Right Hand/Picking Technique of George Benson and Cecil Alexander
TLDR: any tips with this style of picking? Especially the variations outside of economy picking.
Hi.
I’ve recently gained a bit of interest in the picking style of Cecil Alexander (inspired from George Benson’s technique) recently, mainly due to the appeal of how fast people using this technique can play. I’ve always rested my pinky/ring finger below the string and held the pick in a traditional way and have always felt like I’m not great with speed and accuracy. I’m usually an alternative picking player to, with on beats getting a down stroke and off beats getting an up stroke.
I decided to check out Cecil’s master class and learnt the technique to be quite complicated, with a mixture of economy picking technique with a lot of rule breaking + the hand angling and pick holding. Overall I am liking this way of picking however.
I’ve watched the video and tried out the exercises he’s got written out however, still a bit confused as to how I would apply the technique outside of the written licks.
I know my scales and arpeggios quite well using the Berklee/William Leavitt position (7 positions) and when trying to play these scales and arpeggios with the technique, I find I’m really questioning where I should be doing up strokes vs down strokes e.g. arpeggios descending that have only 1 strong on a string. It seem like the rules with the picking weren’t very strict, but since I’m quite new to this way of picking, I feel like I’m not applying it correctly without more stricter sort of rules.
Anyway. Here’s some questions I have:
• descending arpeggios with 1 note on a string (as well as 1 note on a string consecutively) - up stroke or down stroke?
• when would you play an up stroke on a string with one note instead of a down stroke (Cecil does this sometimes for maybe speed reasons but not always)
• do you still apply this picking technique when not playing fast?
Would love to hear everyone’s opinions about this style of picking! Also let me know if anyone’s tried out Dan Wilson’s right hand mastering course.