Economy pick or alternative pick??

[Pablo De Miguel]

I´ve seen in some places that is better to practice economy pick because you are practicing sweep picking and alternative picking at the same time, but i´ve seen in the lessons that Papa Gates start focusng on alternative picking and then he start teaching economy picking.
What should I do, master alternative picking and then economy picking or maybe I can practice the both techniques at the same time????

 

[idssdi]

I would go for both because for me economy picking only works for me when there is an oddys number of notes per strinog and since you probably sometimes need to play 1 an even number of notes per string it is nice to have some alternate picking Skills too

 

[Cedric L]

I first learned Economy Picking. But many people say that you should first learn Alternate Picking.
I think you can learn both at the same time. Change the technique in every solo like Ids said. There are solos which are better for Alternate (like Scream) and there are solos for Economy (like Hail To The King).

 

[Pablo De Miguel]

thank you very much

 

[Brian Haner Sr.]

Hey Pablo,
They are both important. There’s no harm working on both at the same time.

 

[Romain Tassan]

In my opinion it depends on the lick you’re trying to play. There are some stuff that you’ll be forced to play with economy picking. But alternate picking is a more natural gesture to make at the beginning.

 

[Art Kalenda]

I ageee with Romain.Alternate picking is definitely more natural in the beginning for sure.

 

[Hector Trejo]

I’d learn alternate picking first and then add economy picking to your tool belt! A bit hypocritical for me to say though because for some odd reason, when I’m going from the low to high strings, I alternate pick. When I go from high to low strings, I economy pick. I didn’t even know I had that habit until a few years ago.