[mapletrees]

shea...

what are you doing when you have this problem?....as in...what type of playing?...

reading music?

lead playing?

alternating between rhythm and lead?

trying to play arpeggios (pick across the notes of a chord individually) with a pick?

some of the above?
all of the above?
other situations?


is it an often-experienced problem?

do you anchor your picking hand in any fashion like Gordon suggested? Pinky against face? Palm on bridge? Anything is legal...and if it works....well yahoo!


irregardless...

some of the better guitar music reading books address this topic with specific picking exercises....the Berklee series for one...the music reading books I suggested in a different post (the Mastering the Guitar series...in its Technique Studies book in particular...I can't get in my closet and dig around this evening or else I'll wake someone up...I'll peek in the morning and make sure I'm giving the right books...impaired brain and all)

but...in general...

got a problem you're having trouble solving?

solve a simpler but related problem first....

..and no... I'm not a mathematician...


...but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...


Your problem is you want that darn pick to go to any string you tell it to (or in fingerstyle lets say your thumb...or the ring finger or whatever.......

well...simplify that problem (might as well make it musical as we can, too)...

oh...

before I forget to say it....

"Pedal tone", "pedal tone", "pedal tone"...seach that on the internet...you'll find tons of exercises...

but you can make your own...tons and tons of exercises....use major scales, major or minor pentatonic scales, blues scale, any of the modes....

ex) plain old C major scale....the notes CDEFGABC

the notes can be found here

x3xxxx - C

xx0xxx - D

xx2xxx - E

xx3xxx - F

xxx0xx - G

xxx2xx - A

xxxx0x - B

xxxx1x - C again (the octave)

again the basic problem is "want the pick to go to any string - and perhaps it too often doesn't"

simpler problem... Can you pick adjacent strings cleanly at will?...

another simpler problem ...Can you pick cleanly while skipping one string?

another simpler problem...Can you pick cleanly while skipping two strings...

you get the point...

try picking

CDCDCDCD....over and over..

the try picking

CDCE over and over...

then

CDCECF over and over

ready for the next string?...maybe you are...maybe you're not....who cares? master and move on....

maybe you decide on your own you should do

CCCD over and over first since the overpaid and incompetent instructor started you off with something too complicated...

maybe you next do

CCCDCECD over and over...

CCCDCECFCECD over and over....

brother can you spare a metronome?....

many people think using a metronome is going to make practicing things take forever...nothing could be further from the truth...

anyways..

next perhaps

CCCDCECFCGCFCECDCC over and over...

get it?

all the way up to

CCCDCECFCGCACBCwith the higher C.


you could vary this...

why not start with the high note?

how about only playing chord tones
ex) CC CE CG CC and back down?


etc.. etc.. etc..

ask ask ask if you don't follow...


any scale...starting from any point or string...

just don't muddle fuddle the exercise by trying to use a scale that's awkward for the fretting hand....