I've been playing guitar for 20 years, never been able to hold a pick properly. The revelation of holding it against the side of the index finger and not the pad just blew my mind. Thanks, dude!
@@whatspoppinsam I've been playing for over 4 years now and just found this shit out, I always thought my grip was just weak cos I wasn't playing consistently enough
@@whatspoppinsam This is probably an extreme example of "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect" he probably just practiced and not learned.
I barely started electric guitar and I was like welp where am I going to start bc it was very hard to find the correct vid and I finally found the correct vid and Channel
30 years and I’ve holding the pick wrong! In one morning this is relieving stress built up in my shoulder and neck. The problem I have now is the pick point gravitates to the “wrong way” center of the index finger. maybe it’s the way I strum. I have to look at several things, anyway this definitely helps! Thank You
I've been playing guitar for a while and every time I would look up how to hold the pick no one would mention your hand should be by the ends of the strings. Super helpful thank you
I started holding the pick with 3 fingers. Guess my teacher wasn't paying much attention. 10 years later I started running into road blocks. Still trying to fix it. Old habits die hard..
hyenaswine damn that sucks! That's so disappointing. There are too many "teachers" out there that let people inherit terrible habits and make things much harder than they need to be 🤔
Yeah, it really depends more on your playing style that determines how you should grip your pick. As Simon said, James Hetfield holds his pick with 3 fingers. This is because he does crazy fast downpicking. The way shown in this video is just way too stiff to get the downpicking speed someone like James Hetfield does. Holding with three fingers gives more flexibility, while still being stable enough that it won't flop around in your hand, thus decreasing accuracy and precision. Then there are people like Paul Gilbert that hold with just two fingers, the Index finger and the thumb. This is because he does really fast, alternate picked solos. Again, holding the way shown in this video is just way too stiff to get it as efficiently as someone like Paul Gilbert does, and holding with three fingers is the same. There is no right or wrong way to hold a pick as long as you are accomplishing what you are trying to effectively and efficiently. To be quite frank, most people will find themselves eventually just shifting to different pick grips as they play music just by pure instinct.
James Hetfield does it. Thumb with pointer and middle finger (some people say that’s holding it with two fingers bcuz everyone at least holds it with their thumb so they consider that a given and just say two fingers meaning the the first and middle fingers along with the thumb lol). He’s honestly one of the fastest downpickers in the world and and most creative riff masters ever. So maybe you are the next James! Lol
Speaking of holding the pick differently. Check out how I hold it and tell me if you’ve ever seen any one hold it like this I put this same comment in the main comment thread as well.. I must be the only person that holds the pick like I do. For example: if you look down at your pick while your holding it in position. You will notice that you and everyone else holds the pick with the left side (the side of the pick facing the neck of the guitar)is slightly pointed down to the ground while the right side of your pick is slightly pointed up to your right armpit. That’s the way I’ve seen every guitar player I’ve seen in my life point their pick while playing. Every single one! But I do it opposite. I point the right side of the pick to the ground slightly with the left side pointed up toward my left armpit (Ik that’s a weird way to put it but I think it paints an easy picture). This is assuming you are sitting down and looking down at your picking hand while playing or about to play. And also assuming that you are a right handed player of course. I’ve tried the normal way so many times and just can’t get it (I’m not a beginner. been playing for 7 years now) but it’s just something I’ve noticed I do. It looks less clean and stable the way I do it compared to everyone else’s though. And wish I could do it the normal way. However there doesn’t seem to be anything I can’t do that everyone else can except squealing (punch harmonics). I actually have to usually turn the pick the “normal” way to do those. Hope that makes sense
I watched this video 6 months ago after a few years of holding it with three fingers. 6 months later I have fully retrained myself to hold it the proper way. My playing is so much cleaner and I can't thank you enough.
