Outside picking

Alternate picking in which the pick moves from the outside of one string pair to the outside of the next, crossing the gap between the two strings.

When a line moves from a lower string to a higher one, the direction of the last stroke determines whether the pick has to cross over both strings or slip between them. Outside picking means the pick leaves the lower string on a downstroke and arrives on the higher string on an upstroke, so it must arc over the intervening string. It is usually the harder of the two crossings, and players analyse their own picking to avoid it on hard passages.

Example: A three-note-per-string run that forces the pick to jump over the middle string twice in a row is a classic outside-picking problem spot.

Outside picking

See also