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Using a pick and a different way of muting strings.
Like a lot of us I am always not comfortable with the way I position and hold my guitar picks. The pick seemed to wander on my finger tips when I hold it the proscribed way I’ve seen in different guitar books, the thumb and index finger lightly holding it. It just has never been comfortable for me so I’m always adjusting the pick and do not have confidence with my strumming stroke. A while back when I started practicing more Hybrid picking technique’s I have adapted thumb on the front and the index and middle finger on the back of the pick.
For me it seems to give me more pick control and lighter string touch when needed. the middle finger can also release from the back of the pick to pluck out a split string picking note with the pick playing 1 of the notes and the middle finger picking a separate fretted or open string note.
I also discovered that I could mute the Fretted strings easily using the middle finger that is planted on the back of the pick for down stroke mutes while releasing most of the pressure on the fretted notes and if necessary lean a fretting finger back to touch an unfretted string so it can be included in the muting stroke. It does take some practice but works well for me and I find that I have added more muted tones to my chord progressions.
Playing guitar is a constant balance of improving different areas of your guitar experience and this is one of the latest chapters in my learning journey.
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5 Replies
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Thanks for sharing your experience. Are you using standard teardrop picks? I don’t think I could fit both my index and middle on a teardrop. Maybe a larger triangle pick. Glad to hear this is working for you. For the first 4 years I was learning, I didn’t use a pick. Mostly due to my inability to use one properly. I’ve been working hard this past year to use a pick, and do so everyday. Best thing I did was stepping up to a thicker pick, and trying to have the least amount of the tip exposed. Usually around an 1/8 inch or so.
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Hey Skyman, I agree that less is moh bettah(Hawaiian saying) when exposing less of the pick. It seems to be easier to control with only a small portion of the pick used to strike the strings. I was just practicing muting and it is much easier to use just the middle fingernail down stroke if the pick doesn’t get in the way, less pick exposed means less chance for a muting error.
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Another pick question for you all…
As I’m playing more and more with my pick, I notice the back of my thumb lightly brushing against the strings on my upstrokes. It doesn’t produce any sound (from what I can tell), especially since the pick is plucking the strings a nano-second afterward.
I think I also lightly touch some strings on the downstrokes with my pinky.
Does anyone else do this? Or does ONLY your pick touch the strings while strumming?
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This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by MattTX_24.
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This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by
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Good question. I think you would want to have a clean pick attack. No interference from your fingers. Because I use the index and middle fingers to hold the pick on the backside I did have to make some adjustments to have a clean attack angle, The said I sometimes do allow the middle fingernail to stroke some of the downstrokes just to achieve a different tone when striking the strings. I’ve worked on this especially when muting strings by lifting the fret fingers up slightly so that I achieve that muted string tone.
So If you are allowing the finger to touch the string and it isn’t affecting your tone you are cool. I think I would make adjustments and see what kind of tones you can put together by adjusting that finger. You might invent a new guitar tone/technique. Who knows.
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Thanks! Yeah I’ll keep playing with it and practicing. I think my hand is used to playing without a pick so my hand wants to naturally be a certain length away from the strings. Hopefully as I continue practicing, my playing will evolve into good form.
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