Rest picking in reverse

kellysedars

Hey guys, I have a question that others may have asked...and it's hard to explain... but I've been practicing triplet patterns in the Gypsy Fire book and I'm having a little trouble maintaining the same speed with playing triplets when changing strings going back up (from high e to low e) as I do going down. It just seems like at fast tempos, switching to another down stroke and moving to a string above, makes a necessary and uncomfortable lag in playing versus going the other direction when you can just push down through the next string. I hope this makes sense to somebody.

I guess to simplify it, when I do a down-up-down then switch strings backward, I do another down-up-down. So, at the time of the string change, I am basically playing a downstroke on each string. When I try to do just this alone cycling back through the strings (going from high to low e with just downstrokes), I cannot possibly play that as fast as I can playing from low to high e with downstrokes. Of course, I can play the same if I do upstrokes all the way back...but this is not the "correct" way. Is there an alternative, or a trick to making this go faster at the faster tempos? Thanks in advance!!

MichaelHorowitz

Hi Kelly,

This is one of the problems everyone has.....it's really just practice. You'll get faster at the consecutive downstrokes. It just takes time...


good luck!

-Michael

neill

Yes, I often got confused by this too.. I think it is important to remember that rest stroke always means resting on the string below whether you are going up or down the strings... it doesn't work in reverse.. and yes it does take lots of practice.. I found that a drummer friend of mine found it fairly easy (the movement anyway) and that it feels the same when practicing all those weird a-diddles that they do.. I find practicing triplets going down the strings is beneficial although you get a sore wrist! I even do it without guitar sometimes! Anyway I'm sure those gypsies have got an extra bone or something!