Trying to find a good pick technique?

[Dave325]

I used to be a rock guitarist back in the 70s, but moved to classical guitar. I found myself resorting to finger style for nearly everything. After many years of being away from the pick, I am trying to get back to using it. I find it a bit awkward and want to slip out of my find. Couple questions:

1. What pick do you use? Thick, thin, small/large?
2. Do you anchor the fingers on the pick guard? I used to, but trying to free myself from that, or should I?
3. Any suggestions for working back to a proficient picking technique?

Thanks in advance for any input on this.

[MarkRhodes]

This is a vast thread on the subject of Benson picking. It is now 69 pages long.

Benson Picking technique on Gibson L5 Wesmo

Fender Medium is the most popular pick for that sort of playing.

Here is one of many threads about guitar picks

What kind of Guitar Picks do you use?

This thread focuses on the "rest stroke," which is fundamental for Gypsy jazz playing (and is also used by guitarists playing in other styles.)
Does any use the "rest stroke"?

And here is a recent thread about Paul Gilbert's more recent teaching about learning to alternate pick

Paul Gilbert and the Secret of Alternate Picking

[christianm77]

I know it sounds stupid, but just do down strokes all the time for a bit

[christianm77]

Down rest strokes.... If you can't physically play it all with downstrokes you may be permitted to sneak in a slur or an upstroke.

But you should feel shame when you do it. And certainly don't let anyone catch you doing it. :-)

That will see you through medium tempo single time. For fast tempos and double time it gets a bit more involved. There are different schools.

But for medium tempo tunes, which is what you are likely to be playing at the early stages, there is no reason why you can't use all downstrokes. It will help you swing and help you keep everything even.

Furthermore of develop downstroke agility, alternate picking will be much easier when you need it (which is not nearly as much as you'd think)

[Dave325]

This is a vast thread on the subject of Benson picking. It is now 69 pages long.

Benson Picking technique on Gibson L5 Wesmo

Fender Medium is the most popular pick for that sort of playing.

Here is one of many threads about guitar picks

What kind of Guitar Picks do you use?

This thread focuses on the "rest stroke," which is fundamental for Gypsy jazz playing (and is also used by guitarists playing in other styles.)
Does any use the "rest stroke"?

And here is a recent thread about Paul Gilbert's more recent teaching about learning to alternate pick

Paul Gilbert and the Secret of Alternate Picking

Great resource info. Thanks, Mark. I saw Benson play a few years back and never realized he was using that picking technique. I am going to try to work on that. I is very similar attack on the string that I used for classical guitar (studied with a student of Narcisso Yepes). It produces a much warmer tone and enables a greater speed over the strings. I appreciate all the great help... Got a lot of work to do. Gonna spend time using it with the five fingerings. Thanks!

[Groyniad]

yes - what clinches it in favour of the technique benson famously uses is that it produces a fatter warmer sound AND improves facility and flow

[Groyniad]

i used the focus on my right hand - the project of converting from traditional picking to 'backwards' benson picking - to get seriously thorough about fretboard geography. i invented smooth flowing fingerings for octave - fragments, octaves, 2 octave and 3 octave scales (starting on 1, 3, 5, 6 with an added note between 5 and 6 to keep everything in time.) i think if you want to solo you CANNOT play lots of scales and scale patterns etc. that are not 'in time' - where the important notes keep falling on the wrong part of the bar. it ruins your ear and your sense of time.

but anyway the point was that a focus on right hand technique can REALLY IMPROVE your left hand and your neck-knowledge.

i also did loads of triplet figures using triads... and the focus always on the right hand - always on flow and feel with the picking.

[rpjazzguitar]

There's nothing about my picking technique anybody should want to emulate, but I have thought about it.

1. What pick do you use? Thick, thin, small/large?

I use a Golden Gate Mandolin pick. To my ear, it sounds better than the Dunlop 206 I was using before.

2. Do you anchor the fingers on the pick guard? I used to, but trying to free myself from that, or should I?

I don't know what's best. Warren Nunes, one of my teachers, raised the pickguard almost to the height of the strings and then let the fingernails of his third and fourth fingers just glide on it as he alternate picked. I never heard anybody with a better attack at high speed than Warren. He shaped his picks by heating a tortoise shell blank (he had some, somehow) and making it conform to his thumb. Then he picked with a nearly flat edge of the resulting pick. This did not look like any other pick I've ever seen. The whole thing was concave (from your thumb's point of view).

