economy picking?

[canuck7]

what is economy picking? i've heard of it and probably know it but i can't seem to link the term with the technique.
help me out here.

[HSlashRhoadsH]

economy picking is when you are not altrenate picking but going all down or all up strokes. its picking the easiest way you can. you use economy picking mainly when sweeping. i have been playing for a while and i still have problems alternate picking. economy picking is really simple

[Slow Diver]

I thought that economy picking is the same as sweep picking
ie when you play the 3 notes per string scales instead of alternate you play down up down down up down etc -- that is what I think is meant by economy picking because you are doing less motion.

[canuck7]

hey guys,
thanks for helping me out here. i've linked the technique with the term now. i was thinking of the wrong technique for economy picking.
thanks.

[Andrew Sa]

Yeah I also thought it was like down up down down...
well, i guess terms mean different things all over the world
Andrew

[TheDirt]

Economy picking doesn't necessarily mean down up down down up, etc. The term means using the most efficient (least motion) picking pattern for a given passage. The upside to this is that you can achieve faster speeds than with alternate picking. The downside is that it's hard to improvise with economy picking because you usually have to stop for a second and think out how to best pick a passage with economy picking.

Take this passages for example (paste in notepad)

e |---9-10-7-9----7----
B |-7----------10---9--

Alternate picking, there's no thought - down up down up down up down up.

Economy picking is harder to think out, but faster once you get it - down down up down up up down up

I suggest sticking to alternate picking... I mean you can get absolutely monstrous speed with alternate picking... hell, some of the players on this board are speed demons without using any economy picking (not me though, I like to stay under 140 staccato :)