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This lead guitar lesson will focus on the commonly used picking techniques used to play guitar solos. Understanding when and how to use a particular picking technique is an important skill in lead guitar playing.

In this lead guitar lesson, three picking techniques will be discussed. These include downpicking, sweep picking and alternate picking. Each technique will be better suited to a certain phrase of music and will reflect individual preferences and styles of playing.

As the name suggests alternate picking involves an alternating pattern of up and down strokes. So, for example to play the C major scale using three notes per string, using alternate picking, we first start with a downstroke on the C note. Next, an upstroke on the D note followed by a downstroke on the E note. We then move to the A string where the F note is an upstroke followed by a downstroke on the G note and then an upstroke on the A. We simply continue with alternating up and downstrokes to complete the scale. The advantages of alternate picking are that the up and downstrokes help us stay in time and maintain a consistent rhythm with our playing. There is a better economy of movement using the alternate picking technique over using just purely down strokes. This will translate to greater speed, potentially double the speed compared to just using purely down strokes. This lead guitar lesson aims to emphasise the importance of this style of picking.

A style of picking less commonly used in lead guitar playing is sweep picking. This too has its advantages when implemented in a certain context of playing. Sweep picking is a continuous stroke over many strings in one single movement. It is similar to playing a chord, but without letting the notes ring out. This style of picking is used with one note per string with the next note on the adjacent string. Sweep picking enables the best economy of movement when crossing consecutive strings by allowing the pick to travel the least amount of distance in order to hit the notes.

When playing lead guitar, one often starts out using purely downstrokes. This will often enable a steady and accurate production of notes at the expense of speed. Using the alternate picking technique in the same situation will effectively halve the stroke movements, potentially doubling the speed.

When learning lead guitar it is important to practice propper picking technique. A good starting place is to repeat a scale pattern using purely alternate picking. Gradually increase your speed as you improve but not to the point in which your playing gets sloppy. As you practice this type of exercise, your timing, rhythm and precision will improve which will be greatly beneficial to your lead playing. An important lead guitar lesson tip is to start slowly and to always use a metronome to stay in time.

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