Hybrid Picking does help us get a different sound and feel on Electric and Acoustic Guitar, as it helps us get the sound of strings popping thanks to our fingers. Let's take a bluesy Lick and notice the difference of tone when we will use the finger versus the pick.
Timestamp: 0:50 (inside the video lesson)
We use Hybrid Picking to make things more convenient for us as Electric and acoustic guitar players. For example, Hybrid Picking is very convenient for performing faster string skipping! In the video lesson, pay attention to how the right hand is moving. It becomes clear that it is way faster to use the hybrid picking instead of regular picking (using these motions of down, up, down, up repetitively), saving us time, energy, tension, and potential string noise on those extra travel between strings.
Timestamp: 1:47 (inside the video lesson)
Moreover, we can use hybrid picking to arpeggiate chords faster!
If we have parts of a song where we are arpeggiating and doing crazy jumps from one string to another, hybrid picking can be used to help us make lesser movements. Watch the example below.
Timestamp: 2:32 (inside the video lesson)
Hybrid picking will greatly assist you in increasing your speed when playing a given lick. However, the trick is to be mindful of the dynamics at play, as you need to match the picking dynamic with your finger dynamic so it can be seamless unless it is intentional that you need different volumes.
What we are doing is alternating between the pick and the finger to play faster:
Timestamp: 3:08 (inside the video lesson)
Also, Hybrid Picking can help us sound neater on some of the riffs we are playing. Let's take the riff of Iron Man by Black Sabbath which is usually played by picking. We can use the pick for the lower string and our finger for the higher string. You will see how clean and precise this riff becomes when using Hybrid Picking.
Timestamp 4:03 (inside the video lesson)
Exercise 1
Check out this classic Rock Lick: instead of doing
down, down, up all we need to do is to play the first note with the pick and then do the rest with the middle finger and the ring finger, and like I said before make sure the dynamics of the notes are the same.
