Crosspicking on the acoustic guitar in bluegrass and early music
Crosspicking is a technique in which the flatpick is used to pick a
group of strings in a repeating pattern. typically three
tones are played repeatedly against a four-beat rhythm so there is no
it is a continuous change of tones and accentuated pulse.
The result is something similar to a banjo roll, with notes that seem
to come from everywhere. Micky Cochran put it this way: “Crosspicking bombards the listener with a
rain of notes As it is similar to the bluegrass banjo, the cross-selection
the guitar doesn’t seem to pause for a breath. a continuum
succession of notes to establish the melody while
filling all the spaces with notes of harmony. not only the
guitar stand itself, with harmonically filled spaces, but
The cross-selection technique works effectively to support other potential customers.
instruments and voices.
George Shuffler, who spent 18 years as a member of the Stanley
Brothers in the 1950s and 1960s, is said to be the pioneer of
cross picking. The crosspicking technique has been mastered by guitarists like Doc
Watson, Clarence White, Dan Crary, Norman Blake, and Tony Rice.
The cross pick can be used with two open strings against a single one
string on which you are playing melodic notes at the frets. Can
throw a cross-selection pattern here and there, mixing it with
your other flatpicking techniques.
Let’s try a cross-selection exercise. We will use all open strings to
this, the D, G, and B strings. For the strokes, I’ll represent the downward strokes (the pick moves away from your face) with the letter “d” and the up strokes (the pick moves toward your face).
face) with the letter “u”. George Shuffler crosspicks with a
pattern of two down runs followed by one up run. choose each
single string in this repeating pattern:
DGB DGB DGB DGB DGB DGB DGB DGB DGB
Play the D string with a down stroke, the G string with a down stroke.
stroke, and string B with an upward stroke, like this:
ddu ddu ddu ddu ddu ddu ddu ddu ddu
But remember, crosspicking is a pattern of three pitches played
repeatedly against a four-beat rhythm, so in common time (4 beats
to the beat, each quarter note is given a beat), the pattern
would look like this when each string picked is a quarter note with four
quarter notes per bar:
DGBD – GBDG – BDGB – DGBD – GBDG – BDGB – DGBG
The selection pattern would be:
ddud – dudd – uddu – ddud – dudd – uddu – ddud
Now let’s try something that will probably be a bit challenging. Yo
I learned this from one of Steve Kaufman’s how-to videos.
Cross the repeating pattern of DGB, but instead of using the
typical “ddu” strokes, play alternating strokes up and down,
as if you were choosing a violin melody. So, even if you
are playing the repeating pattern of all three strings, your stroke
pattern is:
dudu – dudu – dudu – dudu – dudu – dudu – dudu – dudu – dudu – dudu
It will not be easy at first to maintain the pattern of the three
strings that go with the alternate pick motion, but think about your
forearm like a pendulum, swinging down, back and forth, to strike the
top of each string. The result of this stroke pattern is that each
the note is cleaner, sharper, and makes more of a statement.
I use both patterns, but I’m trying to develop the latter.
and use it more often, because I think overall it’s the best.
Have fun learning to crosspick – it’s a great weapon to have in mind
your arsenal of techniques!
Copyright © 2007 Lee Griffith. All rights reserved.
