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→Alternate Picking
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=== The Upstroke ===
So far we've only been using downstrokes, and you probably feel like you're starting to get the hang of those. To review from [[Basic Technique]], your pick stroke should come from your wrist or your elbow, and the motion should be parallel to the face of the guitar, so the pick is pushing through each string. The pick itself should be pointing directly at the face of the guitar - think of the pick like a screwdriver. It should not be angled so that it hooks under or effortlessly slides over the top of the strings. Yet the pick may be rotated so that only one edge of the pick touches the string during a downpick.
For an upstroke, the opposite edge of the pick will make contact with the string. You are simply doing the exact reverse motion of a downstroke. It will feel different because before you had to ''push down'' through the strings, but now you are ''pulling up'' through them. The main point, though, is to avoid trying to "set up" the upstroke, by changing the way you hold the pick or otherwise taking valuable time to angle the pick differently.
The biggest issue a beginner usually has with an upstroke actually originates from an incorrect downstroke. He angles the pick during his downstroke, so that the tip of the pick lags behind the top of the pick, causing the strings to easily slide off the pick without having to push through them. This may lead to a loss of power and expression during downstrokes but isn't a huge problem in itself. The problem is when holding the pick at the same angle during an upstroke leads with the pick tip, hooking under the string and causing it to slide up the pick towards the right-hand thumb and index finger holding the pick. The pick angle must be altered mid stroke, or the stroke strength must be increased to a ridiculous level. The end result is that downstrokes are easy while upstrokes take far more effort. This will prevent decent alternate picking technique, where each note has consistent dynamics and timing.
=== Economy Picking ===