Originally Posted by: snojonesI also find frequently find myself confused by these counter intuitive protocols....

Haha! That's a really good observation. It's something that I try to call out as much as possible because it is counter-intuitive. Recently I called it out on a couple of my sweep picking lessons.

I try to only use up & down to indicate musical direction. Up is up in pitch, down is down in pitch. The problem of course is that the standard guitar configuration is oriented so the strings go up in pitch towards the floor & down in pitch towards the ceiling! And same for the frets!

Unfortunately that is in conflict with picking, strumming directions which are usually indicated with orientation toward the ceiling & floor instead of the guitar's musical direction.

As if the guitar wasn't already hard enough to play! :)