arpeggios | [[AI Wiki - Music - Shred Techniques]] | | Hybrid | pick plus middle and ring fingers | string skips, double stops, country lines | [[AI Wiki - Music - Hybrid Picking]] | | Downpicking | every note a downstroke | heavy, even attack in riffs | [[AI Wiki - Music - Metal Rhythm Guitar Techniques]] | Most players mix them; the question is which is your default and which you reach for in specific spots. ## String changes: inside, outside and escape motion On one string, alternate picking is simple. The difficulty is the **string change**, because the pick has to get past a string it must not hit. **Inside and outside picking** describe which side of the two strings the pick attacks from: - **Outside picking**: both notes are struck from outside the pair. On the B and high E strings: downstroke on the B, upstroke on the high E. After the downstroke, the pick is in the gap between them and has to jump over the high E to strike it from below. - **Inside picking**: both notes are struck from the gap between the strings. Downstroke on the high E, upstroke on the B (or the reverse order). Many players find this harder at first: the pick feels "trapped" between the two strings. ```chords {title: Outside vs inside picking on the B and high E strings} {comment: Outside: downstroke on the lower string, upstroke on the higher one. 60 bpm, eighth notes} {start_of_tab} e|---5-----5-----5-----5--| B|5-----5-----5-----5-----| 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & D U D U D U D U {end_of_tab} {comment: Inside: downstroke on the higher string, upstroke on the lower one. Same notes, opposite order} {start_of_tab} e|5-----5-----5-----5-----| B|---5-----5-----5-----5--| 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & D U D U D U D U {end_of_tab} ``` **Escape motion** is Grady's explanation of how fast players handle this. His project introduced terms "including escape motion, pickslanting, stringhopping, edge picking, swiping" because the existing vocabulary couldn't describe what the cameras showed. In his definition, "an escape motion is a type of alternate picking motion that moves away from the body of the guitar", on a diagonal or semicircular path, which "allows the pick to *escape* from between the strings during part of its travel". Once the pick is above the string plane, it can move to any string without hitting anything. "Escaping is the principal method by which plectrum players avoid hitting unwanted strings during fast string changes." The motions are named by which stroke escapes: - **Downstroke escape (DSX)**: downstrokes leave the strings, so string changes happen after downstrokes. Grady names Al Di Meola, Andy Wood and Michael Angelo Batio. - **Upstroke escape (USX)**: upstrokes leave the strings; "in the motion of Yngwie, Benson, Johnson, and Django, upstrokes do the string switching". - **Double escape (DBX)**: both strokes escape, so the player can change strings after either one. - **Trapped** motion: neither escapes; the pick stays in the string plane, fine on one string (and the stroke of sweeping and swiping). Grady's earlier names for the single-escape motions were **pickslanting**: "upward pickslanting" for what is now DSX, "downward pickslanting" for USX. He moved to the escape terms because the pick's slant turned out to matter less than the path of the motion. The key consequence for practice: with a single-escape motion, "only every other pickstroke can switch strings", so picking every note needs "an even number of notes on every string". **Which stroke comes before the change matters more than whether it's inside or outside.** Two notes per string in a pentatonic box, starting on a downstroke, puts every string change after an upstroke (USX-friendly) in both directions, even though going up is inside picking and coming down is outside. Start on an upstroke and every change follows a downstroke (DSX-friendly). ```chords {title: Two notes per string in A minor pentatonic box 1} {comment: Starting on a downstroke: every string change follows an upstroke. Ascending these changes are inside, descending outside} {start_of_tab} e|------------------------------5--8--|8--5--------------------------------| B|------------------------5--8--------|------8--5--------------------------| G|------------------5--7--------------|------------7--5--------------------| D|------------5--7--------------------|------------------7--5--------------| A|------5--7--------------------------|------------------------7--5--------| E|5--8--------------------------------|------------------------------8--5--| D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U {end_of_tab} {comment: Starting on an upstroke: every string change now follows a downstroke} {start_of_tab} e|------------------------------5--8--| B|------------------------5--8--------| G|------------------5--7--------------| D|------------5--7--------------------| A|------5--7--------------------------| E|5--8--------------------------------| U D U D U D U D U D U D {end_of_tab} ``` If one version feels clearly easier at speed, you probably already have a single-escape motion; that's normal and many great players work within it, using economy or sweep strokes or [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Lead Techniques|legato]] for the changes their motion can't make. The **stringhopping** fault, Grady's term, is the opposite: hopping the pick over every string with an extra up-and-down movement added to each stroke, which works slowly and stalls at speed. ## Accuracy drills Short, specific, with a metronome ([[AI Wiki - Music - Metronome and Speed Building]]): 1. **One string, four-note bursts.** Four sixteenths on one note, then rest for a beat. Keep the rest: it lets the hand reset and makes each burst a clean target. Then move between notes. 2. **Two strings, both orders.** The inside/outside drill above, then the same with the strings one apart (G and high E): string skipping. 3. **Pentatonic two notes per string**, starting on a downstroke, then on an upstroke. 