Guitar 101: Heavy Metal Hybrid Picking

(Image credit: Cindy Moorhead)

Hybrid picking—the practice of interspersing flatpicked notes with notes plucked by your middle or ring finger—is a technique that many metalheads mistakenly believe is just for country, blues and jazz players.

The fact that it remains underutilized by the shred guitar community means that hybrid picking can be smartly employed as a shredder’s “secret weapon”—just ask Zakk Wylde, John 5, Jason Becker, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Greg Howe, Michael Lee Firkins, George Bellas, Dave Martone, Marshall Harrison or the scariest hybrid picker known to man, former GIT instructor Brett Garsed.

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