Using A Pick

Let’s try using a guitar pick. You can experiment with different shapes and brands. Picks come in different thicknesses and are made out of different materials. Some are sold in millimeters and some just thin, medium and thick. Picks of different thicknesses produce different tones depending on whether you are playing acoustic or electric guitar and what guage of strings you are using. Experiment with different ones until you find ones you are comfortable with. Personally I use thin picks with acoustic guitars and medium with electric but you need to make that decision for yourself. Keep in mind that your "picking hand" is the hand which is nearest to the bridge of the guitar.

Follow these instructions to learn how to use a pick correctly:

1. Open your picking hand, and turn the palm to face you.

2. Close your hand to make a very loose fist. Your thumb should remain beside your index finger.

3. Rotate your hand until you are looking at it's profile, with your thumb's knuckle facing you.

4. With your other hand, slide your guitar pick between your thumb and index finger. The pick should be located behind the knuckle of the thumb.

5. Be sure the pointed end of the pick is pointing directly away from your fist, and is protruding by about a half an inch. Hold the pick firmly.

6. Position your picking hand over the soundhole of your acoustic guitar, or over the body of your electric guitar. Your picking hand, with thumb knuckle still facing you, should hover over the strings.

7. Do not rest your picking hand on the strings or body of the guitar.

8. Using your wrist for motion (rather than your entire arm), strike the sixth (lowest) string of your guitar in a downward motion. If the string rattles excessively, try striking the string a bit softer, or with less of the pick surface.

9. Now, pick the sixth string in an upwards motion.

10. Repeat the process several times. Try and minimize motion in your picking hand: one short picking stroke downwards, then one short picking stroke upwards. This process is referred to as "alternate picking"

Try the same exercise on the fifth, fourth, third, second, and first strings.
Tips: Holding the pick in this manner will invariably feel awkward at first. You will initially have to pay special attention to your picking hand whenever you play guitar.
Try and create fluidity in your alternate picking. Your downstrokes should sound virtually identical to your upstrokes.

Practice this until you get a “feel” for how tightly you should grip the pick.Believe me this can really affect the sound/tone of your guitar. As you develop you will begin to “know” how to change how you hold the pick to get different sounds but for now just hold it “comfortably firm”.