about using pick?

[wjfkddf]

hey guys just got my first electric guitar and i'm having trouble using pick (I've been finger picking all this time). Whenver I try to pick down with some speed, the pick seems to get tangled on the string when I try to pick it down. (preventing me from making consistent open strings picking downward). Maybe I'm holding it wrong?

 

Also, sometimes I feel like I'm sliding the pick on top of strings rather than plucking it....

[Danzilla]

Without seeing you do it in person, it's hard to give advice. If you're used to fingerpicking on acoustic, then keep fingerpicking on the electric. It works for Jeff Beck (and many others).

[wjfkddf]

Thanks for the reply. But for the electric, I plan to all kinds of genre especially rock+ hard rock+ pop maybe metal. I'd like to get used to using picks for these reasons. What exercises should I do?

[russclan]

Buy a variety of shapes and sizes, and you will discover what works for you.

 

Hold it comfortably, yet firmly, and for now just practice strumming chords until they sound smooth. Then practice picking individual strings, using a metronome, utilizing quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes. Try doing only downstrokes as well as alternate (up-down) strokes with these exercises. Increase speed only when clean and smooth.

 

As you do this, you will gradually fall into using your own natural grip.

 

We can't really specify how to grip, as everyone is a bit different - some players use thumb/index finger, some thumb/middle finger, and some use thumb and both index and middle (Steve Morse, for example)...and so on.

 

Also, there's bound to be tons of stuff on youtube...do a search.

 

 

[CEB]

We can specify grip.

 

Use thumb and index only. This frees up 3 bottom finger for hybrid picking or maybe you can learn to use Herco picks and have 4 fingers free for hybrid picking. Build on your finger picking base.

 

[Hidden Subliminal Message] You want to play a Telecaster, You want to play a Telecaster [/Hidden subliminal Message]

[Larryz]

+1 on Hybrid picking. I use the thumb and index finger to hold the pick and the 3 remaining fingers for adding one, two or three strings...

[whitefang]

I hold the pick between my thumb and both the index and middle fingers. A friend of mine, who's a classically trained jazz guitarist holds HIS between his thumb and the first knuckle of his index finger.

 

But I fear we're confusing our young friend.

 

If he's used to finger picking, I DO know a couple of guys who use a thumbpick only for playing as we others do with any other kind of pick.

Whitefang

[Fred_C]

A friend of mine, who's a classically trained jazz guitarist holds HIS between his thumb and the first knuckle of his index finger.

 

Whitefang

 

Yeah, That's how I was taught to hold a pick too. I was told that if I held the pick between my thumb and 1st knuckle, 1st finger (with the first finger bent in order to expose the knuckle and to use the remainder of the first joint as a support for the rest of the pick), I would never drop my pick. It's worked great all these years and that's how I teach beginning students to hold a pick. Historically, most of them don't pay any attention to me and hold the pick differently. That's okay. I taught the technique, so I did the job I was paid to do. Also, this is the technique taught in the most boring instructional book ever printed the infamous Mel Bay Book I .

[Fred_C]

AFTERTHOUGHT:

 

Holding the pick using this grip also enables the player to keep his right wrist perfectly straight and parallel to the face of the strings.

[d halfnote]

A thumbpick might seem the best way to move from strict fingers to pick (what, wre you classically trained ?) but thumpick won't work well for up-strokes.

 

I'd say the best thing might be to make sure you have a somewhat loose grip on the pick. That'll allow it to move naturally as it's pulled across the string(s).

Even experienced players often exhibit tenseness when trying new techniques.

 

You could also check some vids of players for close-ups of what they do, not so much to imitate their method ---b/c you do want to do what's comfortable, both in pick size, flexibility, etc--- but to see if there's a clue as to what's going wrong for you.

[Fred_C]

I think "classically trained" might be something of a misnomer. I guess "formally trained" might be closer to the mark. I studied with four very good teachers and all were very heavy into correct technique.

