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Economy Picking And Intervallic Guitar Licks
Economy Picking vs Alternate Picking
Economy picking or alternate picking... Which style should you choose?
To me, it all depends on the tone and the sound I want to create. Economy picking, or sweep picking, creates a smooth legato type sound. Not as smooth as using hammer ons, pull offs, slides and other slurring techniques, although economy picking creates a smooth sound with a good attack, so it's great for playing dynamically.
Intervallic type guitar licks, on the other hand, are tricky to execute as you need to pick across the strings. Alternate picking, cross picking, or other styles can be used to execute intervallic licks smoothly. It's all about the tone and the sound you're trying to create, so I like to use all techniques at my disposal to create the musical result.
Technique is one of the main big three areas of guitar study. Good ears, technique and fretboard visualisation are key to becoming a great guitarist. These guitar licks will give you musical content which you can study to help in your playing, but don't forget to always analyse what you are doing.
If you would like more information and analysis of these licks, fill in your details below and you will be sent lick analysis and other free tools to help in your guitar playing.
4ths and 5ths Over Dm7 Guitar Lick
This fiddly little guitar lick, featuring 4th and 5th interval jumps should give you a bit of a technique challenge. Alternate picking is probably the way to go when trying to play this lick and create the desired tonal effect.
Some great ideas can be created when using 4th and 5th intervals on the guitar. They do however take a bit of practice to execute them clearly.
Bb Economy Picked Guitar Lick
As a young guitarist, I learnt economy picking, or sweep picking when figuring out how to play saxophone lines. When transcribing players such as Charlie Parker, certain phrases could only be played by using a sweep picking or economy picking technique.
D Minor Phrase
This repeating pattern can be expanded to last for as long as you would like the guitar lick to continue. This is a D blues scale guitar lick and can be easily incorporated into conventional blues scale licks and ideas.
Other free Guitar Lesson Material
Don't forget to grab the other free guitar lesson packs and the free mini course offered below. Train your ears for free with the easy to use ear training mini course and add guitar solo ideas, licks, bass lines, and chords to your guitar repertoire with the free guitar lesson packs. Backing tracks with and without guitar parts also included!
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