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Old 08-06-2022, 08:44 PM
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Default Learning finger picks - 3 weeks in

How long did it take you to learn to use finger picks and play as though the picks were like a part of your body? Just curious. I'm 3 weeks in and the feel of them is good now, but spatially I'm still off some, but not near as bad as a week ago.

I still have some noise from the finger picks. I can wrestle with the angle of my hand and tweak the angle of the metal picks a bit, but I also tried first aid (cloth) tape today to see if it muted the clicking of the metal. That worked pretty well on a nylon, but terrible on steel. Maybe electrical tape? I'll let you all know
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Old 08-06-2022, 11:50 PM
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Barry, have you considered just getting acrylic nails? it's what a huge percentage of pro fingerstyle players use, and tho there is some getting use to them, it's nothing like fingerpicks. I don't think I could ever use fingerpicks - just too awkward and too removed from feeling the strings (and they tend to be unstable, at least in my limited experiments). And the sound is often fairly brash and clicky (tho I know some people are successful in avoiding that with practice). The minute I tried nails, there was no going back.
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Old 08-07-2022, 01:56 AM
Andyrondack Andyrondack is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
How long did it take you to learn to use finger picks and play as though the picks were like a part of your body? Just curious. I'm 3 weeks in and the feel of them is good now, but spatially I'm still off some, but not near as bad as a week ago.

I still have some noise from the finger picks. I can wrestle with the angle of my hand and tweak the angle of the metal picks a bit, but I also tried first aid (cloth) tape today to see if it muted the clicking of the metal. That worked pretty well on a nylon, but terrible on steel. Maybe electrical tape? I'll let you all know
For me it depended on how technical intricate and fast I was trying to play, for most stuff with the Alaska picks I could play easy stuff freely after a few days but the most difficult for the right hand are some jigs with lots of notes repeated on the same string , it took me about 6 months to be able play a few jigs at 110bpm and play the set a few times without errors.
Way easier with natural nails.
As far as making them feel a part of your body the most effective method for me is to spend some time while playing actually focusing attention on the feel of the strings as the picks strike, it's like you have got to teach your brain that these things are now your nails.
With easier stuff now the Alaska picks feel more accurate than my natural nails, the difficulty starts when playing faster jigs . Still more hit and miss with the picks and I've used them for years.
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Old 08-07-2022, 09:49 AM
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After reading your posts I realized I also had Kalena finger picks. These are similar to Alaska, but with no side ribbing and are reversable. I see now on the Alaska website that the picks are now intended to be cut above the side ribs.
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Old 08-07-2022, 11:53 AM
Andyrondack Andyrondack is offline
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After reading your posts I realized I also had Kalena finger picks. These are similar to Alaska, but with no side ribbing and are reversable. I see now on the Alaska website that the picks are now intended to be cut above the side ribs.
I'll have to take a look at Kalena picks, never heard of them before the reversible thing sounds interesting.
I don't clip much if anything out of Alaska picks, I shorten them but not in a way that anyone else does but I am still not sure that shorter picks are any more useable than full length ones, I switch back and forth between two lengths and given enough practice time I find myself able to use both for my current list of tunes. That may change if I try playing at a faster tempo. Maybe it's become easier because now I have a guitar with almost 58mm bridge string spacing.
The side rubbing thing I got over in a few hours of playing, I just learned to hold my fingers a little further apart.
I think when I play without picks the sides of my fingers have always contacted but because it's skin on skin I never noticed.
If you play over the sound hole then you lose some string spacing so that's something to watch.
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Old 08-07-2022, 12:16 PM
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I just tried the Kalena picks on my classical and the sound is much better than with my metal picks. Spatially I'll have to adjust as they are different, but the tone is excellent. Later I'll pull out a steel string and see how that goes.
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Old 08-08-2022, 02:34 AM
Andyrondack Andyrondack is offline
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Those Kalena picks look interesting but not yet available in the UK, though I get by ok with Alskas I'm always keen to try alternatives, how does sizing compare to Alaska piks.
Does a Kalena medium correspond with an Alaska medium size wise? Thanks.
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Old 08-08-2022, 06:58 AM
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Originally Posted by Andyrondack View Post
Those Kalena picks look interesting but not yet available in the UK, though I get by ok with Alskas I'm always keen to try alternatives, how does sizing compare to Alaska piks.
Does a Kalena medium correspond with an Alaska medium size wise? Thanks.
I could only get size 16 for the Kalena and they are a little tight, but not terrible. The 17 isn't available except when you buy a mixed bag. I use larger size picks.

The Kalena didn't sound all that good on the steel string as compared to the ProPik Fingertones. So I'm going to use the Kalena when I play my classical and the Fingertones on my steel strings.
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Old 08-08-2022, 07:19 AM
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Ok thanks.
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Old 08-08-2022, 10:05 AM
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The Kalena didn't sound all that good on the steel string as compared to the ProPik Fingertones. So I'm going to use….the Fingertones on my steel strings.
Exactly my experience. The Kalena picks sounded thin and ‘gutless’ versus the warm power of the Fingertones. So it’s Fingertones all the way for me.
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Old 08-08-2022, 10:41 AM
SGFletch SGFletch is offline
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I've tried the following:

1. Acrylic nails - I have done these a few times at home. They are cool to play with, but my nails grow pretty fast and they start lifting at the back after maybe 10 days. Then, they become a real problem. You have to get them backfilled if you are committed to them long-term. They are a nightmare to try to remove and have left my natural nails in terrible condition for months afterward. Too much work and hassle for me. I also play electric in a rock band and have had one pop off my index finger when the lifting back edge caught a string on the downstrum.

