Proper Picking Technique

Pita Bread

Pita Bread

Obscurity
Nov 28, 2003
207
0
16
Moorpark, CA
Ok well, I've been playing for 3 years and I'm still not sure what the "proper" way to hold a guitar pick is. Are you supposed to angle it down? up? I've seen pictures of Mike Amott playing and I think I hold it the same way as he does, but then from the pictures of Chris Amott and Alexi Laiho, they seem to be pointing the pick downwards... Can someone please give me advice and post pictures for proper picking technique?

I've just grown extremely frustrated with my progress on guitar... I can play fast but it's just not as fast or precise as I would like to be playing... and I just don't know what's wrong...
 
You can hold a pick any way you want to, it's all a matter of preference. I used to try different techniques where I'd copy my fave players hand position and such. Now when I play, I find my hand moving into different shapes to accompany the style of riff I happen to be playing at the moment. As long as it's comfortable and works with the passage you're playing it's all good. Try a few different ones and intermix them within a song.
It's all about finding your groove, man. :p
 
Thanks guys for the friendly words of advice, I really appreciate it.

However, I'm kinda worried about this.

http://www.midnightdruggist.com/homework3.htm

Looking at the picture, the guy is holding the guitar pick, with the front edge of the pick (the edge pointing toward the neck) angled downwards at about a 45 degree angle to the string. Various guitarists I have seen use this method. I can use this method for sweep picking but for alternate picking, I can't play faster than a dying rat pointing the pick downards. In fact, I don't think it's physically possible to trem pick that way. The way I play normally is with the front edge of the pick angled upwards at about a 30 degree angle, which is almost the complete opposite of what the picture shows. It's rather comfortable for me, and produces roughly the same tone, but seeing so many guitarists holding the pick the other way worries me. Any suggestions? Or should I keep holding the pick the way I do?
 
in that picture, i think hes strumming, because i cant imagine picking like that. i tend to hold the pick about level with the string, but thats just me. It boils down to whatever works works, and when it comes to something like picking, its more of a preference thing than a black and white, right and wrong thing.
either way, :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:
 
Pita Bread said:
Any suggestions? Or should I keep holding the pick the way I do?
Click to expand...

For trem picking, most people prefer to hold the pick at a slight downward angle. 45 degrees is a bit much.

The bottom line is, as always, that if what you're doing is comfortable and isn't inhibiting you, there's simply no reason to change. Very few people, when you're on top of your game and setting the place on fire, will be staring at your picking hand going "Look at the stupid angle on that fucking plectrum!"
 
Pita Bread said:
However, I'm kinda worried about this.

http://www.midnightdruggist.com/homework3.htm
Click to expand...

Camera_Picture_1.jpg


Actually, looking at the picture, I don't think he's suggesting you hold the pick at that angle to play. He's just showing you where it lies along his thumb and forefinger.
 
3 years is kind of late to be changing something so crucial to guitar technique neh?? Ive been playing for almost 2 years, and even if I knew I was playing completely wrong, I wouldn't change my technique because Im happy with my technical abilities, and it's all about practice, if you practice enough, you can hold the pick in between your ass cheeks and pull off an "Alexi Laiho" solo, as well as an Amott solo. Its all in your head.
 
I entirely changed the way I used my left hand after playing for 5 years cuz the way I was playing I couldn't advance past basic power chords (I held it like a baseball bat with the thumb wrapped around the neck instead of behind it, that's a very bad way to play if you want to play anything but the basic power chord). Once you've got some experience though changing something isn't that hard. The hard part is realizing that you need to change.
 
Well I am an old fart and have been playing for 20 years, but it was my guitar hero (now retired) Wolf Hoffmann that explained his technique in a guitar magazine which worked for me.

Wolf placed the pick between his thumb and forefinger (duh) butwould cup his hands and actually place the pick on the side of his index finger at the last digit right on the side of the nail. Then he hold the pick at about a 45 degree angle to the strings for most picking techniques.
These are the techniques I use and my right hand technique is farhter developed than my left, though I am a little lazy with theory and odd scales....


Bryant
 
Leper_/-\ffinity said:
3 years is kind of late to be changing something so crucial to guitar technique neh?? .
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with you dude. I think that guitar playing (and any musical instrument actually) requires that one change, adapt, and try different things in order to progress as a musician. Otherwise your playing will become stagnant and you'll end up playing the same thing over and over again. Trying a different picking technique is just as important as learning a new scale, imo.
Even old farts like Bryant and myself :p who have been playing for 20 years need a bit of variety. Change is good!
 
Anyone know if that cupped hand position is reliable. I've been experimenting with picking techniques and the damn pick seems to fall out of my hand! I play regularly even though I'm left-handed because I felt like switching would make things too complicated. I've been really lazy and I strum a lot of chords using one of those picks with the extra plastic that goes around the thumb. I definitely need a change.
 
Nuclear Vampire said:
Even old farts like Bryant and myself :p who have been playing for 20 years need a bit of variety. Change is good!
Click to expand...
Amen brother. Though I don't like "country," I recently (in the last five years or so) opened my ears to things like folk and bluegrass to learn new acoustic techniques so I could apply them to electric. You are never too old to learn new stuff. I spend more time perfecting my playing style than I do "trying new shit" but I still do that as well because you can learn something from ANYONE. Mick Mars is the biggest example of that I can think of.
I am not a Crue fan nor do I dislike them and consider Mick to be mediocre at best, but when I first heard "Kickstart My Heart" and that "whaaaa" (the first part that sounds like a car changing gears) I said to myself after about three seonds of that "that's Motley Crue." That was a revelation to me. A guitarist without high skills entered my list (though low on the list) of guitar favorites because he simply made himself "stand out" though in a different way than my other favorites.
What does this have to do with the original question ? Everything..... I am not saying your skills are only as good as Mick Mars, but if you have tried different picking techniques and you don't see improvement, then go with what is comfortable and concentrate on something else. I will also give you the "default" reply that I give to every guitarist..... whether they have been playing 6 months or 20 years... play an acoustic. My biggest jump in technique playing an electric was not playing it at all. When I first played an acoustic, it nearly killed me and my fingers hurt for three months, but when I picked that electric back up, I felt like a master. That acoustic guitar doesn't hide flaws and forces one to be "musical" as well as technical.


Bryant
 
Picking Is For Sissys,i Have Impressed Much More Persons By Playing Without One.but If You Insist Id Say It Depends On The Parts Or Styles Youre Playing,just Try Everything You Can,if It Sounds Good And Clean Its Cool.if Youre A Fukn Wannabe,dont Listen To Me,but You Might Lose A Chance To Create A New Style That Every Fukn Wannabe Would Want To Copy.science Just Aint For Geeks.
 
guess you need drilling practices. Do drilling everday with a thick stiff pick of average size. stiff pick will relpace your arm motion with wrist motion if you have bad habit of using arm motion for picking. Start it slow, always be in rythm, hear it as if you are playing drum, go for fully satisfactory strike each time you pick, don't follow the instructions like: using less movement as much as possible or using just the tip of your pick to strike or other things you will find in lots of articles. Just play it with relaxed hands with as mush movement as you wish and while picking don't just use the tip of your pick but slide the pick from the "point of contact of pick and your fingers" to the the tip of the pick eack thime you strike. In few months you will be able to hold your pick satisfactorily and and sound accurate, as you bigin to catch the speed you will find that you will me making less hand movements and striking the strings with just the tip of the pick, but never do it intentionally from the time you begin, it will just develop bad habits. keep every thing natural and play and practise with your ears open, don't forget to hear every notes you play.
 
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