The more points of contact = the more energy and friction required to move the pick, consequently limiting your potential to a slower and less precise movement
I've been playing for over 10 years, and even though I'm quite good, I always had a hard time with fast alternate picking, so I had to use a lot of legato... Turns out I've been using the "duck way" all this fucking time ¡Thanks! Cheers from Mexico :)
I've been playing guitar for about 20 years now and I'm almost entirely self-taught and I've known that I hold a pick wrong, (I do the one you described as "duck shape") but finally thanks to this video I am finally going to try to correct the habit. Thank you for taking the time to make this. I've hit a massive plateau where I simply don't feel like I can get any better without improving the fundamentals. So to any of you newer guitarists who happen to read this please take heed. Don't be stuck years in wasting time trying to brute force through stuff. Get the fundamentals down early.
I play guitar also and this really helped me to understand basic fundamentals of properly holding a pick, I held my pick in the duck shape you mentioned and showed, I actually was having issues and I'm now going to consciously hold it correctly. Thank you very much for this.
It may sound weird but right after watching this I could greatly increase my speed and my two hands were a lot more synced than ever before. I guess the way you hold your pick affects a lot on your playing. That being said, THANK YOU!
I can not believe how much this has improved my playing in practically 5 mins. I sort of had a hybrid pinch/half correct position. This was creating unwanted string noise which turns out was the tip of my index finger dragging. I could play fast but not clean which was very frustrating. Turns out my speed is ok just that I've been doing it the hard way at the picking end. I can also hit pinch harmonics much better now too. Thank you so much for this video.
Can't believe what a difference it made just switching to the side of my finger instead of the pad. I always felt like I was at risk of dropping my pick and now it feels totally locked in. Thanks for saving me so much headache
For speed ( metal ) playing I like to hold the pick on its side, so the pointy end is facing up, and the rounded end is picking the strings. The result is faster picking, but the notes sound a little bit more flat.
You have no idea how great this video was for me... I’ve been playing guitar for 8+ years, totally self taught mostly acoustic, just fucking around in my bedroom. I ONLY used fingerpicking because it felt so natural to me, until a few weeks ago when I bought my first electric, and I decided it would be stupid not to learn to use a pick. Anyways, it’s weird for me right now but I trust I’ll get used to it. Thanks again
Picked up guitar again after a while of not playing and realised I completely forgot how to hold a pick. This is way different to how my teacher taught me but by using the bridge as an anchor point I can be so much more accurate with playing the right string. Thanks!
Wow, over 10 years of guitar playing and all this time I've wondered why my pick starts to slip out of my hand sometimes during alternate picking. It has been that damn duck all this time! Thank you sir for this.
I've been playing for like 10 years and have always used my pinky like a kickstand on the pick gaurd and its always given me trouble, I just tried it this way and it immediately clicked haha. Thanks man!
Putting the ball of my hand on top of the bridge is a great tip. It helps me stay in place, and also helps keep my movement tighter - I have a tendency to flail my wrist when I’m picking, which slows me down. Thank you!!!
Wow! An actual pick grip video! Most pick grip videos are usually just people giving out exercises and theory and literally NOTHING about where you should position the palm or the grip itself. They just tell you "you just hold it like this!" and then show off.
I used to use guitar picks while I still had guitar lessons years ago, then I stopped using it and going back at it is becoming my number one struggle Thank you
I've always anchored my pinky right under the neck pick-up and was always confused as to why palm muting was so difficult for me but now i understand. Thank you so much
ahhh thank u so much!!! i’ve started playing electric a few months ago and my teacher never told me how to hold the pick, so i’d been holding it with 3 fingers i eventually had to start using other techniques with my guitar and it got really hard to do them with my pick like that, but now it’s much easier like this :) TY!!
I've been holding the pick wrong for my 9 years of guitar playing and trying out the correct way has made it impossible for me to go back. Feels so much better!
For 5 years I held the guitar pick with 3 fingers. I stopped playing for about 6 years and now I'm starting up again, but this time I'm doing it right!
Just starting to learn guitar, big thanks for the lesson. I was using the 3 finger "technique", so im pretty happy i could watch this before i start to get problems later on!
