Hybrid Picking with 2 & 3 Fingers

Hi and welcome to the Guitar Blog!

So far, we’ve only covered hybrid picking as “pick + 1 finger”. By the way, if it’s your first time here, I highly encourage you to check out these 2 articles first before we get into more complex concepts : Beginner’s Guide to Hybrid Picking | Hybrid Picking : Major Scale Mastery

Using more than one finger when hybrid picking can represent a big jump for some people and you may find yourself in big discomfort. That’s absolutely normal!

Again, it’s all a matter of repetition until your brain understands the mechanics of a new mouvement. At that point, hybrid picking with two and more fingers will feel pretty similar to using just one finger.

So let’s get the mechanics down, shall we?

Let’s add the pinky now!

Beginner’s Guide To Hybrid Picking

Hybrid Picking: Major Scale Mastery

Now that you have the basic movement down, let’s play some music!

You may notice that, the more fingers you use, the more you tend to move your wrist. Try to get this wrist movement to the bare minimum. The less you move your hand, the easier it will be to increase speed later.

These one note per string patterns can be pretty tricky using alternate picking. But you could argue that they’re doable with sweep picking or economy picking. It’s not the same sound but, yes! You’re right.

Here’s another exercise where hybrid picking is highly recommended if not mandatory in order to pull this off. 

I first heard these types of arpeggios from a Fusion guitar player called Yannick Robert. He plays fingerstyle and when he plays these arpeggios he makes it look effortless. That’s when you know the technique used is impeccable. 

The key to unlocking this “effortless sound” is (you guessed it): a lot of good repetitions.

Go through the sequence 25 times with a metronome set at a slow and comfortable tempo. Stay relaxed and try to play as cleanly and precisely as you can. 

Do this  everyday and you should see results very quickly.

Be creative with these exercises, modify them as much as you possibly can. Incorporate this new technique into your usual playing and have fun!