[JonPR]

Originally Posted by mcmars

I have been playing for over 50 years. I just realized in last year that I hold a flatpick different from most people. I use a thumb, index and middle finger "pencil" style grip.

Sounds like exactly the way I hold it (I taught myself, even longer ago than you did!). I posted pics in an earlier post.

Originally Posted by mcmars

I figured this out as I was looking into hybrid picking and realized I was not holding my pick with just the thumb and index finger and it felt very unstable to hold it with just the thumb and index.

I never bothered with hybrid for a different reason. I couldn't see why I should tie up my index holding a pick, when I could just use my thumbnail and have one more finger for picking with.

IOW, I could never see what advantage hybrid had over normal fingerpicking - unless you were combining it with strumming or lead guitar work, in the same song, and didn't want to have to drop the pick. I guess that's how hybrid pickers work: they use a pick for everything else, so they prefer to keep hold of it when venturing into fingerstyle.

Sometimes I find myself playing part of a song with a pick (strumming chords, or playing riffs), and fingerpicking other parts - but when I do that I palm the pick: grip it in my curled ring or pinky in order to use thumb, index and middle.

Originally Posted by mcmars

For me, feel it is much easier to use 3 "points to hold a skinny slippery pick than 2 , as 3 points makes a plane and all and just gives me a more secure locked in grip than using thumb and index. I also notice I can torque a thinner pick a bit to alter the tone by squeezing it to make the pick bend it longways to get a "fatter" tone. I also can use the edge sometimes to strum and get a sweeter tone by brushing the edge. Not sure if I could do that if I gripped it with just thumb and index finger.

Again, my technique 100%.

But I do know one situation where the "official" grip - curled index as in the above pics - is better than mine (i.e., yours!). I'm currently teaching a student rock grade 6, and one of the tunes contains some very fast 16th note riffing. Even though I find that grip feels awkward and clumsy, I find I can play those lines much more cleanly and efficiently (and faster!) than with my usual grip. In my own music (even on rock electric) I never have to play lines like that, so I don't usually have any call for that grip, and my (your!) usual one is much more flexible, suiting various different kinds of lead and rhythm playing. But the difference in speed for those particular lead lines is remarkable.