I’ve been learning and playing a lot of songs , chords , scales for a good 2 years now doing great but honestly I needed this to learn how to really hold the pick to help me keep up with my playing style if that makes sense , thank you
Thank you I realized the angle I was holding my puck was slowing me down. Some have said hold the pick at 30° in relation to the string. This allows the pick to glide over the string up and down strokes rather than hang up. Near the end of this video this is easy to see. 👍
Lately I’ve been trying to play faster because I’ve reached that point in guitar courses that the licks are much faster, but I was basically only down picking. So I started working seriously on alternate picking and came to the realization my picking just sucks period; fretting is fine, but my picking wasn’t coordinated, I was relying too much on hammer and pull. As I tried doing alternate picking, which really isn’t that difficult, I realized the essential problem is I’m not holding the pick right, and with alternate picking I also had trouble keeping my hand rooted, while also doing the three fingers bit. So this is tremendously helpful, and it’s amazing I haven’t seen other lessons that go into detail about how to hold a pick before. Thanks so much!
I realize that where I place my palm was positioned wrong when I came across this video (it used to be positioned mid to close to the neck). Now seconds after the vid, attempting what you addressed, I can notice I’m improving already; thank you so much!
Just noticed I was holding the pick wrong and I was really stiff when playing. Thank you so much for this video I saw a instant improvement once I held my pick right and loosened up my hand. Ps: If you play norteño music with the requintos and everything this works really well except I don’t rest my hand on anything since I see all these amazing guitarist don’t rest their hands either when playing
Thank you, I’ve always held the pick with the face of my finger just after a minute of playing with resting it on the side of my finger I feel a lot more comfortable and less tense when I used to play tighter phrases. Very informative!
People often underestimate where the position of your 3 fingers are when holding a pick but it is perhaps one of the most important. I used to keep my fingers clenched in with my pick but now that I've separated the 2, its taken my accuracy from struggling to awesome!!
im one of those guys that use 3 fingers to hold their pick.... no wonder paint it black took 1 month to get from 60bpm to 105 bpm.. thank you for helping me fix this
Really great video; makes use of the video format (showing) and excellent technical advice as well (ball of the palm above the bridge, line the edge of the palm up w bridge). Thanks for making this!
when i was first learning i was taught to use two fingers and my thumb and it always sounded awful so i just took to using my thumb and fingerpicking. i’m excellent with fingerpicking now but couldn’t get my head around using a pick until now!! thank you
Your video really helped me with picking! Resting my hand on the bridge made it so much easier to pick.I could never pick with accuracy before and it really helped,thanks!
I just started using this technique to help deal with wrist tension. I've been using a death grip since i started playing guitar and nobody ever pointed it out, it's been causing me some wrist pain recently. I can't pick as fast using this method, but my accuracy is so much better, and my wrist is more relaxed when i play.
Been playing for 15+ year started pretty young. Unfortunately I always fingerpicked and didn’t think it would be a problem. Having a really hard time now that I’m playing mostly electric . Thanks for the tips.
Darryl Syms agreed ☺️ Mark Knopfler and Albert King were two of my influences and part of the reason why I thought I didn’t need a pick. I’m learning some Randy Rhoads stuff now and am doing well but there’s some stuff I think would be impossible with my fingers and whenever I’d start going quick I’d lose control of my pick. Thanks again!
Great tips. The three fingers hold is actually quite good when you play a lot of funk. Gives an explosive attack when coupled with a loose wrist movement.
That way is definitely a good way, I'm no expert but have watched many videos of experts playing and the one thing that seems in common with them all is that there is no clear rule on how to best do it, there seemed to me to be a wide variation of picking styles, but who knows, your mileage may vary
Fantastic advice, I'm forever struggling to hold my pick properly, it's always slipping in my fingers, I'm trying your advice, great video, thank you for the tips, fantastic.
ive been playing for 1 and a half years. ive always been having trouble alternative picking and i never knew why. finally found out ive been holding my pick wrong
I hold my pick between my Thumb and the side of my 1st finger. Pretty much like you do. It's the most logical way of picking. However , I've seen so many pick grips that I stopped thinking about what's right and wrong. Your instructional here is rad. Well worth watching and all the points you make are valid....I just don't subscribe to teaching people a wrong or right way. Learning to play well and fast is more to do with well structured practice and persistence. Keep up the good work dude. :)
I'm changing the way i hold the pick for more accuracy. It takes a while to break the old habit. Glad i found your posting. Where to place the heal the picking hand also crucial. Grazie.
