The first thing we have to consider is the actual guitar pick your using! I prefer a thick guitar pick for alternate picking since it doesn't give and it won't give you that clunking sound. Others may differ and go with a med pick but it's rare to use thin picks.
Let's look at a very useful warm up exercise:
Example:1
For example 1 we will use all open strings
----------------------------------------00-------------------
---------------------------00--------------------------------
---------------00-----------------00-------------------------
-----00--------------00--------------------------------------
----------00-------------------------------------------------
00-----------------------------------------------------------
Use alternate down / up picking in example: 1
Take your time until you can play it smoothly without sounding the wrong string. This is very important.
Example:2
Example: 2 has the same idea as the first, but this utilizes the minor pentatonic scale. Practice...Practice....Practice
------------------------------------------5-8--------------
-----------------------------5-8---------------------------
-----------------5-7---------------5-7---------------------
------5-7-------------5-7----------------------------------
------------5-7--------------------------------------------
5-8--------------------------------------------------------
Now lets try a three notes per string example! We will use the Dorian mode on this one!
--------------------------------------------------------5-7-8-
--------------------------------------5-7-8-------------------
------------------------4-5-7-------------------4-5-7---------
--------4-5-7------------------4-5-7--------------------------
----------------5-7-8-----------------------------------------
5-7-8---------------------------------------------------------
Again use alternate picking (Down-Up) throughout. Another good idea is to play these examples backwards
