Inside & OUTSIDE picking Technique For guitar
Inside picking is a form of alternate picking where you pick in-between two adjacent strings. Like inside picking outside picking is another form of alternate picking, but this time instead of picking in-between two adjacent strings you would pick on the outside of both of them.
Check out the video masterclass below to see examples of both and how to practice them.
Approaching inside and outside picking as a beginner
Here are a few steps you can follow to learn inside and outside picking on guitar as a beginner:
- Start with alternate picking: Before attempting inside and outside picking, practice alternate picking, which involves playing consecutive downstrokes and upstrokes. This helps to develop the basic motion required for both inside and outside picking.
- Study the concept: Inside picking involves playing notes on consecutive strings with a downstroke, while outside picking involves playing notes on consecutive strings with an upstroke. Read and watch tutorials to understand the basic principles of each technique.
- Practice exercises: Start with simple exercises that involve playing two or three notes per string using inside and outside picking. Increase the difficulty as you improve by adding more strings, faster tempos, and more complex sequences.
- Apply to songs: Once you've mastered the exercises, start incorporating inside and outside picking into songs that you already know or are learning. This will help you develop the technique in a musical context.
- Focus on accuracy and consistency: As with any technique, the key to mastering inside and outside picking is to practice slowly and accurately, focusing on developing clean, consistent motions.
Remember that inside and outside picking are intermediate-to-advanced techniques and require time and patience to master. Keep practicing regularly and you will see improvement over time.
GET RESULTS WITH A metronome
As with everything you practice make sure you use a metronome and start super slow to make sure you are playing the lick correctly with the right fingers, technique and attack (it's fine to not use a metronome at first while first learning it).
I recommend starting at 60pm and use 8ths notes until you can play the lick without mistakes three or four times in a row then speed up the metronome by 5bpm. If you are really struggling playing the whole lick break it down to a bar or two. CLICK HERE to get a metronome.
The best way to really get any licks under your fingers is to practice them over a backing track and this may help inspire your own lick ideas as well. I have a free backing track channel http://www.killerbackingtracks.com
ESSENTIAL GEAR FOR Lead Guitar
In terms of gear for getting a good lead guitar tone I recommend getting a healthy amount of gain on your amp (not too much maybe at 12 o'clock !) and add an overdrive pedal to really help boost the guitar signal going into the amp making the notes a lot clearer.
I use an Ibanez tube screamer.
🎛 CLICK HERE to get a TubeScreamer
FRET WRAPS & STRING DAMPENERS
Not essential but you can use fret wraps or string dampeners to keep any unwanted noise at bay. This can be frown upon by some players as they believe you should be able to control the noise without any extra help! I have to agree to some extent but if some of my favourite players such as Guthrie Govan and Greg Howe use them it's ok with me!!
I like to use the Gruvgear Fretwraps which I am using in this lesson. You can get these in lots of different fun colours!
CLICK HERE to get a fretwrap.