Yeah... This seems to be my problem. I haven't played for like 3 years but even when I did, I never was really good at alternate picking. I'd either down pick or tap parts that should be alternate picked and it sounded like crap. Does anyone have any pointers or links to some awesome alternate picking exercises?
Currently working on some small arpeggios while alternate picking them. (slowly atm lol)

just practice all pentatonic scales with alternate picking, slowly at first of course

only 2 notes per string makes it alot easier, and you should be able to pick up speed in no time

i also know a great exercise combining all the 5 pentatonic shapes into 1 "scale". too lazy to tab it out atm but its basically g major starting from the second position on the 3rd fret, then you do it kind of like

2nd position - ascending
3rd position - descending
4th positiong - ascending
etc..

all the way down the fret board

lmk how it goes

when i learned it, i wouldnt say i learned it; but my ability stems from strumming on chords

i just transfered that to single strings and i do it without even thinking about it now

just practice chromatic stuff with it. hell it doesnt even matter waht you play with your left hand, you just gotta get used to switching strings and how to transition the picking movements.

just start doing it, it is so easy and you will wonder why u didnt do it before

Haha yeah I'm sure it'll be easy once I get it. Like, I can tremolo pick easily but alternate picking on slower riffs is just so weird to me

It's only a question of practice and habit. I remember when I only downpicked and told myself that alternate was so freaking hard. Now it's the other way around

exactly, and infact, some more advanced licks are much harder to play without double picking if not impossible.

Its one of those guitar skills that will open a ton of doors. Infact i find that it may be one of the most important parts of my playing is being able to not think about what im doing and still coordinate up and down strokes efficiently.

But like i said, i dont even think about it. Just like typing, i dont think about it when im typing, but its essential and good typing aids me greatly

A while ago I made an effort to really work on my alternate picking - for ages I'd just been hammering everything i could because it was easier... but I think after watching petrucci a lot I decided that alternate picking was probably the best way of increasing the co-ordination between both hands. I just started playing everything that I could with alternate picking. Used to play Glasgow Kiss with sweeping, now I pick it. Also learnt the into to Constant Motion, that's a great one for practice.

I am also have a problem i seem to associate with alternate picking if anyone wants to help me And its a problem because im trying to learn this song and always seem to fudge up this part. so the whole song is basically on the top 4 strings Low E string - G string. My issue is basically ill be strumming 4 string chord, then all the sudden as a transitinal thing there is 2 sixteenth notes on the low E string. Then its back to 4 string chords, and it does this over and over, then it switches to some differnt chords , 3 string chords, 2 string chord, keeps going like that. the song is 1979 by smashing pumpkins, its a very easy song so i hear, and i can play the whole song now, but always seem to fudge up the sixteenths on the low e string at least a few times during the course of the song. ive tried everything.. i slant the pick, ive kept my wrist loose and snapped at the notes, ive tried to keep my wrist firm and force them, ive tried to make sure i play with the top of the pick, sometimes theres barely 1/4 inch of the pick showing so i dont get the pick "stuck" on the note, sometiems ill hit the low e string, and the a string becase the pick gets stuck. at one point i had realized it wasnt working because id go to do the 16th notes, but id fudge them up bcuz i was "ready" to fret the next note, so i guess my brain wouldnt allow me to play the 16ths, without having the frets ready for the strums that come after and the timing would be all off. ive tried making sure i know exactly where the low E string is, and paying lots of attention to where it is so that i dont use too much motion.. Anyway, ive tried playing it super slowly, then speeding up, but it always seems like as soon as it gets to a certain speed, at some point, i will mess it up, no mater how i build up to the speed. Its even more frustrating because i will get it right over and over, then out of nowhere i fuck it up :/

/E ive also tried it on electric and on acoustic, and i cant seem to get it down pat :/ theres just something about hiting that string very quickly twice in between strums that always seems to mess me up at some point.

This post was edited by blunderwonder2 on Aug 24 2011 01:12am

Start slowly, with a metronome, just playing one open string and doing rhythmic exercises, so you are only focusing on rhythm, not melody. You can find a ton of exercises that are simple enough with Google.

Also try some scale runs, just going up and down, switch in the middle whenever you please - it doesn't matter what notes you play, just let your left hand do what it already knows how to do, and work on your picking hand. You want your hand to keep the same rhythm while getting a bit more control over where you are picking.

Learning to alternate pick from where you are is mostly realizing that it feels like a step backwards for a short while, then you will be getting much better much faster. If you get frustrated, then play the intro to Master of Puppets, all downpicked. Then get back to it. You need to practice. Alternate picking is all about having a rhythm in your right hand, much like a metronome going back and forth.