crossing over strings

[footgeek]

I am a fingerstyle player and am curious, when crossing from string to string, should you ALWAYS alternate fingers or are there instances when you would use just one? Or, is it whatever is comfortable?

I am trying to develop good habits before I have (too many more) bad ones to have to break!

Thanks in advance for your input.

[derelicte]

when going up strings (i.e.- E to A string, etc.), I tend to alternate fingers. It's faster and more comfortable for me. I do a lot of "spider" exercises that focus on doing this and it made playing around strings and doing octave jumps much easier.

However, from going down strings (i.e.- G to D to A strings, etc.), I usually tend to 'rake', or just use the same finger and drag it down, in a sense. I find that method to be comfortable. In some cases where i'm doing root-fifth-root-fifth, etc. stuff, alternating was more comfortable. I guess it's situational. Try developing BOTH ways to never get tangled up.

hope that helps, and best of luck!

[xiolo]

my instructor always told me to alternate with the exception of raking (as explained by derelicte).

i tend to mix it up though . some lines really suit the alternating fingers, and other times I'll stick with just one. i'd say 80% of my playing is using alternating fingers, be it crossing between strings or sticking to a single string.

[JimmyM]

Here's my beef with raking...if you're playing something difficult with a lot of notes coming at you, raking slows down your momentum with the alternating fingers and actually makes things harder to play. If it's something like a Jamerson Motown line where you might have a couple quick notes then have a longer note to follow, then raking is cool, but if you want to play something with a lot of 16th notes in a row, strict alternation will save your butt.

[jschwalls]

try playing this exercise and use it to get used to alternate plucking while crossing strings.

.......................5..6..7..8....
....................6................7..
................7.......................6..
..5..6..7..8.............................5..


......................8..7..6..5..
...................7...............6..
................6.....................7..
..8..7..6..5...........................8..


get comfortable with these 2 patterns, I teach these for string crossing technique.

Simple, compact, and effective.

JON

[footgeek]

Wow! Thanks all for the speedy reply! I do a little raking but try and alternate. The current band I play in is a Pretenders cover act, with a little Motown thrown in.

I find having to slow down and use a metronome helpful as well. I like the exercise; I also saw some other "spider" exercises in the technique section

[Nick Kay]

You should be able to alternate or rake any given string cross with ease - both techniques have their uses. It's the notes AROUND the string cross that determine which you use. In a line full of staccato 16ths, like Jimmy said, you're killing your momentum by raking. In a series of swept arpeggios, you're killing your momentum by alternating. Take a look at the lines that you're tackling and really think about how your hands should move in order to keep the time even and reduce effort. You might be surprised to find that you'll need to alternate some crosses and rake others within the same run.

PS: Downward rakes are really obvious, but upward rakes are a little weirder. You can do it Geddy Lee style and hit the strings with your nails when you go upward, or you can do a more Matt Garrison type of thing and use your thumb in a floating configuration. I'm still figuring this one out myself, but I find I'm using my thumb more than my fingernails - the tone is more consistent with my fingers.