The universal picking workout: one finger per fret, 1-2-3-4 up every string and 4-3-2-1 back down, every note strictly alternated. Four notes per string is an even number, so every string starts on a downstroke — which makes every crossing on the way up an outside crossing and every crossing on the way down an inside one. One drill, both hard cases.
Start at 70 BPM — slow enough that every upstroke is as loud and as clean as every downstroke — and raise the tempo in small steps of about 5 BPM only once a full pass is even. Press Play exercise to hear the drill and watch it move across the fretboard, then play along with it or take the tempo to the metronome. Speed is a by-product of accuracy: if the notes start to blur or the hand tightens up, drop back down.
- Pick a drill — start with Single-String Repeats to groove the motion with no string changes, then move to the Chromatic 1-2-3-4
- Choose a home position; around fret 5 the spacing is comfortable, and the fretting hand stays one finger per fret so the picking hand is the only thing being tested
- Press "Play exercise" and follow the step strip: ▼ is a downstroke, ▲ is an upstroke, and every note that starts a new string is tagged inside, outside, or sweep
- Play along with strict alternation — down, up, down, up — right through the string changes, and listen for upstrokes that come out quieter than downstrokes
- Raise the tempo about 5 BPM at a time once a full pass is clean, or turn on Loop for continuous repetition
- Switch the picking style to Economy to feel the difference: the same notes, but string changes rake through in one direction instead of reversing
About Alternate Picking Exercises
Guitar Tool Hub's free alternate picking exercise tool drills the picking hand — the half of guitar technique the hub's fretting-hand drills leave alone — with six structured exercises on an interactive fretboard. Pick a drill and a home position on the neck and play along: single-string repeats that isolate the pure down-up motion, the chromatic 1-2-3-4 run, two-notes-per-string and three-notes-per-string patterns, and a matched pair of drills that isolate outside and inside string crossings — the same notes, opposite opening strokes. Every note carries its pick stroke (▼ down, ▲ up) and every note that starts a new string is tagged as an inside, outside, or sweep crossing, so the mechanic you are practising is visible rather than guessed at. Each drill plays in time with real guitar audio at an adjustable tempo with a suggested starting BPM, highlights each note as it sounds, and hands the tempo to the metronome in one tap. A picking-style toggle switches the whole sequence between strict alternate picking and economy picking, so you can hear and see what changes at the string crossings. Where Pinky Exercises trains the fretting hand and Scale Practice drills patterns through a scale, Alternate Picking Exercises trains the pick.
- 016 picking drills: single-string repeats, chromatic 1-2-3-4, two notes per string, three notes per string, outside picking, inside picking
- 02Pick stroke shown on every note — ▼ downstroke, ▲ upstroke, strict alternation
- 03Inside, outside & sweep string crossings labelled on every string change
- 04Alternate / economy picking style toggle over the same notes
- 05Movable home position — drill any spot on the neck from fret 1 to 12
- 06One finger per fret so the fretting hand never becomes the bottleneck
- 07Adjustable tempo (40–240 BPM) with a suggested starting BPM per drill
- 08Note-by-note playback highlighted on the fretboard and step strip
- 09Loop mode for continuous repetition
- 10Tap any note or step to hear it
- 1127 tunings · acoustic, electric & classical sounds
- 12One-tap hand-off to the Metronome at your practice tempo
- 13Free — no account needed
Frequently Asked Questions
Alternate picking is picking every note with a strict down-up-down-up motion, no matter which string the note is on. Instead of repeating downstrokes, the pick keeps a continuous pendulum going, which halves the distance it travels and is why it is the foundation of fast, even single-note playing. The hard part is not the motion itself — it is keeping it strict through string changes, which is what the drills on this page isolate.
The proven set is the six drills here: single-string repeats to build the raw motion with nothing else in the way, the chromatic 1-2-3-4 run for evenness across all six strings, two-notes-per-string patterns for constant string crossing, three-notes-per-string patterns (the odd note count flips the leading stroke on every string, which is what real scale playing feels like), and a matched pair that isolate outside and inside picking. Run them slowly with a metronome, one note per beat, and only speed up when a full pass is clean.
Both describe how the pick gets from one string to the next. In outside picking the pick leaves a string moving away from the string it is heading for, so it travels around the outside of the pair and drops onto the new string with a clear path. In inside picking the pick leaves moving toward the new string, so it finishes trapped in the gap between the two strings and has to escape before it can play — which is why most players find inside picking harder. This tool tags every string change as inside or outside as it happens, and includes one drill of each so you can practise them separately.
Downstroke is the standard default, and five of the six drills here open with one. But the starting stroke is not cosmetic: with an even number of notes per string, flipping it turns every outside crossing into an inside one and vice versa. That is exactly how the Outside Picking and Inside Picking drills on this page work — identical notes, opposite opening stroke. Practising both directions is what stops one crossing type from becoming a permanent weak spot.
Start at a tempo where every upstroke is as loud and as clean as every downstroke — usually 70–85 BPM at one note per beat, and each drill here suggests a starting tempo. Raise it about 5 BPM at a time, and drop straight back down the moment notes blur, strings buzz, or the hand tightens. Speed comes from accuracy repeated at a manageable tempo, not from chasing the metronome.
Economy picking keeps alternating within a string, but when it changes strings it carries the pick on in the same direction as a mini-sweep rather than reversing. It moves less, but the stroke pattern depends on the note grouping, so it is harder to keep even. The picking-style toggle on this page switches every drill between strict alternate and economy over the same notes, so you can compare the two directly — the crossings that were inside and outside become sweeps.
With a few focused minutes a day, most players notice cleaner string crossings within two to four weeks and a real speed difference over a few months. Consistency beats session length: short daily reps at a tempo you can actually control build the motion far faster than occasional long sessions spent playing above your accuracy limit.
Almost always because the pick is hitting the string at a different angle, or with a different amount of pick past the string, on the way back up. Gravity and habit make the downstroke feel natural, so the upstroke gets less attention. The Single-String Repeats drill exists for exactly this: with no string changes to think about, you can hear the imbalance clearly and even the two strokes out before adding anything else.
No. Every drill here is a chromatic or positional pattern at a movable home position, with no key or scale to choose — the point is the picking hand, so the fretting hand stays one finger per fret. If you want to drill picking through an actual scale instead, use the Scale Practice tool, which runs the same note-per-beat playback over any key and scale.
Yes — completely free. No account, no download, and no payment required. It runs entirely in your browser.