Guitar Lesson 06: downstrokes and upstrokes, with Michael Angelo Batio
Taught by Fret, your Change Your Strings Guitar teacher ·
A downstroke drags the pick toward the floor. An upstroke lifts it back toward the ceiling. Michael Angelo Batio drills each stroke on its own so they sound equally strong and even. Downstrokes give power, upstrokes add speed. Keep the motion small, stay relaxed, and let a metronome hold the pace.
What you need
- SA
Guitar · Signature
Sawtooth ST-M24 Satin White with Floyd Rose (Michael Angelo Batio signature)
Watch Michael Angelo Batio demonstrate this in the video above, then read the breakdown.
You have been strumming chords with your fretting hand doing the hard work. Now meet the other hand, one stroke at a time. In his second beginner lesson, Batio splits the picking hand into two simple moves and drills them separately before he ever lets you combine them.
A downstroke drags the pick down across the string, toward the floor. An upstroke lifts it back up, toward the ceiling. That is the whole vocabulary. Batio's key point is that these two strokes are not equal yet in your hand. The downstroke feels strong and natural, because your grip and gravity both help it. The upstroke feels weak and clumsy, because nothing does. So he has you play each one on its own until they match.
The reason he drills them slowly and separately is balance. If your downstrokes are loud and your upstrokes are quiet, everything you play later will limp: heavy on the beat, thin off it. Even the two strokes out now, and every rhythm you learn from here sounds steady.
He also keeps the motion tiny. The pick barely clears the string before it comes back. Beginners fling the pick far away and waste the whole return trip. Batio's hand stays close and relaxed, hinging from the wrist, not swinging from the elbow. Small motion, less effort, more control.
Start on a chord you already know. Strum Em from Lesson 04 with nothing but downstrokes.
e |-0---0---0---0--B |-0---0---0---0--G |-0---0---0---0--D |-2---2---2---2--A |-2---2---2---2--E |-0---0---0---0--
Now isolate a single string so you can hear each stroke clearly. Play the open low E eight times: the first four as downstrokes, the last four as upstrokes.
e |--------------------------------B |--------------------------------G |--------------------------------D |--------------------------------A |--------------------------------E |-0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---
This is the same patience Batio is known for. He made Tom Morello nail an exercise slowly before adding any speed, moving the metronome up one click at a time. Do that here: clean and even first, faster later. He plays his own Sawtooth signature guitars throughout the series, and the Sawtooth ST-M24 Michael Angelo Batio Satin Black is the beginner-friendly version of that same model.
Practice this
Set a metronome slow, around 60 beats per minute. For one minute, play one downstroke on the open low E per click. For the next minute, play one upstroke per click. Then spend a minute alternating: down on one click, up on the next. Listen not to the notes but to the volume. When the upstroke matches the downstroke, you are ready to move on. A free metronome app is all you need.
Where you are
In Lesson 05: your second chord (A) and switching your fretting hand did the work. This lesson wakes up your picking hand. Keep the guitar in standard tuning (E A D G B E) so every open string rings true, and see how Michael Angelo Batio turned these same two strokes into some of the fastest playing on record. Next, Lesson 07: alternate picking joins the down and the up into one flowing motion.