What Richard says is probably the only way to do this. You need to teach your picking hand which new strings start with a downstoke and which ones you have to lift over in order to start with an upstroke. The only way is to start slowly and build it up over time.
Did you have the same problem in Module 10 when we were taught to play the C Major scale in the open position? I know I did. Slowing it down and repetition got me through it.
Without wanting to overcomplicate matters I did see a video of a teacher advising his student to dismiss what his fretting hand is telling his left hand to do and mute the strings whilst picking through a pattern thus isolating the picking hand. That to me seemed over the top but it is harder than you think lol.
Hey folks, I’ve got a question regarding the alternate picking. Justin recommends to always alternate between up and down picks. I noticed that I tend to be more effective when using two down picks in a row, if I move up a string(For example A to D String). It’s the same for me when going down(higher) the strings, I use more up picks. Hope you’re with me, up and down confused me quite a bit
You teaching yourself a bad habit that will be very hard to break.
Try saying Down Up Down Up out loud when practicing.
Do it slow with no mistake and in a few days it will become natural. Justin teaches everything for a reason that may not be clear to you right now but when you are further down the road you won’t be struggling to break a bad habit you picked up.
I find doing this scale repetitively (~10time) my hand on the pinky and ring finger when hitting the low E and A strings notes hurts/feels a pinch a long the metacarpal,(area on hand below the finger on the side of palm before wrist.). As any such pinch can’t be good looking to elminate it. my thumb for the scale is normally behind the 1st and 2nd finger on back side of neck on upper portion (towards playesr face about E string) . if I reorient my thumb lower about D string and splayed out towards the head/tuners (beyond 1st finger) then the metacarpal seems to slide outwards (away from the player on bottom of neck) and the pinch feeling goes away. Is this normal /common to have to adjust thumb through the scale? or perhaps I am just stubby and inflexible .Thanks all!
@SgtAuto You don’t want pain so something needs to change. I would suggest 10 or more repetitions is too many. Three without error is a good platform. Once done, the scale is there to make music with, not to run up and down. And mostly, that will focus on the D, G, B and E strings. If you have moved your thumb to a slightly more horizontal angle along the neck rather than perpendicular to it and parallel to the frets then I would advise against that. Have you tried adjusting your posture, seating, guitar-neck angle etc?
I am learning this scale on an acoustic guitar and I have smaller hands. I am finding it’s hard to keep my hand still and stretch my fingers over 4 frets. If I do this, my pinky is basically on it’s side and not playing with the tip of my finger. Should I move my hands slightly if needed in order to play the string on the tip of my finger or is it better try and hold it’s position and play with the side of my finger? This issue is mostly prevalent on the thicker 2 strings. This was easier with the C major scale in open position as it was only three frets. 4 is a beast though especially on the thicker frets. Hope this makes sense. Appreciate any tips or insight! Thanks!
Josh, for those thicker strings, you don’t need or want to arch your fingers up and over and press with tips. It is normal to leave them flexed and stretched out much flatter then if you were playing chords and use a bit more of the tip where it merges to the pad.
Starting position 2nd finger on root, 4th finger on its fret.
Arriving at the note one fret below the root on the 6th string.
Thank you Richard for the reply. So I had my thumb kind of at kind of 30° just behind at the first dot in the middle of the third fret. And would move it towards the head like you advised against. I found moving the thumb just behind the third fret bar and parallel to the fret, made quite a difference. So basically, I’m in the middle of the scale. Thank you.
So down about my scales and learning in general for some reason my fingers are so clumsy despite finger stretches and finger gyms and chromatic exercises almost every day. Still having trouble getting my fingers to spread out onto each fret. Especially middle finger and ring finger want to be together and I get so frustrated I use my right hand to try to pry them apart!
I guess I do get better but so slowly I don’t notice it from one day to the next. It also doesn’t help that I don’t fully understand the use of the scale patterns or how they relate to the caged system and ultimately what use it all is. I did the whole beginners course but I don’t think there was a lesson on CAGED unless I missed it? I feel like I’m missing something that should be obvious. That on top of the not being able to make my fingers go where I want them, I wonder if I’ll be stuck on grade 4 forever…it’s been a couple months now and I really want to move on but also I want to do things properly and not skip anything important. Rant over
From memory, Justin uses the G major scale in his major scale intro lesson? I don’t know why he chose that, because it’s a big stretch for a beginner. Try moving the scale two frets up to the A major scale. It requires much less of a stretch. Or the C major scale which requires almost no stretch at all. When you’ve got the scale pattern internalised you can work your way back down to the G major scale for a bit of finger torture.
Thanks jacksprat! It’s definitely easier to do the scale further up the neck but even the C major scale isn’t completely comfortable for me. I guess I just need more practice.
.Thanks all!
for some reason my fingers are so clumsy despite finger stretches and finger gyms and chromatic exercises almost every day. Still having trouble getting my fingers to spread out onto each fret. Especially middle finger and ring finger want to be together and I get so frustrated I use my right hand to try to pry them apart! 