2. Alaska Picks - I love these. The best part is that you can go both up and down like a finger (to me), so these feel very natural but with more volume. It is a bit of a pain to have to have enough nail to hold them in the right place on your fingers though. Right now, My nails have been recently destroyed by a set of acrylics a few months ago followed by doing a bunch of work with some pretty toxic finishing materials and not always wearing gloves. So, my own stupidity is the culprit. Anyway, while my nails are regrowing from all that, I can't even get enough nail to use Alaskas. So....

3. Metal fingerpicks - I had NEVER tried these until about a week ago. The fact that they seem to make it impossible to downstrum seemed like a no-go for me. But, I have gigs and about 50% of my solo repertoire sounds better with some sort of fingers involved vs. just the flatpick. So, I got a set of dunlop standard metal fingerpicks and wow. It was a "where have you been all my life?" moment. The increase in volume makes it much easier to play with my right hand more relaxed, rather than having to muster all that volume out of fingers or even nails. They are a little clumsy. They do make noise, but I find that after I settle into playing with them after 20 minutes or so, that gets less pronounced. They also are a little clumsy, but same as the noise, I find that I get into a groove with them. I played my first gig with these Friday night and they really were fun. I have always found it hard to get the right volume for some fingerstyle songs, even amplified. These are a game changer. I kind of understand why they were popular back in the folkie hootenanny days. I also understand their limitations and why they seem to have fallen out of favor in modern circles.

So, that is a ramble, sorry. Anyway. Long story...long. I'm happily experimenting with metal fingerpicks and got used to them quickly. I will probably go back to Alaskas when I have enough nail to grip them, but maybe not.

I hope you find a winning solution for you. It is fun to see how new experiments can be a revelation.
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Old 08-08-2022, 12:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
I could only get size 16 for the Kalena and they are a little tight, but not terrible. The 17 isn't available except when you buy a mixed bag. I use larger size picks.

The Kalena didn't sound all that good on the steel string as compared to the ProPik Fingertones. So I'm going to use the Kalena when I play my classical and the Fingertones on my steel strings.
Hi Barry,
I got one of those mixed Kalena size trays just the other day. Someone on another forum had posted about them, and they had me intrigued. I wanted to try them on steel strings.
I’ve never had much luck with fingerpicks in the past, but these sounded like they had potential. I do like the way they can be snugged under the nail. Makes them feel more natural than previous designs I’ve tried.
A couple of observations i made so far: I’m glad there was a size 17. That was the largest in the assortment and by far the most comfortable (even though I don’t think my fingers are that big. More average size I think, so these tend to run towards the smaller end of the spectrum.) Also, I’m going to probably to file and shape them a bit to dial in the fit.
My initial take is that these are the friendliest picks I’ve tried so far, so I’ll keep the experiment going with my steel strings.
I can see why you’re seeing some good results with your nylon. I think they have the potential, depending on the kind of tone you’re looking for.
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Old 08-08-2022, 01:08 PM
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I only use fingerpicks playing banjo. On guitar the way I play they would not work so it's just fingernails.
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Old 08-08-2022, 02:35 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SGFletch View Post
I've tried the following:

1. Acrylic nails - I have done these a few times at home. They are cool to play with, but my nails grow pretty fast and they start lifting at the back after maybe 10 days. Then, they become a real problem. You have to get them backfilled if you are committed to them long-term. They are a nightmare to try to remove and have left my natural nails in terrible condition for months afterward. Too much work and hassle for me. I also play electric in a rock band and have had one pop off my index finger when the lifting back edge caught a string on the downstrum.
I've had the lifting issues you describe when I had to do my nails myself during the pandemic. Getting them done at a Salon is a totally different experience. My salon-applied nails never lift, I can grow them out until there's little left but the tip, and they stay smooth and connected. They're also quite easy to remove if you know how, my salon tech removes them every 2-3 visits. My nails are not in terrible condition when they're removed (which is only to get a new set) - again, I think this may be a Salon vs self-applied thing. I generally get them "filled" once a month, a 10-15 minute process, but I just went 2 months between visits. I agree with the electric guitar being an issue - for me it was nothing about catching on the strings, I just found the sound of nails hitting an overdriven electric to be pretty nasty. I decided I cared more about acoustic.

Everyone's different of course.
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Old 08-08-2022, 04:11 PM
Gitfiddlemann Gitfiddlemann is offline
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Quote:
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Everyone's different of course.
Sounds cliche, but it's really not. It's something we often overlook but should always keep in mind, especially in topics like these.
We play different music, on all kinds of instruments, with various types of strings, with/without a pick, with/without nails etc...so it's best to draw only generalized conclusions when we evaluate the info.
Thankfully, our experimentation with gadgets and accessories for guitars doesn't involve breaking the bank.
If I played only steel string guitars I could envision myself going the acrylic route rather than fingerpicks. Seems like a good choice for consistent tone production. But since nylon is my preferred medium I feel fortunate that I can get by fine with my own nails.
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