Introduction To Hybrid Picking

Hybrid picking is a fantastic technique that can be applied to both lead and rhythm playing, and for many it's an instant level up in terms of the speed that you can work through difficult lead lines. In this blog post I want to introduce you to the subject and give you two great exercises to get you applying your new theory. Let's dive in.

The Video

We have an incredible video lesson to go alongside this post, where I will walk you through all of the exercises we talk about here, and give you close up views of the left and right hand. You can also download the backing track here so that you can practice these new ideas by yourself, alongside the track.

The Technique

The basic idea of hybrid picking is to use both the pick and your fingers, combining the strengths of both of those styles into one awesome style! Your first step will be to get your right hand feeling comfortable holding the pick and plucking the strings with your other fingers. One very simple thing you can do to get used to this, alongside the core exercises in this post, is to hold down any chord (for example an E major) and choose two strings within that chord. Make sure those strings are next to each other to start with, for example the D and G string, and then pick the lower string with your pick and the higher string with your middle finger. Simply alternating between these two is a great place to start. Here is that example in tab:

The lead lick

The lead section is based around Pentatonic Box 2, and uses an additional blues note to spice it up a little. The lick is essentially based around a simple sequence running through that scale shape. Of course your first step here is to learn the lick, and that's not an easy task in itself as it's quite quick. Once you have the lick, try to make sure you are hybrid picking the correct notes. For your reference, on the tab we have marked the notes that are hybrid picked with a "V". So, here is the scale shape and lick:

The Rhythm part

We're also using hybrid picking for the chord part of the track. As I said above, although hybrid picking is more widely used for lead parts, it's just as effective for chords too. This jam track is a great opportunity to practice exactly that.

The chord section uses a 4 chord loop. That loop is | D | C#m7 | Bm7 | Bm7 | . The actual key of the song is D major, but we use a C#m7 rather than a C#m7b5, which would be the natural chord of the key. This is a relatively common switch that adds a bit of a twist, or interest, to a basic chord pattern. The D major pentatonic will still work beautifully well.

With that theory said and done, let's take a look at the actual part and how it comes together with the hybrid picking. Once again, we're indicating the notes you pick with your fingers with a "V". Good luck!

Finally…

So there we have it, a rock solid introduction to hybrid picking! This technique absolutely takes time to settle in, and you can use this lead part and progression for ages, until it does start settling in. From there, you can start taking licks that you know and love already and seeing what difference it makes to play them with hybrid picking. Do you find it easy to play them at speed perhaps? Maybe it's just not the technique for you… A little exploration here is a great thing!