Let's face it. Talking about 'half-picking' and ‘whole picking’
will give you, at a minimum, alarmed reactions of astonishment. The question
will come in a second, how can even exist a pick in half.
But in the mandolin whole and half picking do exist and
their definition is common to the vast majority of the classical methods for
mandolin.
In particular, the whole picking is the movement by which
the pick hits the strings TWICE, one down (from SOL to MI – from G to E) and up
(from MI to SOL – from E to G).
The half picking is the movement with which the pick hitting
the strings ONCE, up OR down.
When a note is played with 4 whole picking the strings will
then hit 8 times, four down and four up.
Munier in the method assigned at the beginning, a 'correct'
number of whole picking for different note values ranging from 8 whole picking
for the whole note, which is worth 4/4, up to 2 for the quarter note, which is
worth ¼.
To this definition I would also add 1 whole picking for the chroma, which is 1/8, cause that
definition is then given (for the initial phase of the staccato study) and used
in the text.
The use of whole picking in the precise measurement is used
in the development of the tremolo mechanism, the wrist, arm and hand will
gradually adapt to this new movement and, once well mastered the movement, you
will first increase the speed and then double the number of whole picking per
note, bringing to 16 the whole picking for whole note and to 4 whole picking for
the quarter note.
