I don't use this technique very much myself, since it's usually hard to get back to the regular picking pattern afterwards. Often you don't solve technical problems this way, you just postpone them. This is much a matter of personal taste/style though, and even a die-hard alternate picker like me would use and recommend economy picking in phrases like the two above.

Besides, economy picking isn't only there for technical reasons. When you use it, you have to even out the difference in emphasis between down- and upstrokes, creating a smoother more flowing phrasing. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the occasion and you personal preferences. The best thing is of course to master both techniques well enough to be able to switch between them as needed.

Triplets and triple time rhythm

The strict alternating stroke system works when there's one or two notes on each beat. But when we play triplets and when you play jigs and other tunes in 6/8, 9/8 or 12/8 time, we have three notes in each beat. How d we do that?

I've covered the basics of triplet playing in the accompaniment section, and solo playing is very similar: Play each three note group down-up-down (some prefer down-down-up).

There are some differences though. The "prepared triplet" and "upstroke after the triplet" methods aren't much used in solo playing. When you play a triplet in a hornpipe or reel or similar, you definitely want it properly emphasized. It's hard get that with an upstroke afterwards, and impossible with a prepared triplet. In triple time tunes they simply aren't don't work very often. You need a passage with slower picking before or after the triplet for the two techniques to make sense and you don't get that very much in a jig.

The "two triplets" method isn't that useful for solo playing either. It works well for isolated phrases like the last two bars of the Galway Hornpipe:

Picking example 10

but if you're trying to play alternate stroke throughout a jig, it'll easily end up sounding like a seasick waltz instead, and you don't want that!

Here are some triplet exercises you can use to develop your skills.

The fiddler's aproach

There's a completely different way to look at irish banjo picking. Most of the music we play was originally intended for the fiddle.
A fiddler doesn't really have much of a choice. He has to play every other note with down- and upstrokes. Well, he can play a slur (two notes on the same note on the same stroke) now and then, and he also can do some economy picking (err... I mean bowing), but there are some limitation.

Usually fiddle technique ends up just like standard irish banjo picking patterns, but there are some exceptions, and if you want to - and know what you're doing - you could try to emulate a fiddler's bow with your pick.

But in the end...

Don't forget that everything I (or anybody else) say about picking patterns are guidelines, not laws! The two important things are: get the phrasing right, and don't choose "easy" solutions that'll just cause you problems later on in the tune.