Tips for better guitar pick technique
Unlocking the Secrets of Guitar Picking: Techniques and Tips for Mastery
On an electric guitar, you often use a guitar pick (picking or flatpicking). Other techniques include hybrid picking (using a guitar pick in combination with your fingers) and fingerpicking (using only your fingers or nails). Notable guitarists who play electric guitar without a pick include Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) and Jeff Beck. Some guitarists use a thumbpick along with their fingertips or fingerpicks, which are small picks worn on the fingertips.
Mastering a good picking technique is essential for achieving great sound, dynamic expression, and speed. What constitutes a good guitar picking technique, and what are the key elements to focus on when teaching yourself this skill?
Which guitar picks should you choose?
Guitar picks come in a variety of types, colors, shapes, sizes, and materials. While the color and design of a pick are largely aesthetic, its shape, size, thickness, and material are crucial for performance. The choice of pick is often a matter of personal preference and can be influenced by the style of music being played.
When using a pick, only the tip should contact the strings; your fingers should not touch them. The shape of the pick plays a significant role in the amount of friction created between the pick and the string. A pointed shape is ideal as it minimizes contact and provides a sharper sound. However, many guitarists prefer a rounded or “stomper” end because it wears down more slowly and offers a different tonal quality.
A pick with a sharper end tends to wear out faster, which is why professional guitarists often use multiple picks during a performance. If the tip of your pick becomes blunt, you can sometimes restore its sharpness using a knife, depending on the material.
Regarding thickness, it’s generally best to choose a pick with a thickness ranging from 0.7 to 2 millimeters. Thinner picks provide less control, while thicker picks offer greater control. Playing with a thicker pick requires more precise technique but is essential for achieving tight, dynamic, and expressive guitar performance.
Material and thickness of the guitar picks
Picks are made from a variety of materials, but plastic—especially nylon and celluloid—is the most commonly used. However, other materials like carbon fiber, stone, metal, bone, certain types of wood, and even titanium are also popular choices. Higher-quality plastic picks can be sharpened with a knife when they start to wear out, although sharpening metal picks is somewhat more challenging.
Personally, I avoid metal picks (such as brass) because they tend to be too loud and produce a shrill sound. Additionally, since the pickups on your guitar are magnets, it’s best to avoid getting too close with a metal pick. Picks made from softer materials wear out faster and produce a darker tone, while harder materials result in a higher, brighter, and sharper sound. Your preference will depend on personal taste and the style of music you play. For instance, genres like funk and hard funk (e.g., Red Hot Chili Peppers or Nile Rodgers with Chic) are best played with a medium or heavy pick rather than a thin or overly soft one.
Thin picks are generally suited for rhythm guitar and are often used by beginners who may not yet have developed advanced picking techniques or control. They are not ideal for solos due to their lack of control and excessive flexibility. Medium picks (around 0.75 mm thickness) are the most commonly used; they offer a balance between flexibility and control. Heavy and extra-heavy picks do not bend at all, requiring a well-developed picking technique and good control to avoid losing the pick while playing.
Holding A guitar pick
A lot of guitarists hold the pick incorrectly. But still, there are no standard rules on how to hold a guitar pick. If we should believe the standard rules of many websites, we have to conclude that top guitarists such as John Petrucci and Steve Morse often hold their pick incorrectly. Though, I think those guys are quite good guitarists, aren’t they :-)? But OK, some guidelines when you are just starting to play the guitar are important and necessary. For example, if you hold the pick between your fingertips, it will always tend to move and rotate. Where the attack will always happen at a different angle, plus you have the risk of dropping the pick.
How to Hold a Guitar Pick for Optimal Technique
One effective way to hold a guitar pick is to form a “zero” shape with your thumb and index finger. Position the pick on the side of your index finger and place your thumb on top of it. Maintaining this “zero” shape is crucial for allowing flexible finger movement, which helps achieve greater dynamics and expression in your playing.
Techniques for Striking the Strings (Attack)
When discussing guitar pick technique, it’s important to note the various ways you can strike the strings. There are generally four primary attack techniques with a pick:
- Supporting with the Fingers: Using your fingers for additional control.
- Supporting with the Wrist or Side of the Wrist: Providing stability from the wrist.
- Striking Loose from the Wrist: Allowing for a more fluid motion.
- Striking from the Arm: Utilizing the arm for power and precision.
To play fast and tightly, it’s crucial to make sure that your pick strokes are consistent and light, allowing you to maintain control over your playing. Guitar pick technique involves both downward strokes (downstrokes) and upward strokes (upstrokes). Each stroke should be a continuous, repeatable motion. Due to the shape of your hand and fingers, the pick is rarely perfectly parallel to the strings, so upstrokes often have slightly more accent than downstrokes.
In styles like pop, rock, grunge, and metal, where riffs need to sound mechanical and tight, downstrokes are typically preferred. For other styles, such as jazz, swing, reggae, and ska, the accentuated upstrokes can produce the desired effect. When performing speed picking, it’s advisable to tilt the pick slightly until it is parallel to the string. This ensures that the distance between the pick and the string remains consistent for both upstrokes and downstrokes, reducing accentuation and increasing speed.
However, personal preference plays a significant role. For instance, guitarists like Paul Gilbert often keep their pick tilted during speed picking, which adds a subtle scraping effect to the sound. To achieve maximum speed, minimize the friction between the pick and the strings. Strike the strings with the tip of the pick to reduce friction and conserve energy.