Picking triplets

[tot_Ou_tard]

How do you pick a bar of eigth-note triplets?

Alternating:

down-up-down, up-down-up, down-up-down, up-down-up

or do you emphasize the first beat of the triplet with a downstroke

down-up-down, down-up-down, down-up-down, down-up-down

?

I'm find myself drifting between the two, which is too confusing. I need to choose one for now and stay with it.

[Ro3b]

It depends. If (as often happens in my line of work) I'm picking the melody of an Irish jig, DUD DUD gives the correct groove. Otherwise, I use strict alternation, or hammer on or pull off the middle note of the triplet. I can't do DUD DUD at tempoes faster than about 110 bpm.

[tot_Ou_tard]

It depends. If (as often happens in my line of work) I'm picking the melody of an Irish jig, DUD DUD gives the correct groove. Otherwise, I use strict alternation, or hammer on or pull off the middle note of the triplet. I can't do DUD DUD at tempoes faster than about 110 bpm.

Yeah, the speed thing kills with DUD DUD, but DUD UDU has a less insistent rhythm.

I'll try the hammer on/off, I think that it'll work great. Thanks Ro3b.

[tot_Ou_tard]

I just tried

DHU DHU DHU DHU

(H = hammer off)

on the piece I was working on.

Wow! So much smoother. It sounded great. Thanks Ro3b!