[d halfnote]

Classical players are the ones most likely to eschew a pick.

[Fred_C]

Agreed.

 

Although, Esteban has been known to use a pick for some genres (certainly not classical) and he studied under Segovia. I don't think you can get more "classically trained" than that.

 

One of my teachers advised me "use your fingers when you play chords and a flat pick when you play single note lines. I only use a flat pick to play one Jazz Standard (I Got it Bad by Duke Ellington). I play everything else with my fingers.

[d halfnote]

I think yer messing w/ the point here, Fred.

 

As I said originally, one might be unfamiliar w/ pick (excuse me, "plectrum") use if trained classically but any method of sound production on gtr can be readily studied by buying ----or better economically, watching online vids ---- that show various techniques.

[Fred_C]

I guess I missed your point rather than messing with it.

 

Anyway, agreed.

[whitefang]

I know guys who use a thumbpick and have no problems with upstroke. I tried it and did. So....

 

I also tried the grip that Fred mentioned, and found it awkward...for ME at least. So it's not necessarily wrong.

 

I think one good thing to come out of all this is that we gave our young friend a few options to try. I found it an odd question though. I recall that I needn't have wondered how to hold a pick. Seemed rather "self explanitory" to me. I hold it now the way I FIRST held one, and have done so ever since. Once realizing the "pointy end" needed to face the strings, it seemed to come naturally.

Whitefang

[p90jr]

Like anything else you have to practice using the pick.

 

In the first Mel Bay books I had there were exercises... just simple things of playing all down strokes for a bunch of measures on one string then changing to another string. Just make up your own exercises and do them until it's natural.

 

I think the picking hand is pretty important, and it's where a lot of guitarists stink, IMO. I know guys who can play solos like a champ and can't play rhythm for the rest of the song... have no feel and don't have that side of things down.

 

I had to do the opposite... coming from playing guitar with a pick to my stepdad bringing home a bass one day and insisting that I play with my fingers. After a few years of that playing finger style on an acoustic didn't take much effort... though I need to get a classical and work on the correct pima for some of that stuff (and get fake fingernails, I guess).

[skipclone 1]

After seeing a post about leg hair trimmers for guys in Japan, I was going to write something about a nail salon for guys, featuring `torture proof` acrylic nails.

You get a choice of two colors, gunmetal grey or black.

[Larryz]

I would like the Clear Coat please. I have a couple of buddies that are strictly acoustic players with manicured acrylic nails. They don't like calling attention to their long finger nails so black or gunmetal grey just wouldn't do. I think I would want to blend in and would feel a bit funny with any color of fingernails that didn't look as normal as possible for a guy...

[whitefang]

I think "classically trained" might be something of a misnomer. I guess "formally trained" might be closer to the mark. I studied with four very good teachers and all were very heavy into correct technique.

 

Fred, see my reply in "Holding a pick" for my answer to THIS post.

Whitefang

[skipclone 1]

Well the metal crowd seems to have pretty much taken over black fingernails for guys, although being away from the U.S. I`m not sure how common it is to actually see it aside from the big stars. I think gunmetal could be in the same situation if some genre or group became associated with it.

[Larryz]

I think you'll see it in the US if it's metal-goth-punk type of band where painted nails are popular with the younger and the old rock star players with chains and makeup...but those guys don't usually play acoustics with their long nails, they just like the look...

[skipclone 1]

Right-I think over a certain length, there`s always going to be a raised eyebrow or two if a guy is sporting some real talons painted or not.

Ideally people need to get over it anyway.

 

[TuskBuffer]

You might also want to experiment with different shapes of picks--some people prefer a pointy tip like a Jazz III, some prefer a more blunted tip like the classic 351 style, thick picks, thin picks...LOTS of possibilities. Find what you're comfortable with, experiment, have fun with it.

 

When I was starting out, I used everything I could get my hands on...including coins, silverware, stones and shells I found on the beach. You name it, it's probably hit my strings at one time or another! Have fun and keep ROCKIN'!