New to BYCU / question about pick direction

Welcome, Phil provided excellent advice already. I alternate pick but never really think about direction just being smooth. I have a couple of drills I use mostly just up and down scales, but over exaggerate the picking motion as I go up and down the scale.

PeterO, welcome to the forum, I add that maybe its ok to move through BYCU just doing the study pieces, that's what most of us have done on here to a point, but then go back and review the the theory and rhythm lessons etc. It made a lot more sense to me the second time around. We all learn differently I suppose.
Cheers

I just want to chime in and say that though I don’t really anything to add about improving your picking ability, I really appreciated the insightful post Phil made and the helpful responses of Mick and cunningr. This was a good topic to read and I wish you luck and progress in your practicing, PeterO. Good luck with your playing/practicing to everyone in this topic and on this board, really.

Welcome!

Despite Phil's (very good) advice I would urge you whenever possible to stick to the picking you described in your first post until it becomes completely second-nature. The only exception is that I'd suggest learning to do triplets both DUD and strict alternate picking.

Of course, when you encounter something that's just too awkward to pull off with alternate picking, adjust to something that works. And if you just want to add your own touch to things (upstrokes and downstrokes sound subtly different) do whatever gets you as close to what you're hearing in your head as you can.

YMMV of course, but one thing that's helped me a lot is slowing down small sections of music performed by a "real" guitar player and playing along. I use a program called Transcribe! but there are other options including Youtube where you can decrease the playback speed w/o altering pitch. Often I work on less than a full "lick". The things it's helped me with:

-helps me develop the habit of simultaneously listening closely to what I'm playing and what someone else is playing
-maybe more than anything it helps me with bends, both intonation and "speed" of the bends
-ditto for vibrato
-helps me pick up on rhythmic subtleties that notation does not capture
-since it's listening-driven, helps w/improving my ear (I often only glance at the written music to get a feel for the position on the neck but work out the notes w/out the music)
-conforms to the age-old wisdom of start slow and work up to tempo.

Of course, you may already have much better ear-hand coordination than I and can generally do all the above at full tempo, in which case I'd say use the slowed playback only as-needed. I do it all the time because I have a stonier-than-average ear and clumsier-than-average hands/fingers.