I started trying to learn the guitar recently as a young guitarist. I was holding the pick wrong; with my thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger. I was wondering why my playing didn't sound that good. But thanks for this video! Bad habits are really hard to undo, but I'll try my best from now on..
Thanks for the video. I was doing more or less every single mistake and just couldn't figure out how to get the pick to work. Suddenly it's surprisingly easy. Will need some getting used to, but much better than before! 🤘
i was so used to holding the pick with my thumb in 90º angle. That's why i'm trying my best not to do it again because i couldn't play more faster solos, and you know i love playing solos and songs that're really fast.
For picking speed the biggest difference maker I found is feeling like you're picking the *top* of the string, not the side. Almost like tickling it. Realistically you have to pick the side but try to minimize how far the tip of the pick goes below the side of the string.
ty for this video, 4 years of guitar and tremolo picking became a torture to me, cause i did it wrong, not with the wrist but with the arm, very hard to fix now,
Thanks for this, I’ve been trying to play some alternate picking songs and I keep missing strings when I try and play faster so I thought I might be holding the pick wrong after playing for years haha. I think this will help 👍🏻
Only been playing for like four months or so, just realized today I should choke up on the pick lol. Was holding it so far back on the plastic to where it folds a ton.
The Jazz III has been my favorite pick for 30 years and now in the youtube age I'm surprised that so many other people think it's the only right pick as well! GMTA (well not sure about 30 ... at least from the beginning of the 1990s)
I'd like to give another tip to anyone struggling with the pick sliding down their fingers. Pay attention to which part of the index finger you're holding the pick with, even if you're holding it with the side of the finger. I used to bend my finger so much that I held the pick with my first knuckle (starting from the nail up) and my finger was bent perpendicularly to the pick, so whenever I played something faster or strummed chords or anything, the pick would slide down that bent part of the finger. The point is, you should always hold the pick with the side of your index finger and it always follow the direction from the widest part of the pick down to the tip.
Paul Gilbert uses three fingers for strumming, two for picking/lead. Eddie Van Halen used his middle finger and thumb. Many, many folk players use the three fingers (index, middle, thumb). What it comes down to is what is comfortable and allows the proper level of control. I hold the pick the same way Paul Gilbert does, btw - one way for strumming, another for lead.
Incorrect. I know Paul very well and whilst you've seen him use 3 and 2 fingers, that's not what he does all the time at all. Most often, he applies the same approach I demonstrate here
Join me on Fretwise for my most recent and best masterclasses on technique, theory, and much more! 🙌 join.darrylsyms.com/zfvn
I've been playing guitar for 20 years, never been able to hold a pick properly. The revelation of holding it against the side of the index finger and not the pad just blew my mind. Thanks, dude!
Yayy! 😀
Andy...has this method improved your speed any?
I say this with the most respect but, how do you play guitar for 20 years (probably 10 000 hours and more) and not learn to hold a pick?
@@whatspoppinsam I've been playing for over 4 years now and just found this shit out, I always thought my grip was just weak cos I wasn't playing consistently enough
@@whatspoppinsam This is probably an extreme example of "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect"
he probably just practiced and not learned.
Unlike videos from others, it's quick and effective.
I like to cut the bullshit as best as I can 🙌
And that’s why I watched it all
I barely started electric guitar and I was like welp where am I going to start bc it was very hard to find the correct vid and I finally found the correct vid and Channel
30 years and I’ve holding the pick wrong! In one morning this is relieving stress built up in my shoulder and neck. The problem I have now is the pick point gravitates to the
“wrong way” center of the index finger. maybe it’s the way I strum. I have to look at several things, anyway this definitely helps!
