To cross pick, or not to cross pick? That is the question.

[jimh]

Professor Serna,

I cannot thank you enough for your clear, effective approach to guitar instruction. Your top notch materials have me progressing leaps and bounds.

I have encountered a question of technique. While following your youtube video for "Cult of Personality" you demonstrate a cross picking technique. As of this point I am comfortable with alternating my pick, but the cross picking is definitely more detailed than I have been practicing. I can see the value in this approach, but I'm not sure how much to utilize it. (From what I gathered from the video, you are using alternate strokes for each note as you work through the phrase?) Would I be wise to incorporate this approach whenever possible? Would practicing cross picking through the arpeggio patterns be an appropriate practice tool for the technique?
I ask this out of concern that I don't want to ingrain any bad habits. My picking isn't as accurate or as clear as I want it to be, so if cross picking will help me towards that goal, I'm going to pour my efforts into it.

Any thoughts or suggestions on this will be very much appropriated!

Thank You!

[DesiSerna]

The cross-picking technique I talk about in my Cult of Personality Video can really make a big improvement on your accuracy, speed, and timing. For this reason it's kind of essential for good guitar technique. For example, if I'm trying to play a certain part and my picking gets turned around and I stumble, then that's usually a sign that I need to train myself to crosspick it. Or sometimes I'm prone to drift off the beat. Cross picking helps me keep all my down strokes on the down beat so that my rhythm is tight.

But this doesn't mean you must do it all the time. I only use it when necessary. Whatever gets the job done is "correct" technique in my book and sometimes this means just picking in whatever manner comes naturally. So you'll probably end up doing both as I do. I recommend you work on developing the cross picking technique for when you need it.