Some lessons stick with you not because of the theory but because of the story behind them. This picking pattern has roots in a father’s challenge, years of frustrated practice, and an eventual discovery that the whole journey was worth it — because the technique that came out of it is genuinely useful, regardless of how Ritchie Blackmore actually played the original lick.
What you’ll get out of this lesson: A thorough grounding in the down-down-up picking pattern — how to practise it, how to apply it to arpeggios and blues licks, and a range of exercises to get it fully under your fingers.
The Story Behind the Lick
The pattern at the centre of this lesson comes from the climactic lick in the “Child in Time” live recording by Deep Purple — the Made in Japan version. A father showed his fourteen-year-old son this lick and said: when you can play this, you’ll have made it. What followed were years of dedicated practice on what turned out to be a down-down-up picking pattern applied to an A minor arpeggio in the 12th position: 14th fret on the G, 13th on the B, and 12th on the high E. The lick has two parts — the main arpeggio figure done three times with that down-down-up pattern, then a pull-off passage on the B string (15th, 13th, 12th frets), repeating and alternating. Years later, a video surfaced showing Ritchie Blackmore sweeping through it rather than using the DDU pattern — but by then, the technique was deeply internalised, and it turned out to be enormously useful for other things entirely.
Here’s the “Child in Time” lick for reference:
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Understanding the Down-Down-Up Pattern
Down-down-up (DDU) is a three-note picking grouping where two consecutive downstrokes are followed by an upstroke. It creates a distinctive rhythmic feel — slightly asymmetric and syncopated — that sits naturally under blues and rock phrases. This pattern is used extensively by blues players and features in Al Di Meola’s instructional work. It works particularly well across three-string groups, making it ideal for arpeggios and scale fragments that cross strings.
“In learning that picking pattern, I learned how to pick down, down, up. Which is super useful for loads of blues licks and other things.”
Building It With Arpeggios
The most natural way to internalise DDU is with three-string arpeggio groups. Take any chord shape you know and apply DDU across three adjacent strings. For example, G major starting at the 10th fret of the A string (10, 9, 7 across A, D, and G), moving up to the next position (12, 10, 9), and the next (14, 12, 11). You can apply this to any chord or arpeggio shape you know, and the inversion — up-up-down — works going in the other direction. D major across the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings (4, 3, 2) is another good starting point, and you can modify it to Dsus4 for a different character.
Applying DDU to Blues Licks
Once the pattern is under your fingers with arpeggios, take it into blues scale material. In A, one effective lick uses an upstroke on the 5th fret of the A string moving to the 7th, then across to the 5th fret on the D and G strings, then a downstroke on the 7th fret of the D. Running that through the position creates a fluid, rolling blues line. A second variation ends with a downstroke bend from the 7th fret on the D bending up to the 9th, then down on the 5th fret of the B and up on the 5th fret of the high E — creating that classic blues cliché in a fresh way. Find your own applications, invent licks, and share them in the forum.
Taking it further: Try applying DDU to other scale types beyond the blues scale — pentatonic fragments, major scale runs, and modal patterns all take on a different character with this picking approach. Also experiment with combining it with legato: alternate the picked DDU passages with brief hammer-on or pull-off runs to create contrast in your phrasing.
Your homework: This week, work on two things: first, take one arpeggio shape you know and apply the DDU pattern to it across three strings until it feels natural at a moderate tempo. Second, create one original blues lick using DDU and share it in the forum. Inventing your own application of the technique is the fastest way to make it part of your vocabulary.