Thank You
Tf you talking about lol
I've been playing guitar for a while and every time I would look up how to hold the pick no one would mention your hand should be by the ends of the strings. Super helpful thank you
1:38 OHhh...the ball part of my HAND! I've been using my actual balls. Thanks for the tip, gonna try that instead.
We’ve all been there 💁♂️
thanks for the laugh mr goodwin
@@woshua3143 you are very welcome. I hope you and your loved ones are fairing well, we all need laughter.
Acoustic can’t relate
😂😂😂😂😂😂
0:42 ... Got em
😉
That was good 😂😂😂
Sneaky....
👌
BAHAHAHA
I started holding the pick with 3 fingers. Guess my teacher wasn't paying much attention. 10 years later I started running into road blocks. Still trying to fix it. Old habits die hard..
hyenaswine damn that sucks! That's so disappointing. There are too many "teachers" out there that let people inherit terrible habits and make things much harder than they need to be 🤔
James hetfield does it too and hes a beast
Yeah, it really depends more on your playing style that determines how you should grip your pick. As Simon said, James Hetfield holds his pick with 3 fingers. This is because he does crazy fast downpicking. The way shown in this video is just way too stiff to get the downpicking speed someone like James Hetfield does. Holding with three fingers gives more flexibility, while still being stable enough that it won't flop around in your hand, thus decreasing accuracy and precision.
Then there are people like Paul Gilbert that hold with just two fingers, the Index finger and the thumb. This is because he does really fast, alternate picked solos. Again, holding the way shown in this video is just way too stiff to get it as efficiently as someone like Paul Gilbert does, and holding with three fingers is the same.
There is no right or wrong way to hold a pick as long as you are accomplishing what you are trying to effectively and efficiently. To be quite frank, most people will find themselves eventually just shifting to different pick grips as they play music just by pure instinct.
James Hetfield does it. Thumb with pointer and middle finger (some people say that’s holding it with two fingers bcuz everyone at least holds it with their thumb so they consider that a given and just say two fingers meaning the the first and middle fingers along with the thumb lol). He’s honestly one of the fastest downpickers in the world and and most creative riff masters ever. So maybe you are the next James! Lol
Speaking of holding the pick differently. Check out how I hold it and tell me if you’ve ever seen any one hold it like this I put this same comment in the main comment thread as well..
I must be the only person that holds the pick like I do. For example: if you look down at your pick while your holding it in position. You will notice that you and everyone else holds the pick with the left side (the side of the pick facing the neck of the guitar)is slightly pointed down to the ground while the right side of your pick is slightly pointed up to your right armpit. That’s the way I’ve seen every guitar player I’ve seen in my life point their pick while playing. Every single one! But I do it opposite. I point the right side of the pick to the ground slightly with the left side pointed up toward my left armpit (Ik that’s a weird way to put it but I think it paints an easy picture). This is assuming you are sitting down and looking down at your picking hand while playing or about to play. And also assuming that you are a right handed player of course. I’ve tried the normal way so many times and just can’t get it (I’m not a beginner. been playing for 7 years now) but it’s just something I’ve noticed I do. It looks less clean and stable the way I do it compared to everyone else’s though. And wish I could do it the normal way. However there doesn’t seem to be anything I can’t do that everyone else can except squealing (punch harmonics). I actually have to usually turn the pick the “normal” way to do those. Hope that makes sense
I watched this video 6 months ago after a few years of holding it with three fingers. 6 months later I have fully retrained myself to hold it the proper way. My playing is so much cleaner and I can't thank you enough.
Yay! Thank you for sharing 😄🙌💛
Idk how you do it. I can't stand holding it like that. Bout to rage quit lmao :')
I've been holding it with 3 fingers...im just confused why u cant, its more comfortable to play like that
The more points of contact = the more energy and friction required to move the pick, consequently limiting your potential to a slower and less precise movement
@@DarrylSyms that makes alot of sense thx i really appreciate...ive subbed as well
I've been playing for over 10 years, and even though I'm quite good, I always had a hard time with fast alternate picking, so I had to use a lot of legato... Turns out I've been using the "duck way" all this fucking time
¡Thanks! Cheers from Mexico :)
Yo también! Como ha sido tu progreso cambiando el agarre?
