Begin your practice for this lesson by simply playing repeated down-up strokes with the metronome. Play downstrokes on the beat (with the click) and upstrokes between the beats (between the clicks). By playing two notes per click in this way, you will be playing eighth notes to the metronome’s quarter notes. Be certain that the notes you play between the clicks fall exactly at the halfway point between clicks. In other words, the notes that you play should all be evenly spaced, time-wise.
If you find it difficult to accurately place the “in-between” notes or if you are uncertain as to whether you are successful in your attempt, you can double the tempo on the metronome and play a stroke with each click, until you gain confidence.
Next, turn off the metronome and begin to practice (slowly!) playing the following pattern of strings. For this first exercise, use only downstrokes:
6 – 1; 6 – 1; 6 – 1; 6 – 1
5 – 1; 5 – 1; 5 – 1; 5 -1
4 – 1; 4 – 1; 4 – 1; 4 –1
3 – 1; 3 – 1; 3 – 1; 3 -1
2 – 1; 2 – 1; 2 – 1; 2 -1
1 – 6; 1 – 6; 1 – 6; 1 – 6
2 – 6; 2 – 6; 2 – 6; 2 – 6
3 – 6; 3 – 6; 3 – 6; 3 – 6
4 – 6; 4 – 6; 4 – 6; 4 – 6
5 – 6; 5 – 6; 5 – 6; 5 – 6
When you feel comfortable playing the exercise and your aim is consistent, set the metronome to the speed at which you can perform the exercise well (playing quarter notes, one downstroke per click) and practice it until it feels natural. There’s no need to be fast at this, yet.
When you are confident that you are playing this exercise well and at a reasonable tempo, you can begin to do the same exercise, but without the repetitions:
6 -1; 5 -1 ; 4 -1; 3 – 1; 2 – 1; 1 – 6; 2 – 6; 3 – 6; 4 – 6; 5 – 6
Practice it until you’re comfortable and happy with the results. Then, still playing the exact same exercise, use alternating strokes of the pick (down-up-down-up). Start with a downstroke ( / ) on the 6th string and follow with an upstroke ( v ) on the 1st string:
6 -1; 5 -1 ; 4 -1; 3 – 1; 2 – 1; 1 – 6; 2 – 6; 3 – 6; 4 – 6; 5 – 6
/ v / v / v , etc.