00:01I'm Jamie Hunt from Guitar World and this lesson focuses on getting as much
00:04bang for the buck as possible from our upstrokes. When we play downstrokes
00:09gravity is on our side and that makes things feel quite comfortable. However
00:12upstrokes are not quite as convenient and therefore if we focus on that pick
00:17direction we can get as much mileage as possible from that motion. To start off
00:22with I want you to focus on the placement of your picking hand. So if you
00:26roll your hand forward, if you notice the bottom of my hand dropping down there as
00:29I play an upstroke, my pick actually elevates above the strings. So rather
00:36than being straight against the strings and then hitting into that sixth string
00:39if I was playing the fifth string, we actually roll the hand forward, we can't
00:44hit that sixth string we're going to elevate above it. So that makes things a
00:47lot easier to get a series of upstrokes or to get that motion feeling smooth as we
00:53play across the strings. Keep that motion in mind as you work through exercise one
00:57and you'll find that series of upstrokes more convenient and comfortable to play.
01:30Exercise two uses eighth notes throughout so we're going to count that one and two and
01:35three and four and and for a workout we're going to use upstrokes for the entire sequence.
01:41You'll notice as the exercise unfolds there's quite a few string changes in there so to
01:45make that smooth and accurate you need to keep your arm and wrist as relaxed as possible any
01:49tension is going to make those string changes super tricky to stay accurate and in control.
01:54So nice and relaxed and you'll get those string changes with comfort and accuracy.
02:32Upstrokes are really helpful when we're playing single note lead lines but when we play chords
02:36they create an excellent effect. When you play a chord with a downstroke we hear the lower notes first
02:42so we get a chunkier sound. If we play an upstroke in comparison we get a bright present sound and
02:48for
02:49that reason styles like reggae, ska, funk really lean into that bright present tone from the upstrokes
02:56to make those genres and styles sound the way they do. So for this next exercise exercise three we're
03:01going to lean into that rhythm style and create more of a ska approach. So we're going to play triads
03:07and as we play the chords we're going to mute with a downstroke and then catch the chord with that
03:12bright
03:12present upstroke. And as we do that I want you to think about the shape of your wrist we could
03:21take
03:21a slightly different approach with upstrokes in a rhythm sense compared to single note lead lines.
03:27So in this sense we get more of a kind of an angle on the wrist because we want to
03:30get more of a kind
03:31of a U shape as we move the pick. So as we're playing those triads we can catch that downstroke
03:39and then
03:39sweep back and get those bright upstrokes.
04:04From the previous exercise we're going to continue the idea of touching the string with our fret hand
04:08to get a muted sound as we play a downstroke and then fret the note correctly as we play the
04:14upstroke.
04:17And that helps us to get controlled accurate offbeat phrasing which breathes life and interest into our lines.
04:40Yeah, we'll be right back.
05:08I'll be right back.
05:09For exercise 5 we're going to take our up picking workout to the next level and for
05:13this we're going to use eighth note triplets which means playing three notes per beat.
05:18So we'd count that one triplet, two triplet, three triplet, four triplet.
05:22Now because those notes are quite rapid and close together, the key to this is to make
05:26as small a motion in the picking hand as possible.
05:28One thing that really helps is raising the knuckle and our thumb so that the pick tilts
05:34from being flat to the string to being angled and in doing that when we play the upstrokes
05:42we get much less resistance.
05:44So if I play that phrase, you can see that the motion in the picking hand becomes much
05:53smaller and in doing so we can play some really controlled fast sequences.
05:59So let's go.
06:52In exercise 6 we've got notes played consistently throughout and there's lots of string changes,
06:57so to make this work we're going to use upstrokes strategically.
07:00Within this phrase we play the open 6th string as downstrokes and each sequence of fretted
07:06notes are all played with upstrokes.
07:08So that would be like this.
07:15In this case the upstrokes allow us to keep the motion of the pick moving in the same direction
07:20as each new string change, which makes phrases like this much easier to play with comfort
07:24and fluidity.