I've been playing guitar for about 20 years now and I'm almost entirely self-taught and I've known that I hold a pick wrong, (I do the one you described as "duck shape") but finally thanks to this video I am finally going to try to correct the habit. Thank you for taking the time to make this. I've hit a massive plateau where I simply don't feel like I can get any better without improving the fundamentals. So to any of you newer guitarists who happen to read this please take heed. Don't be stuck years in wasting time trying to brute force through stuff. Get the fundamentals down early.
Yay! 😄
I play guitar also and this really helped me to understand basic fundamentals of properly holding a pick, I held my pick in the duck shape you mentioned and showed, I actually was having issues and I'm now going to consciously hold it correctly. Thank you very much for this.
You’re welcome sir!
Hey! A fellow duckling!
Been doing the duck all these years too!
It may sound weird but right after watching this I could greatly increase my speed and my two hands were a lot more synced than ever before. I guess the way you hold your pick affects a lot on your playing. That being said, THANK YOU!
Yay! 😄 Congrats! It only gets better 👌🙂
My Favorite Powers- Speed, Agility, and Flexibility
I can not believe how much this has improved my playing in practically 5 mins. I sort of had a hybrid pinch/half correct position. This was creating unwanted string noise which turns out was the tip of my index finger dragging. I could play fast but not clean which was very frustrating. Turns out my speed is ok just that I've been doing it the hard way at the picking end. I can also hit pinch harmonics much better now too.
Thank you so much for this video.
Yay! 😄🙏
been playing guitar seriously for about a year now and this video still helped. Got my solos up to speed. Thanks man
Can't believe what a difference it made just switching to the side of my finger instead of the pad. I always felt like I was at risk of dropping my pick and now it feels totally locked in. Thanks for saving me so much headache
So happy to hear your feedback! 😄
For speed ( metal ) playing I like to hold the pick on its side, so the pointy end is facing up, and the rounded end is picking the strings. The result is faster picking, but the notes sound a little bit more flat.
Wouldn't it sound a bit more scrapy? When I play and I angle the pick it always ends up sounding like scrapes
@@McMrs yah but that can also vary from the material or thickness of the pick youre using
Eddie Van Halen held it with 3 fingers like a pen so hold it any way you want cause no one is better then Eddie …
You have no idea how great this video was for me... I’ve been playing guitar for 8+ years, totally self taught mostly acoustic, just fucking around in my bedroom. I ONLY used fingerpicking because it felt so natural to me, until a few weeks ago when I bought my first electric, and I decided it would be stupid not to learn to use a pick.
Anyways, it’s weird for me right now but I trust I’ll get used to it. Thanks again
😄😄
0:42 He got us
Picked up guitar again after a while of not playing and realised I completely forgot how to hold a pick. This is way different to how my teacher taught me but by using the bridge as an anchor point I can be so much more accurate with playing the right string. Thanks!
Wow, over 10 years of guitar playing and all this time I've wondered why my pick starts to slip out of my hand sometimes during alternate picking. It has been that damn duck all this time! Thank you sir for this.
I've been playing for like 10 years and have always used my pinky like a kickstand on the pick gaurd and its always given me trouble, I just tried it this way and it immediately clicked haha. Thanks man!
OMG this helped me so much. Just bought a guitar a few days ago and until I saw your guide I had so much trouble with picking. A big thanks to you!
Putting the ball of my hand on top of the bridge is a great tip. It helps me stay in place, and also helps keep my movement tighter - I have a tendency to flail my wrist when I’m picking, which slows me down. Thank you!!!
Wow! An actual pick grip video! Most pick grip videos are usually just people giving out exercises and theory and literally NOTHING about where you should position the palm or the grip itself. They just tell you "you just hold it like this!" and then show off.
