Help me get started with using a pick.

[Dr. Overtones]

Basically, any help on technique, exercises, etc. is appreciated. I've always stuck to fingerstyle, but I've decided it can't hurt to learn how to use a pick alone as well as hybrid picking - if I learn it all, I'll be able to do it all. Not to mention, if I ever decide to get an electric (Tele?), it'll help to know how to use a pick because those necks can get very thin.

So please, AGF, help a fingerstyle/touchstyle player become a jack of all trades, master of... all.

[wgmiller]

Eagerly looking forward to replies as I find myself helpless with a plectrum.

Will

[imwjl]

I'll take a stab.

I like a thicker pick than many use just for strumming. It does two things for me. It aids speed and volume if I play a run or melody. Next the thicker pick sounds closer to or at least more balanced with my bare fingers for hybrid picking.

As for the picks themselves. I like The pointy red Dunlap Jazz III for hybrid picking and my 00-18 guitar and electrics. For my OM and dread and strumming I like 1.14 mm Dunlop Gators (blue) for economy and Wegen Bluegrass.

I think a thicker pick helps me with that "less is more" in playing where or when you're just playing part of a chord or picking a melody or arpeggio from a chord.

I also like a not always seen Planet Waves "Black Ice" pick that's a cross between the med sized Dunlops and Jazz IIIs.

To have fun with it and change your mode of playing if you've been finger picking think of your guitar as the snare drum or cymbal and practice strumming 8th and 16th notes and ring - dead patterns as you count. Find a youtube video on funk rhythm and that should make sense.

There are also good youtube videos on bluegrass flat pick style.

Take all of this all with several grains of salt and knowing that it's free because at my age I confess I'll never be headlining or doing more than local jams and having fun.

Have fun!

P.S. Attn: Dr. Overtone. You mention Tele. I'll warn you that the Jazz III and what you know of finger picking will lead to hours of pleasure and membership on the TDPRI forum and dreams of blackface and tweed tone in same way you might already think of spruce, rosewood and mahogany.

[Malcolm]

Picks are cheap - get a hand full of all kinds and try them out till you find your pick.
Acoustic guys seem to like the thick picks 1.00 to 3.00 mm. I have settled on the Jazz III or Big Stubby 2.5 mm. The Big Stubby has an indention that help you hold it. If you are up in years, like me, a thumb pick sure is nice in the last part of the gig. The loop in the thumb pick keeps the pick from flying off. It's a little hard to do an up down strum with a thumb pick unless you hold the back side of the pick with your index finger.

All down strums are OK right at first, then a boom, strum, strum, strum. Boom is a pick on the lowest string of the chord then followed with the down strum, strum, strum.

Next work in a boom strum, boom strum. Second boom is on the next to lowest string in the chord.

One up down strum next. You only sound one or two strings on the up strum. Your choice as to which pattern to use, what ever feels comfortable.

How to get a strum into muscle memory - take your guitar to the couch and watch TV. Grab the neck around the 5th fret +/- and strum your pattern. You will get a dead thud sound, no problem keep strumming while watching TV and at the end of an hours program that strum will be in muscle memory.

Strumming is a feel thing, don't worry about duplicating the strum pattern the original artist used. You're playing the song now - use what ever strum feels right to you.

Good luck.

[Dr. Overtones]

I forgot to mention my strumming is already decent. What I'll have trouble with is picking, sweeps, etc.

[Dr. Overtones]

Does anyone here have an opinion on V-Picks? Their Ruby Red Acoustic picks look interesting.


EDIT: Also, imwjl, about the Tele, I really just want to get a Blonde Baja Tele, put a chrome pickguard on it, and swap out the bridge pickup for a Carvin S60TB. It'll be like a half-arsed replica of Jeff Buckley's Tele. I long to be able to replicate his tone in the recording of Hallelujah, and with that bridge pickup and a ton of reverb, I might be able to get pretty close. By the way, an 8-hole pickguard will fit on a Tele with 5 holes if I just neglect 3 of the holes, right?

[Yoder]

I like the black Dunlop Jazz pick for single not picking, and use a gray Dunlop.88mm for most of my acoustic strumming. For me, a stiff pick was hard to use when I was starting to strum.

The big problem with using a pick seems to be holding onto it. Some people punch a hole in the top of the pick with a single hole punch...I have never done it. I prefer to suck on my picks and the spittle makes for great bonding of skin and pick. But, holding a pick in your mouth can be fatal...I have started to nod out a couple of times and thought of how terrible it would be for me if I feel asleep with a pick in my mouth, inhaled, and all of a sudden the pick is stuck in my windpipe. Now I do not put them in my mouth if I am tired and in a reclined position.

[HHP]

Clean, alternating down-up strokes are key to getting sped and tone. Practice D-U stroke on one string, two adjacent strings, and all the way across and back. One of the best ways to get into it is to play a chord progression and connect the changes with single note runs ala' Carter Style.

[LindaW]

Picks are cheap - get a hand full of all kinds and try them out till you find your pick.
Acoustic guys seem to like the thick picks 1.00 to 3.00 mm. I have settled on the Jazz III or Big Stubby 2.5 mm. The Big Stubby has an indention that help you hold it. If you are up in years, like me, a thumb pick sure is nice in the last part of the gig. The loop in the thumb pick keeps the pick from flying off. It's a little hard to do an up down strum with a thumb pick unless you hold the back side of the pick with your index finger.

All down strums are OK right at first, then a boom, strum, strum, strum. Boom is a pick on the lowest string of the chord then followed with the down strum, strum, strum.

Next work in a boom strum, boom strum. Second boom is on the next to lowest string in the chord.

One up down strum next. You only sound one or two strings on the up strum. Your choice as to which pattern to use, what ever feels comfortable.

How to get a strum into muscle memory - take your guitar to the couch and watch TV. Grab the neck around the 5th fret +/- and strum your pattern. You will get a dead thud sound, no problem keep strumming while watching TV and at the end of an hours program that strum will be in muscle memory.

Strumming is a feel thing, don't worry about duplicating the strum pattern the original artist used. You're playing the song now - use what ever strum feels right to you.

Good luck.

As a completely strum-impaired person, you made my day with your post, esp. the last paragraph!! Thanks!!!

[hawgadi]

I was shocked to see pick recommendations from 1mm to 3mm! I certainly found thinner picks much easier to use, and only later graduated to the thick, stiffer ones when I had much more control.

The thicker picks allow for much greater range of tone, but to me, make it a bit harder to get a clear, clean tone.