Economy picking
Encyclopedia
Economy picking is a guitar-playing technique
Guitar picking
Guitar picking is a collection of techniques for setting a string into motion to produce an audible note; that is, plucking or strumming the strings on a guitar. Picking can be done:-* With a plectrum held in the hand...

 for a guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 who uses a pick
Plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick, and is a separate tool held in the player's hand...

. A hybrid of sweep picking and alternate picking
Alternate picking
Alternate picking is a guitar playing technique that employs strictly alternating downward and upward picking strokes in a continuous run, and is the most common method of plectrum playing...

, economy picking involves using alternate picking except when changing strings. In this case the guitarist changes to sweep picking, picking in the direction of travel: an upstroke if changing to a lower (pitch) string, a downstroke if changing to a higher (pitch) string. The aim is to minimize movement in the right hand, and avoid the motion of "jumping" over a string prior to picking it, as often occurs in alternate-picking. Thus the picking pattern of an ascending three-note-per-string scale would be: D-U-D-D-U-D-D-U-D, and the descending pattern would start just like alternate picking
Alternate picking
Alternate picking is a guitar playing technique that employs strictly alternating downward and upward picking strokes in a continuous run, and is the most common method of plectrum playing...

 (up stroke first): U-D-U-U-D-U-U-D-U-U.

History of economy/sweep pickers

Using two or more downstrokes or upstrokes in a row to execute lines had been a technique used in jazz at least since the 1950s, but it is Frank Gambale
Frank Gambale
Frank Gambale is an Australian jazz fusion guitarist. He has released eleven studio albums over a period of more than two decades, and is renowned for his use of the sweep picking and economy picking techniques.-Recording career:...

 an Australian guitarist who is probably the most widely known economy/sweep picker. Frank brought his technique to American in 1982 and had a huge influence on the Heavy Metal community first as a student (graduating with high honors) and then as a teacher at the GIT (Guitar Institute of Technology) part of MI (Musicians Institute of Technology) in Hollywood California. Frank was the first player to fully develop this technique and apply it to all scales and arpeggios. Frank uses a system of an odd number of notes to move up or down through the strings and an even amount of notes to change direction, Frank makes this observation in his instructional books and videos. This approach has had some criticism as Frank will skip a note in a scale or add a chromatic note to ensure an even amount of notes to facilitate changing direction. Therefore the scale is no longer purely ascended and descended An alternative approach that maintains the purity of the scale and satisfies the even number of notes rule to change direction is to ascend one 3 note per string shape and then descend then next. This way there are 4 notes played in total on the high E string and the Low E String. These two shapes can be cycled making a repetitive exercise for economy picking.

Yngwie Malmsteen can be heard using sweep picking in his 1978 Demo "Powerhouse", Yngwie sent his demo to Mark Varney of shrapnel records. Mark invited Yngwie to come out to California, Yngwie made the trip from Sweden in late 1982 and joined the band Steeler, who were under the sharpnel records label. Yngwie was playing live in the LA scene with Steeler in 1983.

Gambale and Malmsteen share credit for introducing sweep picking to LA guitar players and ultimately, to the rest of the world.

Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...

 Can be see performing economy/sweep picking in this 1953 video at 1:10

Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson is an American guitarist. Though he is best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, gospel and country and western music into his recordings...

 This technique can be heard in songs like "Cliffs of Dover"

Jan Akkerman
Jan Akkerman
Jan Akkerman is a Dutch guitarist. Akkerman is a distinctive guitarist, constantly experimenting with new equipment and guitars. Akkerman's distinctive guitar sound is characterised by his pioneering use of volume swells which produce a smooth, fluty, sustained tone, and other complex techniques...

 guitarist of the Dutch band Focus can be seen executing a swept arpeggio on the NBC show "Midnight Special" October 5th 1973 during a performance of the Focus song "Hocus Pocus" at 2:53

Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

 can also been seen performing 5 string sweeps in an 1975 performance of "Jerry's Breakdown" with fellow country picker Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...

 at 1:13

Yngwie Malmsteen makes extensive use of sweep picking in his 1984 release "Rising Force" as does Vinnie Moore
Vinnie Moore
Vinnie Moore is a guitarist and a member of the English hard rock band UFO. Along with Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, and others, Moore is known as one of the most influential guitarists to emerge out of the shredder boom in the mid 1980s.-Biography:Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware...

 in his 1986 release "Mind's Eye"

Michael Angelo Batio
Michael Angelo Batio
Michael Angelo Batio also known as Mike Batio or MAB, is a guitarist and columnist from Chicago, Illinois. His work has encompassed many genres, notably metal and its subgenres. Batio was voted the "No. 1 Shredder of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine in 2003...

 uses a mixture of alternate picking and economy picking in his style as does Jeff Loomis
Jeff Loomis
Jeff Loomis is an American musician, best known for his role as lead guitarist in the progressive metal band Nevermore.-Early days:...



A common modern metal style is the use of alternate picking for scales and sweep picking for arpeggios, pioneered by Shrapnel Records
Shrapnel Records
Shrapnel Records is a guitar-oriented record label started in 1980 by record producer Mike Varney. Guitarist Marty Friedman , one of the label's most successful artists, first appeared on the album Unsung Guitar Heroes II in 1980 with the band Vixen. Vixen would later change their name to Hawaii...

 artists like Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore
Vinnie Moore
Vinnie Moore is a guitarist and a member of the English hard rock band UFO. Along with Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, and others, Moore is known as one of the most influential guitarists to emerge out of the shredder boom in the mid 1980s.-Biography:Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware...

, Paul Gilbert
Paul Gilbert
Paul Brandon Gilbert is an American guitarist. He is well known for his technical guitar work with Racer X and Mr...

, Bruce Bouillet
Bruce Bouillet
Bruce "Einstein" Bouillet is a guitarist who has played in the bands Racer X, The Scream, DC-10, and Epidemic.-Racer X:Bouillet played on Racer X's Second Heat, Live Extreme - Vol.I, and Live Extreme - Vol. II. After leaving the band, he joined with former Angora singer John Corabi, and his former...

, Jason Becker
Jason Becker
Jason Eli Becker is an American virtuoso neo-classical metal guitarist and composer. At the age of 16, he became part of the Mike Varney-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988...

, Marty Friedman
Marty Friedman
Marty Friedman may refer to:* Marty Friedman , musician* Marty Friedman , basketball player and coach-See also:*Martin Freedman, Canadian judge*Martin Freeman...

 and Richie Kotzen
Richie Kotzen
Richie Kotzen is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter.At a young age, Richie Kotzen was taken by music and first began playing piano at the age of five. At the age of seven he was inspired by the band KISS to learn the electric guitar...



Notably Paul Gilbert
Paul Gilbert
Paul Brandon Gilbert is an American guitarist. He is well known for his technical guitar work with Racer X and Mr...

 moved away from sweeping arpeggios in favour of string skipping
String skipping
String skipping is a guitar-playing technique that is used mainly for solos and complex riffs in rock and heavy metal songs.- Explanation of technique :...

 arpeggios.

Gypsy picking

The picking technique of gypsy jazz
Gypsy jazz
Gypsy jazz is an idiom often said to have been started by guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in the 1930s. Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "Jazz manouche," or alternatively, "manouche jazz," even in English language sources...

 has been described as similar to economy picking, but with the further requirement that when pattern switches from string to string, a rest stroke will be performed.
For instance, on switching from the G to the B string, the plectrum will move in the same direction and come to rest on the E string. This technique as developed by Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...

in 1930s.

Further reading

Economy Picking Lesson from Ultimate-Guitar
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