My Addiction To Alternate Picking? (Syn, PG Advice Would Be Amazing)

[Jak Angelescu]

I have been working on the HTTK solo, and I cannot get a certain part faster than 70%. So I watched Syn on like 23420398432098423 live videos, and I think the part I’m having trouble with, his right hand is doing something different than mine. I’m alternate picking everything, and when I watched him I think he’s doing economy picking. Which, because I was never good with sweeping I avoided it at all cost. The video moves so fast that it’s hard to really detect what he’s doing but I’m pretty sure he’s not alternate picking it. I’ve relied on alternate picking 100% of my life of playing and just recently with this school I’m learning how much I really need to stop relying on it, as it may be limiting me. Can anyone help me with the part at 3:28-3:35 on Hail To The King and tell me if it’s economy?

 

[idssdi]

Economy picking is a very good thing to increase speed. Personally I pretty always have economy picked every 3 note per string thing.
Maybe practicing 2 or 3 string sweeps might help with economy picking
Hope this helps

 

[Guest]

When I play that section between 3:28 – 3:35, its very natural to economy pick it! and I hated economy picking before I joined this online school. As I mentioned in a previous message I think the majority of that solo in particular is economy, but yeah, would be good to see what Syn would say about it, cause though I’m comfortable with alternate picking, economy seems to work fluently here!
PS I LOVE economy picking now haha.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Thanks @ben! It looks like it’s back down to 50% speed for me again until I get this right! I appreciate it so much, buddy!

 

[Lauren Morales]

When I play that section I use aconomy picking.

 

[D K]

Yes i’m almost 100% sure that part is economy picked, I’ve been practicing that solo recently and that particular part feels very smooth with economy picking. I also rely a lot on alternate picking, but recently I’ve been realizing that economy picking might actually be the better option for me.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Thank you guys! When would it be appropriate to use economy picking versus alternate picking? I’ve been finding myself trying to apply economy picking when going cross string. But sometimes it just doesn’t feel very comfortable. Is there like a kind of standard protocol that makes it preferable to economy picking in a certain situation?

 

[idssdi]

@jak for me it is any odd number of notes per string really

 

[Brian Haner Sr.]

Yeah, that sounds like economy to me. Which makes sense, considering Syn economy picks 95% of the time. At least he used to.
Anytime you have 3 notes per string when playing really fast, it makes sense to economy pick.

 

[idssdi]

@brian I thought so! I guess I’m not wrong with my habits

 

[Daniel Bernard]

It’s all economy picking. Once you play it with economy picking you realise that it was basically designed with economy picking in mind lol, it’s almost one big sweep motion, very satisfying to play. Good luck and thanks for your video on the intro, I wasn’t playing it like that but now I am

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Wow… This is the best school I could ever be a part of. No egos whatsoever. Thank you, Papa Gates for clarifying what Ids said. I’m almost to the intermediate section of the school and I’m really looking forward to learning that more proficiently. @daniel you are so right! I actually got it up to 100 BPMs in just an hour today alone! I’ve been practicing it at 70 for three weeks and couldn’t get faster at all so this thread really helped!
I’m glad the video helped you

 

[idssdi]

@jak I’m not sure wether this is a general thing but economy picking helps me out a lot in gypsy jazz as well! Especially in add9 arpeggios. Not aure whether you are even interested in Gyosy jazz but The Hail To The King Solos always steuck me as a bit of a gypsy jazz solo over a metal backingtrack. Also please don’t ket not being able to do all the crazy five string sweeps keep you downm if you’re able to do 2 and 3 string sweeps you’ll probabky be abke to get it pretty soon!

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I love this solo. It’s funny because I feel I dont alternate pick enough personally. It’s not that I cant do it I just find when I play slower I just never do it. lol

 

[Jake Young]

I think it’s been established that’s it’s economy hah But about “economy picking”.. I’ve been playing for about 18 years now and had never heard about that style of picking until I stumbled across the masterclass video of Syn. So I decided to dig a little deeper..its definitely tricky at first but once it became more of a muscle memory type thing my speed increased sevenfold (see what I did there hahah)..really actually more like 10 fold. But now after using mainly economy for speed licks for the last 3 or 4 years, it’s hard to go back and use good ol alternate. My hand/mind automatically does economy..which is a good and bad thing. You should definitely dabble in the economy technique though..especially if you’re into learning Syn’s solos..just like every new technique, it’s tricky at first but you’ll get it!

 

[D K]

I posted a video of me playing HTTK solo at different speeds, just for fun. The way I play it is probably not entirely how Syn plays it, but maybe it can help people.
Hail to the King solo practice (50%-100% orginal speed)