Alternate picking on guitar: technique, examples and exercises

What it’s for

Play everything with downstrokes and your hand makes one useful trip down and one empty trip back up. With alternate picking, the trip back plays a note too. You cover half the distance for the same number of notes, and your hand keeps the same swing as when you strum: down on the beats, up in between.

It’s the foundation of playing with a pick, from your first solo to fast sixteenth-note runs. Al Di Meola’s and Paul Gilbert’s lines are built on it, and so is bluegrass flatpicking, from Doc Watson to Tony Rice. Surf rock takes the idea all the way: a single note, picked back and forth as fast as possible.

Strict alternate picking has no exceptions: even when the next note is on another string, the direction changes. That’s what makes it so even, and what makes string changes take some work.

How to do it

Hold the pick between the pad of your thumb and the side of your index finger. Let only 2 or 3 mm of the tip stick out.
Move from your wrist, not your whole arm: a tiny motion, barely past the string in each direction. The pick stays close to the strings.
Pick down on the beats, up between the beats. In eighth notes: D on “1, 2, 3, 4,” U on the “ands.” In sixteenths, D on the beats and the “ands,” U on the notes in between.
Keep alternating when you change strings. If the last note on one string was a downstroke, the first note on the next string is an upstroke, and vice versa. Sometimes the pick has to hop over a string: that’s normal.
Sync your hands. Your fretting finger lands just before the pick hits the string, not at the same moment.

Holding the pick

The pick rests on the side of your curled index finger.
Your thumb lies flat on top, without squeezing hard.
Only two or three millimeters of the tip stick out (about an eighth of an inch).

In standard notation or tab, a ⊓ above a note means “downstroke” and a V means “upstroke.” On this site, we just write D and U in the text. With strict alternate picking, they’re often left out altogether: they take care of themselves.

Examples

The example at the top of the page plays every note twice: D U, D U… going up the B and high E strings, then back down to the A on the D string. The downstroke always lands on the beat.

At the intermediate level, groups of three notes as triplets, in position 1 of the A minor pentatonic. With three notes per beat, the direction flips on every beat: D U D, U D U, D U D… Every other beat starts with an upstroke, and that’s where you find out if your alternation holds up.

e|-------------------------------------------5-|
B|-----------------------------------------5---|
G|-----------------------------5---5-7-5-7-----|
D|-----------------5---5-7-5-7---7-------------|
A|-----5---5-7-5-7---7-------------------------|
E|-5-8---8-------------------------------------|

At the advanced level, the A minor scale with three notes per string, in sixteenth notes, up six strings and back. Three notes per string is an odd number: the next string always starts the other way (D U D, then U D U). On the B and high E strings, your hand shifts up one fret.

e|--------------------------------7-8-7--------------------------|
B|-------------------------6-8-10-------10-8-6-------------------|
G|-------------------5-7-9---------------------9-7-5-------------|
D|-------------5-7-9---------------------------------9-7-5-----7-|
A|-------5-7-8---------------------------------------------8-7---|
E|-5-7-8---------------------------------------------------------|

Licks

Bluegrass. Flatpicking, bluegrass guitar played with a pick, uses strict alternate picking: down on the beats, up in between. Here in G, in first position with open strings, and a little chromatic walk-down (B, B flat, A) that leads back home to G.

Loop it in the Studio →

e|-------------------------------|
B|-----0-1-3-1-0-----------------|
G|-0-2-----------2---------------|
D|-----------------4-2-0---------|
A|-----------------------2-1-0---|
E|-----------------------------3-|

Metal. A pedal tone: the open low E, muted, comes back every other note, and the melody plays on the same string. The E always gets a downstroke, the fretted note always an upstroke. It ends on a ringing E5.

Loop it in the Studio →

   PM  PM  PM  PM  PM  PM  PM  PM  PM  PM  PM  PM
e|---------------------------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------------------------|
D|-------------------------------------------------2-|
A|-------------------------------------------------2-|
E|-0-3-0-2-0-3-0-5-0-3-0-2-0-7-0-5-0-8-0-7-0-5-0-3-0-|

Jazz. A swung eighth-note line over a ii-V-I in C: a Dm7 arpeggio, a run down over G7, landing on C. Swing doesn’t change your picking: D on the beat, U on the short eighth.

Loop it in the Studio →

e|---------8-7---------------------|
B|------10-----10-8----------------|
G|-7-10-------------10-9-7---------|
D|-------------------------10-9-10-|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

Practice routine

Metronome at 60 bpm. On the open G string, play four notes per click (sixteenths): D U D U. The D lands on the click.

One minute on one string, no mistakes, watching your picking hand: keep the motion small;
then the intermediate example, in triplets, three notes per click: check that every other beat really starts with an upstroke;
then the scale from the advanced example, four notes per click, up and down.

Only go up 5 bpm after a clean minute, and no more than three steps per session. Goal: clean sixteenths at 100 bpm, then 120 bpm. The Strict alternate picking and speed lesson walks through this method.

Common mistakes

Starting with a downstroke on every new string? It’s the most common habit. Keep alternating even when you change strings, and say “down, up” out loud while you play slowly.

Pick catching on the string? Too much tip is sticking out, or you’re hitting the string flat. Let 2 or 3 mm show and tilt the pick slightly so it glides over the string.

Arm tensing up as you speed up? Your motion is getting too big. Shrink it to the minimum, relax your shoulder, and drop 10 bpm.

Some notes sound doubled or choked? Your fretting hand is behind your picking hand. Slow down until each finger lands just before the pick strikes.

Variations

Tremolo picking. A single note, picked down and up as fast as you can: it’s the sound of surf rock, and of metal guitars sustaining a melody.

All downstrokes. The opposite: every note picked down, for a heavier, more even sound. Lots of eighth-note metal riffs are played this way, if your wrist has the stamina.

Economy and sweep picking. When you change strings, the pick keeps going in the same direction instead of alternating. Less even, but more efficient: see economy picking and sweep picking.

Fingerstyle. Alternation works without a pick too: index, middle, index, middle, never the same finger twice in a row.

Acoustic or electric

On an acoustic, the strings are heavier and under more tension. Use a slightly thicker pick (0.7 to 1 mm) and a slightly firmer stroke. Listen to your upstrokes: they often come out weaker, and you need to even them out.

On an electric, the action is low and the strings are light: your motion can get tiny. With distortion, every stray noise comes through. Mute the strings you’re not playing with your palm and the free fingers of your fretting hand.

Going further

The Strict alternate picking and speed lesson, with the +5 bpm method.
The Sixteenth notes lesson, to place your downs and ups in time.
The A minor pentatonic and the A natural minor scale, the scales used in the examples.
Economy picking, string skipping and palm muting.