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Trouble using a pic
I’m a complete beginner and I’m in my second week of TAC. I’m finding it really difficult using a pick. I am constantly hitting the wrong strings. If I concentrate on my pic hand then I’m fretting the wrong strings. Does this get easier? Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
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5 Replies
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I remember when I could not keep the pick from moving around in my fingers. It would spin out of position. Do not worry! This stops after you find balance. Think of the pick as being balanced on your finger. Grip it as lightly as you possibly can. Contact the strings as lightly as you can….notice at this level of effort how little effort it actually takes to change the volume of sound with the tinyest bit of additional force. The other tip is go more slowly. I found it necessary to go even slower than the slowest setting on the video. I had to buy a metronome to do this. It did work though. My left and right hands synched up. The key was to stop chasing speed. I had to sneak up on it a few beats per minute at a time. You can do this. Relax and let the creative precise part of you brain take over.
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I had the same feeling with the pic when I started 2 years ago. Fortunately I didn’t know how to fingerpick or strum with just my natural extensions so I struggled through. Over time you just get more comfortable with the pic. In the beginning I used a thin (o.46 mm) as this helped me to not scrape the strings so much. You might find it useful too, but don’t get hooked on them. You really need to move to stronger pics to play properly, the sooner you transition the easier it is. 1.2 mm is good but I’ll use the 0.96 mm most of the time.
When I’m doing the daily challenges I make a point of looking away from my picking hand as much as possible. Sure I’ll have to look to start off but I don’t let my gaze linger. You have to train your hand to find the strings without looking. The same goes for fingerpicking, the more you do it, the less mistakes you’ll make.
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I agree as I pretty much don’t need to look at a string when forming chords or picking single notes. I actually close my eyes a lot on familiar chord changes. But that is all a natural progression over the years of just playing so much. Just like mature wine it takes time to achieve good results. Keep the chord changes simple and rotate between the 3 major chords in each key every day for a couple of minutes before practice.
we are currently working in the key of E this week and your 3 chords you can practice any time are E, A, and B7. spend a couple of minutes before each practice just becoming familiar with the finger positions for those 3 chords.. Practice going from E the A and E to B7.
B7 is a beautiful sounding chord but it took me forever to learn how to finger it comfortably.
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I cheated and bought Grip Genie off Amazon. Weak fingers.
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Yes it gets easier with practice. There are a bunch of great exercises out there to get better at picking. Here’s one of Tony’s skill courses with a bunch of good tips and exercises. Keep at it and rock on! https://tonypolecastro.com/courses/flatpicking-jumpstart/
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