Playing with a Guitar Pick

In electric guitar playing, the guitar pick is one of the most important tools for the guitarist. For the benefit of those who do not know what guitar picks are, I will spend some time to introduce the guitar picks in this beginner guitar lesson.

In general, a guitar pick is a triangular shaped piece of material used to aid the guitarist in strumming and picking the guitar strings. These guitar picks can be made of various materials such as metal, bone, wood but are most commonly available in the plastic form commercially.

You can purchase guitar picks from any guitar shops. One thing to take note is that guitar picks come in various sizes and gauges. In my opinion, the size of the guitar pick is really up to individual preferences and finger sizes. I would recommend getting guitar picks roughly 2cm by 2cm sizes as the size would be just nice in most fingers. (Be sure to invest in at least 10-15 picks)

On the other hand, the gauge of the guitar pick is critical as it affects the tone and type of guitar playing.

With heavier picks, you can control the tone of your guitar playing by controlling your picking strength. However, using heavy guitar picks for rhythm playing can result in picks flying off your hand easily. Due to the rigidity of the pick, the strumming impact with the guitar strings is absorbed by the fingers. This causes the fingers to lose grip of the pick easily.

On the contrary, using light picks to play rhythm guitar can overcome this problem. The downside of ultra light picks is that it is impossible to play fast solos due to the flexing behavior of the guitar pick.

Hints to playing with the pick Grip the pick with 2 fingers. Use the illustration as a guide and find your own sweet spot. (DO NOT use 3 fingers as recommended by some so called guitar gurus) This is because using 2 fingers will keep your picking hand in a proper posture for better strumming and lead guitar playing techniques (hybrid picking, alternate picking etc….)          Apply moderate pressure when gripping the pick. Too low pressure will cause the guitar pick to slide around whereas too high pressure will hinder your hand movements. If you are strumming with a pick, use a light or medium gauge pick and hold the pick such that about 1/3 of the pick is exposed. If you are playing individual strings (soloing), show as little as possible of the tip and use a heavy pick. This will have benefits on the tone of your playing as well as in guitar techniques which require you to play fast.          Correct                                                     Wrong Regardless of strumming or lead guitar playing, the picking motion should always come from the wrist NOT the fingers or the elbow. To enhance your accuracy of picking the correct strings, you can try anchoring your pinky to the pick guard while playing individual strings. This will help your hand have a feel of where the strings are and reduce errors.

 

If you are a complete beginner in playing the guitar, the use of a guitar pick will be quite awkward and need some time to get used to. You will soon find that playing with a guitar pick is not as hard as it seems.

Final notes for this beginner guitar lesson: Carry a couple of different picks of sizes and gauges around so that you can use them for different purposes. Lastly, guitar picks get lost easily. Devise a method to store or keep your picks after you use them. If not, you’ll end up purchasing a whole box of picks just like me. (Sometimes, I recover lost guitar picks in the weirdest places at home. Haha..)

Questions??? Comments??? Post them in the guitar forum.