If consecutive downstrokes are the workhorse of economy picking, inside picking is the technique that fills the gaps — the “forgotten” pick stroke that most economy pickers either avoid or haven’t fully developed. Combining both in the same lick makes for a far more versatile picking hand.
What you’ll get out of this lesson: You’ll learn an A minor lick that blends consecutive strokes and inside picking, building the co-ordination needed to switch fluidly between the two approaches within a single phrase.
What Inside Picking Is
Inside picking happens when you need to change strings but consecutive strokes aren’t the most economical option. Instead of crossing to the target string with a sweeping continuation, you pick from the inside out — for example, an upstroke on one string followed immediately by a downstroke on the adjacent string, with each stroke taking you further from the other string before closing back in. It feels more complex than consecutive strokes, which is why it’s less practised. But in the toolkit of a complete economy picker, it’s just as important.
The Lick — A Minor, Starting on an Upstroke
Pay close attention: this lick starts on an upstroke. That’s deliberate — it sets up the inside picking motion that follows. Check the picking directions marked in the notation carefully before you start playing, and make sure you begin correctly each time. Starting on the wrong stroke will make the whole lick feel wrong, because every subsequent pick direction depends on the one before it.
Moving the Sequence Through Different Positions
Once you’ve learned the lick as written in A minor, the sequence can be moved through other scale positions and keys using the same picking pattern. The value of learning the picking structure separately from the notes is that when you transpose, the fretting hand changes but the right-hand logic stays constant — and that’s what you’re really building here.
Taking it further: Try applying this same combination of consecutive strokes and inside picking to a phrase from your existing repertoire — take a lick you already know and experiment with different picking directions to find the most economical path. You may be surprised how different it feels with just one change to the initial stroke direction.
Your homework: Learn the A minor lick above with strict attention to the picking directions, ensuring you start on an upstroke. Practise it at a slow, even tempo until the transitions between consecutive and inside picking feel natural. Then shift the same fingering shape to two other positions on the neck.