3. Any suggestions for working back to a proficient picking

Charlie Christian played all downstrokes, Wes used his thumb and got arguably the best tone ever, Chuck Wayne used economy picking, as do many other great players. Warren used a combination of alternate, hammering and pulloffs. What do these players have in common? They were all great.

My guess is that the best one for an individual depends partly on that person's physiology and nervous system. I know, for example, that there are things I'm never going to be able to do with a pick.

But, to end on a positive note, there are ways to compensate for limited picking technique. Typically, these involve using left hand position shifts, slides, pull-offs or hammers to make the picking easier. It's usually to avoid having to sweep three strings in a row with the pick moving toward the ceiling. (The sweep pickers can do this, to their credit, but I'm not convinced that everyone is capable of developing that technique). When you come across a passage you can't pick adequately, you may be able to find a way around the problem by adjusting the left hand.

Here's an example. Suppose you want to play a descending Am9 at the fifth position. You start with B - A on the first string. Then, if you want to play an E next, you're likely to think fifth fret second string. And, if you then want a C, you might figure 5th fret third string.

So, that's three notes in a row at the fifth fret, A, E and C. If you can sweep that effectively, no need to read the rest of this. But, what if you can't? You might try picking the B, pulling-off to get the A, and picking the E on the third string at the eighth fret. That allows you to pull-off to the C (same string) if you need to. In each case, the pull-off gives you the time to reposition the pick. Pretty much any time you can't execute a downward (in pitch) sweep, you may be able to find away to use pull-offs and position shifts to compensate.

Another issue is that different picking methods don't sound alike. Chuck Wayne had a floaty quality, for want of a better term. Warren Nunes sounded like a jackhammer. Jimmy Bruno seems to get somewhere between, using economy picking. If I was starting over, I'd try to do it his way first. If you can get comfortable sweeping, you won't have to worry about all that left hand compensation.

[christianm77]

Oh yeah

1. What pick do you use? Thick, thin, small/large?

Standard size, thickness ranging from 1.00mm +

2. Do you anchor the fingers on the pick guard? I used to, but trying to free myself from that, or should I?

No, but it's not a big deal. I mean CC and Wes anchor, for example.

3. Any suggestions for working back to a proficient picking technique?

Don't try to play fast. Be hyper aware of tensions in the body whatever technique you use.

Jazz is not about playing fast. It's about playing accurate rhythms.

[audlegend]

When I was trying to find the best pick technique, I moved the thicker string to the thinner string every time I ascend strings. I always play with a downstroke this way. On the other hand, every time I descend the strings, I moved the string from thinner to thicker in an upstroke play.

For all notes play, I used alternate picking strictly.

[vintagelove]

Practice any of them for a thousand hours. Results are guaranteed.

[christianm77]

Should take less than that

[mr. beaumont]

Depends on how many thousand hours you've spent in graining a bad technique.


And by you, I mean me. And by how many thousand hours, I mean since I first picked up a damn guitar 25 years ago

[christianm77]

I did relearn my technique (which wasn't bad just different) - took a few months to full change over, practicing everyday on scales etc. I estimate 80 hours is enough to get it together. That's not a small amount of time but manageable if one is disciplined

[Runepune]

Practice any of them for a thousand hours. Results are guaranteed.

Yep There's no shortcut. It mostly takes time and patience. Avoid tension, don't rush. Repeat, repeat, repeat...Make it sound the way you like. There's complex movement involved that no theorising will help you achieve. Theorising may even work against ya. Your fingers will learn and adapt from determined repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition...repetition....

[Tomcat]

short warm-up exercise to release the muscle tensions:

metronome on 50-60

1. touch the string with a pick
2. press with a pick so you can feel the string's tension going up to your fingers, hand, arm and try to release body tension as much as possible
3. play
4. relax again and prepare next touch

[Drumbler]

I used to be a rock guitarist back in the 70s, but moved to classical guitar. I found myself resorting to finger style for nearly everything.

I'd stick with fingerstyle since you are already proficient at it.

Why go to a pick? Why invest the time when there is so much else to learn?

My 2 cents.

[Dave325]

I'd stick with fingerstyle since you are already proficient at it.

Why go to a pick? Why invest the time when there is so much else to learn?

My 2 cents.

Good point... I guess one of the reasons is to be versatile and there is a different sound achieved between the pick and finger style. I have continuing to practice both ways, but when doing more chord melody style I'll favor the finger style.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[christianm77]

That's a good point. Hadn't thought of that.

[don_oz]

check out this guy, he seems to have figured out something that works...

Cheers,
Oz

[ronjazz]

Pasquale uses quite a bit of hybrid picking, has a strong classical guitar background.