Picking Exercise - Alternate Doubles in Sequence

This pattern is a descending sequence of four notes in the key of G major with each note being picked twice.

This is a great workout for building coordination between right and left hands. The key to this exercise is that you are pushing your self both in picking precision in the right hand and scales and patterns in the left hand.

Keep in mind you are always maintaining alternate picking (up and down strokes). Try it starting with up picking on the downbeat and the next time start with the down stroke.

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So you can see the simple pattern taking place with the descending four note sequence. And instead of a straight sequence your are simply picking each note twice. Of course, the obvious thing is you want to continue this pattern all the way down the neck and then back up. And of course, you can do this in any key, I used G major in this case.


 Now here's the next frontier and this is very important - Instead of picking two times per note as above, try actually picking three times per note that way there are 12 notes per 4 note sequence. You will find you are having to actually pick much faster and your left hand will get slightly slower. Once you get this down go to four picks per note, etc. I actually go all the way to seven picks per note.


Lastly, go back to two picks per note, but this time change the number of notes in the descending sequence. A sequence of two, three, four, and five note patterns and beyond are possible.