4. **Accent the beat.** Accent every fourth note, then every third (the accent wanders across downstrokes and upstrokes): it exposes weak upstrokes. 5. **Mute the fretting hand** (lay it across the strings) and pick the patterns as muted clicks: all attention on the pick hand. 6. **Chromatic 1-2-3-4** across the strings ([[AI Wiki - Music - Warm-Ups and Technical Exercises]]). ```chords {title: Four-note bursts on one string} {comment: Sixteenth notes, D U D U, then a beat of rest. Start at 60 bpm; the rest is part of the exercise} {start_of_tab} e|--------------------------------|5-5-5-5---------8-8-8-8---------| B|5-5-5-5---------8-8-8-8---------|--------------------------------| 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U {end_of_tab} ``` ## Building speed The general method (clean tempo, small steps, stop at tension, log the last clean tempo, short bursts near target speed) is in [[AI Wiki - Music - Metronome and Speed Building]]. Specific to picking: - **Use two kinds of practice.** Slow and exact, for timing and accuracy; and short bursts just above your comfortable speed, filmed, to find a motion that works fast. Cracking the Code's teaching argues that some efficient motions only appear at speed, so slow practice alone may never find them. The evidence for this is observational (filmed players and students), not controlled training studies. - **Speed comes from smaller motion and less tension**, not more effort. If you can hear the pick scrape or see the hand bouncing, reduce the motion. - **Synchronise the hands.** Many "picking" problems are timing between the hands: the pick arriving before the fretting finger. - **Log it.** In the Music Practice plugin, each drill can be its own exercise note: its speed trainer steps the metronome up towards a target tempo, and the logged BPM shows real progress across weeks. ## Common faults - **Death grip** and a tense forearm or shoulder. - **Too much pick showing**: catches strings, sounds sloppy. - **Big motions**: the pick travels far beyond the string. - **Weak, quieter upstrokes**: practise accented upstrokes. - **Stringhopping**: an extra hop on every stroke. - **Pick rotating** in the grip: grip pressure too low, or a slick pick (try a textured one). - **Hard anchor pressure**: whitened fingertip, tension. - **Speed before clean**: practising mistakes faster. - **Ignoring pain**: stop and rest ([[AI Wiki - Music - Ergonomics and Injury Prevention]]). ## Key Points - Pick: heavier (0.8 mm+) and sharper for single notes, lighter for strumming; a 351 is the default shape, a Jazz III the precision option. - Grip on the side of the index's last joint with the thumb pad; little pick showing; just enough pressure to stop rotation. - Anchor lightly or float; heavy anchors add tension. - Motion comes from the wrist, forearm rotation, elbow or fingers, often combined; film it, because feel lies. - Inside picking attacks two strings from between them, outside from outside them. - Escape motions (Grady): the pick path leaves the string plane; DSX changes strings after downstrokes, USX after upstrokes, DBX after either. - With a single-escape motion, which stroke precedes the string change matters more than inside/outside; even notes per string fit it. - Practise both slow and exact and short fast bursts; log the clean tempo. ## Open Questions - Which escape motion does Sébastien's picking hand use naturally? A slow-motion video of the two-note-per-string drill at speed would show it. - Is it worth building a double-escape motion as a returning intermediate, or is a single-escape motion plus economy and legato enough for the music he plays? - How strong is the evidence that burst practice finds efficient motions faster than slow practice? Grady's case rests on filming experts, not on training studies. ## References - Wikipedia, "Guitar pick": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_pick - Wikipedia, "Alternate picking": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_picking - Roadie Music, "Guitar plectrums part 3: shapes and bevels": https://www.roadiemusic.com/blog/guitar-plectrums-part-3-shapes-and-bevels/ - Troy Grady, "About Cracking the Code": https://troygrady.com/about/ - Troy Grady, "Escape Motion Reference", Cracking the Code: https://troygrady.com/reference/escape-motion-reference/ - Troy Grady, "Single Escape Picking", Cracking the Code: https://troygrady.com/reference/picking-style/single-escape-picking/ - Troy Grady, "Double Escape Picking", Cracking the Code: https://troygrady.com/reference/picking-style/double-escape-picking/ ## Related - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Lead Techniques]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Shred Techniques]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Hybrid Picking]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Metal Rhythm Guitar Techniques]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Muting Techniques]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Strumming Patterns]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Metronome and Speed Building]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Warm-Ups and Technical Exercises]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Ergonomics and Injury Prevention]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Recording Yourself]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Pentatonic Scale]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Electric Guitar]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Improvisation]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Gear Tips and Tricks]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Scale Systems]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Strings and Gauges]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Tips and Tricks]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Modes of Melodic and Harmonic Minor]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Motor Learning for Musicians]]