I bought a book by Frank Gambale called Speed Picking. It's basically alternate picking but he says ..."whenever a string is crossed, one stroke is used for the two notes whether going from low to high or the reverse." What does he mean "when a string is crossed?" Right after that he says ..."as you can see in example #2 each time you change string, a single down stroke is used in each case." The example he gives is an A major scale starting on the 5th fret of the low E string. It is like this:

A down stroke
B up stroke
C# down stroke

next string (A string)

D down stroke


I think what he is trying to say is that when you change strings you do not change the direction of your picking but rather keep it the same(notice the C# is a down stroke and the following D is also a downstroke). I guess that is how I interpret it. But that is still two strokes as far as I'm concerned. So why is he saying ..."each time you change string a single down stroke is used in each case."

Any input would be appreciated here.

I think he's just writing that to clarify you do not alternate pick when changing strings. Sounds like he's leading up to sweep picking. I don't know which answer is right in the technical sense, but "one stroke" implies a smoother picking technique than "two strokes." I could be wrong though.

What Frank is getting at is called 'economy picking' also known as 'inside picking.'

Many speedster use this technique. Malmsteen and others have perfected it.

Sweep picking is different.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this: so "economy picking," as he's describing here, is almost like a slower version of sweep picking right? Where you take advantage of the hand's already downward (or upward) motion, rather than alternate picking.

Is that right?

Alternating picking