I've heard the term used as "spider riffing" never really heard it used as "spider picking" this would make me think its a picking technique like alternate picking or something.... but spider riffing is a name for a riff in which your hand walks around like a spider on the fretboard... I first heard of this technique when I was getting into a lot of Dave Matthews acoustic stuff. He uses a lot of wierd chords and movement in his riffs.... I guess an example would be like this.... This is from the intro of "Warehouse". I tabbed it from memory so I'm not sure of the strumming and what not... but this is the general idea. Download the song if you really want to know the pattern.


+|--------------------------------------
+|--------------------------------------
+|---------7-7-7------------------------
+|-----11--9-9-9-9--9------------------
+|-9-9-9---------10-10-----------------
+|-7-7----------------------------------

OR heres one from another Dave Matthews song... "Sattelite"

+|--------------------------------------
+|--------------------------------------
+|--------------------------------------
+|---8--6--5--3--6-------8--6--5-------
+|--6--4--3--1--4--3----6--4--3--------
+|-4-------------------4----------------

you play the first part 3 times then end on the last part. But anyway.... thats what I've come to know spider riffing as... and i could have came up with better examples if i had some time to prepare... But I'm at work so I came up with the best I could... Feel free to tell me I'm wrong and feel free to post some examples from other genres since the acoustic genre isn't huge on this specific forum.