Rest stroke

Buco

Something that @stuology already said and I'd like to emphasize it as really important is whenever focusing on the right hand, make sure left hand task is as simple as you can make it so you don't need to think about it and the overall quality of practice is immediately going to be better.

Quality of practice is extremely important, you want to feed yourself with good stuff. In my previous job as audio video installer, the trade saying was "crap in/crap out". As in, you can have the best equipment in the world, if your source material is bad, the equipment isn't going to fix it, the end result will be bad. So, make sure whatever you do, you do it at a tempo where everything sings nicely. But you don't have to shy away from bringing things up tempo even if it doesn't sound perfect. Just don't stay there for a long time if it's not quality stuff.

One thing I'd have you try more than anything you can play to practice the rest stroke, be it exercises or something else, is to feel the weight and gravity in your hand as it descends. That's the main difference I notice with people who don't have it down. It's hard to describe or even demonstrate in person until you see the change yourself. I'm still working on it.

Try doing this: put the pick against the string. Any string/fret except the high e.

Then have the pick put pressure on the string, downward and towards the top at the same time.

Hold it like that for a few seconds

Then simply move the pick out of the way and let your hand drop and let the string below it catch and stop your hand.

That's how I see the basics of the rest stroke.

Eventually, and that's a beauty of it, this slow process starts happening while playing lots of notes up tempo.

pdg

Buco is absolutely right.

And the upstroke is very different -- a quick (when it's time for the note), but forceful, flick of the wrist. I think that the muscles involved in the upstroke are not much developed with ordinary picking. You can also practice "up down" instead of "down up" (up being on the beat), on one string, to develop the power of your upstrokes.

voutoreenie

Great advice in this thread! From my experience, it was mastering basic arpeggios that really reinforced the downstroke aspect in particular; pretty sure I posted the open-E ascending arpeggio exercise from Adrien in another thread, will look for it. Another exercise I really liked when first getting into the style is this somewhat cliche-sounding minor 6 arpeggio that starts on the high E string - here's the frets for it if playing over an Am chord (typical fingering that I use in parentheses, can easily be changed to incorporate the 4th finger if that feels more natural):

7, 10, 9, 8 - high e (1, 3, 2, 1)

10, 7 - b (3, 1)

9 - g (2)

10, 7 - d (3, 1)

9, 7 - a (3, 1)

8, 7, 5 - low e (3, 2, 1)

The entire exercise is alternate picking except for a double down stroke from the g string to d string and although you can play it "straight" rhythmically, it's intended to be played in triplets with the first note (b) as a lead in to the second (d) which falls on the 1st beat. The final note (a) on the low e string will end on the down beat and from there you can take it to the next chord or extend into a full a minor arpeggio to quickly ascend back to the high e string. I'm pretty sure I got it from a Christiaane van Hemert video, or at least something resembling it. It's also great to play over dominant 7th chords and with a simple few changes, great for 1/2 dim chords too.

Hopefully it's somewhat "legible" on the forum...wasn't sure how to post a tab lick, not very tech savvy so this was the compromise lol.

edit: screwed up one part of the lick explanation

voutoreenie

Also, the other lesson that's so important and one that Buco is describing so perfectly in his post above is the ultimate lesson every pro always tells us - RELAXATION. Quite frankly, you're not going to get very far in this without the right hand being relaxed as possible while still maintaining "proper" floating wrist form. And I put "proper" in quotes because we all have different hands, arms and bodies so the only important thing is to make sure you're keeping that wrist floating and relaxed; I mean, you might see players that have very similar looking right hands but make sure you're not emulating anyone to the point it's setting you back and/or causing any overt discomfort or worse, actual pain - although you'll certainly feel some degree of fatigue (especially at first) from playing through rest stroke exercises, I can't stress enough how important it is to keep in mind this shouldn't be hurting either and certainly not to the point of causing injury.

Buco

Basic arpeggios are a good way to go at it. I decided to learn the Montagne Ste Genevieve following this thread. I'm using Angelo's version to figure it out. Got through the first half. The second half, suppose that's the C section, was the one that always sounded intimidating while listening. We'll see how it goes. It's definitely chock-full of rest stroke practice opportunities.

dennis

I’ve never practiced generic exercises for developing picking technique, other than carefully observing my hands were going through the correct motions. I did that by practicing a lot in front of the mirror, making sure that my hands were efficient. I watched a lot of Stochelo Rosenberg videos to compare my right hand to as well.

As for what I practiced, I took phrases that I wanted to use, and if they were challenging, then I practiced those. Most importantly, I used them whenever I could in real playing situations so that in such situations, I was also practicing.

I think that’s how all my favorite players developed their technique as well. Not saying that generic exercises are bad, but just sharing my experience, and that of Stochelo, Jimmy, Bireli, Angelo, etc. 🥳. I think I have fairly decent technique!

I made a video about certain things that I did

https://youtu.be/Gei3u0qFzfs