Opus 4

Jack, I think you are getting my instructions in the workbook for keeping track of downbeats and upbeats with the pick, mixed up with how I am picking in the etudes.
Let me clarify…

In the workbook, I recommend using down-strokes for downbeats and up-strokes for upbeats as an alternative to tapping with your foot (or in conjunction with it). I recommend this for players who are still learning how to sub-divide in 8th notes when sightreading rhythms. Through my teaching experience I found that many guitarists have a harder time visualizing and keeping track of the downbeats and upbeats by just tapping their foot. This alternate system made it easier for many to visualize the beats and eventually learn to sight read syncopated rhythms. That said, once you have mastered this, you eventually stop focusing on the up and down of the pick and let your foot keep the beat. At that point you can use up-strokes or down-strokes as you desire. It depends on how you feel the music.

In my case, I am not using the pick in the etudes or in general, to keep track of downbeats and upbeats. This now happens for me automatically at the subconscious level. Therefore, unless the direction of the pick stroke serves a specific technical reason (which sometimes it does), I may pick differently each time I play a given piece, depending on how I want to accent certain notes.

I hope this clarifies any doubts you may have had regarding the picking in the etudes.

The William Leavitt book for Melodic Rhythms is a very good book to get started in reading for guitar. As a Berklee graduate, I used it initially and also with my students when teaching them sightreading at several music schools. However, counting and breaking down rhythms into 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, when you have to sight read fast doesn’t work. There’s no time to count and focus on the notes, etc. So, we have to glance ahead at a rhythm figure and already know how it sounds in the same manner as we glance at a written word and read it right away. That’s where learning the rhythm cells comes in handy. There are only so many 2 beat cells you have to learn…

Once you understand the rhythm cells as “words”, go back and read through the Leavitt book and it will be much easier.

As far as picking goes, there are many schools. They are all valid depending on what you’re trying to achieve. I sometimes use the 3 note per string picking technique when descending vertically, which consists of down stroke, upstroke and 1 downstroke for the 3rd note and 1st note of the next string. When ascending it’s the opposite. We need to be flexible, and adapt different techniques to our needs. Some call it economy picking because you pick 4 notes with 3 pick strokes…