Economy Picking may be a crap sounding name (guitar techniques for for the poor, anyone ?) but it is definitely NOT a crap technique. I love it, many other famous guitar players love it. Let me tell you why you should be using this... errr... tool in your guitar playing.
Pictured: A tool
To understand economy picking you first need to understand alternate picking. If we were to take an average sextuplet run in Bm, you would alternate each pick stroke no matter whether you were on the same string or changing string. Whether you began on a downstroke or upstroke you will still maintain the alternating feature of this technique. Take a look at the pick stroke symbols underneath the tab:
Ok, so we're familiar with what alternate picking is, yeah ? Cool, let's mess around a little.
Economy picking is still alternate picking when played on the same string. It still makes use of alternating up / down pick strokes. However,
it only becomes economy picking when there is a change from one string to another. Instead of automatically picking the opposite stroke, you follow the direction of the pick and sweep through the strings. Look at this same Bm lick now played with economy picking. See those downstrokes side by side ? They are
not played as separate downstroke. That is essentially a mini
sweep. You would push the pick down through to the next string.
The 3 note pattern allows us to play 2 alternating pick strokes and then on the 3rd note our pick is facing the same way that we started. So we can use this to push the pick through and down to the next string. (literally down towards the floor.. but in guitar speak, we would be ascending) This means we can repeat the D, U, D pattern on the next string and the next...
Using downstrokes to sweep through the strings is how we use economy picking to move to a higher string when ascending. Got that ?
Ok, let's look at a descending lick:
You'll notice that we start on an upstroke. This is because, after 3 notes, the pick will face up again and we need it facing up so that we can push the upstroke through onto the B string. Get it ?
Using upstrokes to sweep through the strings is how we use economy picking to move to a lower string when descending. These 3 note ascending and descending scale runs are the more simple side of economy picking. Things get more complicated when you start changing the number of notes on a string, combing odd and even note groupings. The bottom line is that you've got to start working it into your own licks and seeing where economy picking may work for you and, also as importantly, when it won't.
The thing about economy picking is that, sometimes, it's more beneficial to miss the occasional pick stroke out and play a hammer-on or pull-off in order to maintain your economy picking motion. You'll discover these situations as you progress in this technique but I've just given you the basics to be getting on with now.
So, if you wondered how Yngwie gets his runs to sound a lot more flowing and off kilter than people who pick every note, then this is why !
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