Using a pick 101 – please help a fingerpicker

Hi folks,

Long time fingerpicker here, suddenly trying to get to grips with surf guitar. I have bought a few different picks, tried using them, lost a few of them in the process... I feel like all my muscle memory is gone, I keep hitting the wrong strings, and even when picking on a single string I just can't do it fast enough (yet?). 

Do you have any tips to share? Any idea how steep the learning curve should be? Is it possible to get comfortable with and without a pick? 

Please don't send videos, I'm after good old fashioned (read: last century) advice. 

Cheers,
Jon

I almost always play with fingers rather than a pick as well, I submitted a song to the composition challenge earlier which i used a pick for, and which I found incredibly difficult to keep the motion going and that was just basic strumming. I do suspect it's a muscle memory thing though and with practice I'd get the fitness back, albeit strumming is easier than the surf style stuff you're getting to grips with (pardon the pun).

My picking with a pick skills improved a lot when I learnt a bit of mandolin as you do need a pick for that, otherwise it's too quiet. Maybe some beginners Mandolin picking drills might help as that tremolo style effect you use for playing tunes on one of those would be useful for Surf guitar lines I reckon. And also people learning the mandolin tend to be already proficient in playing something else, so the "beginners" exercises will be more geared towards people that have a certain amount of knowledge already

Make sure you're holding the pick properly, so not much of the tip showing, the thumb covering the whole of the top of it. If you don't do this the pick can move around and eventually fall out your hand. Angle your hand downwards as well so its slightly at an angle instead of being 90 straight across the strings. Used the fleshy bit of the hands to mute strings.

Lestratcaster said:

Make sure you're holding the pick properly, so not much of the tip showing, the thumb covering the whole of the top of it. If you don't do this the pick can move around and eventually fall out your hand. Angle your hand downwards as well so it’s slightly at an angle instead of being 90 straight across the strings. Used the fleshy bit of the hands to mute strings.

This. I didn’t get the angling thing until fairly recently (although I was doing it without realising). You want the pick to meet the string on its edge, not the flat side. It only takes a slight angle. I tell my students to listen for a slight scraping sound on the wound strings.. 

If you’re hitting wrong strings then you’re probably floating your hand. You need to maintain contact with something in order for your hand to have a reference point and know where it is. I was initially told to rest my hand on the bridge, and this is a good starting point.

Lestratcaster said:

Make sure you're holding the pick properly, so not much of the tip showing, the thumb covering the whole of the top of it. If you don't do this the pick can move around and eventually fall out your hand. Angle your hand downwards as well so its slightly at an angle instead of being 90 straight across the strings. Used the fleshy bit of the hands to mute strings.

Thanks, this and this:

Littlejonny said:
You want the pick to meet the string on its edge, not the flat side. It only takes a slight angle. I tell my students to listen for a slight scraping sound on the wound strings.. 

If you’re hitting wrong strings then you’re probably floating your hand. You need to maintain contact with something in order for your hand to have a reference point and know where it is. I was initially told to rest my hand on the bridge, and this is a good starting point.

In reality however, most good players either rest across the strings or touch something below the strings like the scratch plate or the edge of the pick-up.

have got me from 0% to 85% of where I wanted to be. Practice should take care of the other 15%. 

Thank you so much, folks. Now, any tips for not losing picks? Perhaps I should keep one with me at all times? 

Yorkie said:  .. Now, any tips for not losing picks? Perhaps I should keep one with me at all times? 

Experiment with different picks until you find one you like. Then buy 10 or 12 of them, and keep them in a tin glued or screwed to your pedal board. 

Drilled holes also have the benefit of reducing wind resistance when your shredding gets into sixth gear ;)

GoFish said:

As far as grip and not dropping it - it's mainly a case of getting used to it I think. it will happen a lot less with practise. If you are going to put a hole in a pick, you can use a much thicker one as it will feel and act like a thinner one by flexing more,  in my experience.

Got another tip for not dropping them: buy a BlueChip...you tend to grip those fkrs real tight! ;)

For years I insisted on textured picks, like tortex or even snarling dogs because I had a problem with dropping them…a few years ago I discovered that the shiny smooth ones are much less droppable! So my recommendation for not dropping picks is Fender Heavy or Medium cellulose. 

Used to hold the pick with the pad of my index finger, I had to unlearn this.  The pad and thumb allow too much flexibility, and there shouldn’t be any. 

I’ve found one I like, but now I’m not sure how to get more of that. It’s a red Dunlop Jazz III, very small and fairly thick. But when I look online there seems to be a load of picks under that name?

Found them, 1.38mm 

My new favourite pick the red Jazz 3. I have so many others lying around. Switching back to a bigger pick feels clumsy and slower. Yup. Red Jazz 3's...

Just an FYI...I have been working on my picking and came across a short article about Benson picking. I tried it a while, found it really useful and, while I've not continued with it, I learned from trying it and have sort of hybridised it into my own average technique...

Here's the article:

https://fretboardanatomy.com/picking/

And to encourage you to read it, here's a quote from a famous guitarist whose music I dont know and have never listened to. She mentions hand position being similar to finger-picking.


Update: After she read this article, Sheryl shared some further insight into her technique. She told me that she began picking this way because it “puts your pick at the same angle as your fingers would be if you played classical guitar,” and that she uses Fender Mediums for the same reason––because they’re “roughly the same texture and thickness as a fingernail.”

And although she adopted this technique “for tonal pursuit, speed came out of it.”

That’s interesting, thanks for sharing. 

Try using the shoulder of the pick instead of the point. This method is used by many guitarists. From my own point of 
  view I found it made my picking more precise and I could play faster and smoother .
 I tried many different picks but ended up using basic Fender heavy or medium picks. It's worth a try. Good luck.

My two cents… if you’re not comfortable with a pick then use your fingers. You’ll be in some great company - Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Hubert Sumlin, Wilko Johnson, etc.

I just needed some basic tremolo picking skills going for my surf guitar project. I’m getting faster everyday, although I’m not ready to record yet.  

One very odd thing I have noticed is that my playing sounds much better with a pick vs fingerpicking when using the Micro Cube. Almost as if the modelling was somehow optimised for the attack of a pick? It sounds awesome.