Expanding upon
January's lesson on technique, here are some crosspicking shapes you can practice using the 1, 2, 3, 4 exercise with all 24 left hand permutations. For those new to crosspicking, it is a technique used for jumping or skipping strings and is a very common flatpicking technique that can be applied to any style of music. Just take one shape at a time and follow the numbers for your 24 left hand fingering combinations.
Use the whole range of right hand picking possibilities -- down-up-down-up, up-down-up-down, etc. Try picking the shapes with all ups and downs. You can take any shape you want and apply this technique to it. This is a great exercise for your right hand; by practicing this way, you will develop your string-skipping skills and your coordination.
Shapes A and B will have the largest string skips -- some number combinations will have you skipping two strings. These techniques can inspire a lot of great ideas, so try experimenting with different progressions. Be sure to practice each one of these slow and precisely before building up speed.
24 left hand permutations:
1234 2134 3124 4123
1243 2143 3142 4132
1324 2314 3214 4231
1342 2341 3241 4213
1432 2413 3412 4312
1423 2431 3421 4321
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Copyright 2008 Mike Campese Music