Picking?

252hardt

So, I've been studying Stephane Wrembel's Getting Into Gypsy Jazz Book, which is great. However, there are some things that concern me about the picking. In the book he says that downstrokes must be:

at the end of a phrase
when starting a new string

I understadn this but in his examples there are downstrokes at the 1, 2, 3 , 4 beat of the measure. Is this right? I am trying to pick and get the best technique I can. Also, how is the downstoke system used in relation to hammer-ons etc.

Thnaks

Tele295

Yes, that is correct. Downstroke whenever possible.

BluesBop Harry

Get the book "Gypsy picking" and that will get you going and answer your questions

Jon

Tele295 wrote:

Yes, that is correct. Downstroke whenever possible.

And sometimes even when it seems impossible

Jon

Bones

True that, Jon!

Hemert

It depends a bit on the style you're going for. French style uses a lot of alternate picking on the same string (not related to down beats by the way). In the Dutch style you only play an upstroke if you absolutely must which is about 10% to 20% of the time. Dutch players are among the fastest in the world so speed won't suffer with that system and you'll gain lots of power and precision.