Originally Posted by: CSchlegelWhat you are describing is called economy picking.

I use economy picking sometimes & other times I use alternate picking. And there are other times when I use both with a mixture of legato hammer-ons & pull-offs.

You should practice all of them if you intend to use them. Like anything, it's a matter of practicing it to the point where it becomes second nature. But this gets to the most important point: what are your goals? What do you want to do with them?

Economy picking is often an approach that people sort of naturally fall into, rather than plan out, because it's often the easiest way to get through a sequence of notes that area on multiple strings.

With all that in mind, in order to get better at alternate picking in general, try these speed building tutorials in order.

Focusing on 1 string in order to get your picking hand & fretting hand completely in sync:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=287

Expanding to two strings:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=928
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=929

Building licks across the fretboard:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=973
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=980

These might also help you if you are looking for ways to visualize the fretboard for the purpose of mapping out scales.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=419
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=898
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=899

Hope this helps!