I used to use guitar picks while I still had guitar lessons years ago, then I stopped using it and going back at it is becoming my number one struggle
Thank you
I've always anchored my pinky right under the neck pick-up and was always confused as to why palm muting was so difficult for me but now i understand. Thank you so much
You just taught me that I’ve been holding a pencil wrong lol
💁♂️😜
Tried strumming again at ab halfway thru the video, AND OMG THE DIFFERENCE!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!
ahhh thank u so much!!! i’ve started playing electric a few months ago and my teacher never told me how to hold the pick, so i’d been holding it with 3 fingers
i eventually had to start using other techniques with my guitar and it got really hard to do them with my pick like that, but now it’s much easier like this :) TY!!
Thanks man! Unlike other channels your vids are straight foward.
I've been holding the pick wrong for my 9 years of guitar playing and trying out the correct way has made it impossible for me to go back. Feels so much better!
Glad to help! :D
For 5 years I held the guitar pick with 3 fingers. I stopped playing for about 6 years and now I'm starting up again, but this time I'm doing it right!
May your pillow be cold for all the rest of your days because your video was short, direct, and concise - no fluff.
Instant subbed.
After watching this video, I played for an hour making a conscious effort to hold my pick right. I can't believe how much of a difference this made.
Woohoo!
Been playing 10 years and this is still useful!
Just starting to learn guitar, big thanks for the lesson. I was using the 3 finger "technique", so im pretty happy i could watch this before i start to get problems later on!
Bravo sir, you’ve saved yourself heaps of trouble down the line 🙂
Playing with three fingers isn't guaranteed to lead to problems. Lots of great players play that way.
Thanks for the video! I just started learning guitar a week ago, and just got picks today, this really helped!
I’ve been learning and playing a lot of songs , chords , scales for a good 2 years now doing great but honestly I needed this to learn how to really hold the pick to help me keep up with my playing style if that makes sense , thank you
This helped me a bunch. I was holding my pick wrong since the beginning. Thanks a lot!
Thank you I realized the angle I was holding my puck was slowing me down. Some have said hold the pick at 30° in relation to the string. This allows the pick to glide over the string up and down strokes rather than hang up. Near the end of this video this is easy to see. 👍
Holy smokes, tis has helped me a ton. I've learned playing the guitar myself at home, this has actually drastically improved my playing. Thanks!
I’m stoked for you Jonah! Thanks for sharing! 😄
Not sure why you don't have more hits. This was simple to understand, which is what I need in my life. Excellent job sir.
Lately I’ve been trying to play faster because I’ve reached that point in guitar courses that the licks are much faster, but I was basically only down picking. So I started working seriously on alternate picking and came to the realization my picking just sucks period; fretting is fine, but my picking wasn’t coordinated, I was relying too much on hammer and pull.
As I tried doing alternate picking, which really isn’t that difficult, I realized the essential problem is I’m not holding the pick right, and with alternate picking I also had trouble keeping my hand rooted, while also doing the three fingers bit.
So this is tremendously helpful, and it’s amazing I haven’t seen other lessons that go into detail about how to hold a pick before.
Thanks so much!
Yay! 😄
I realize that where I place my palm was positioned wrong when I came across this video (it used to be positioned mid to close to the neck). Now seconds after the vid, attempting what you addressed, I can notice I’m improving already; thank you so much!
Yay! You’re welcome Zach
Just noticed I was holding the pick wrong and I was really stiff when playing. Thank you so much for this video I saw a instant improvement once I held my pick right and loosened up my hand.
Ps: If you play norteño music with the requintos and everything this works really well except I don’t rest my hand on anything since I see all these amazing guitarist don’t rest their hands either when playing
Amazing! Glad to hear 😁
Thank you, I’ve always held the pick with the face of my finger just after a minute of playing with resting it on the side of my finger I feel a lot more comfortable and less tense when I used to play tighter phrases. Very informative!
I just tried it and i immediately felt the difference. Thank you
This is super helpful. I just started to develop pain on my wrist from too much tension.
People often underestimate where the position of your 3 fingers are when holding a pick but it is perhaps one of the most important. I used to keep my fingers clenched in with my pick but now that I've separated the 2, its taken my accuracy from struggling to awesome!!
im one of those guys that use 3 fingers to hold their pick....
no wonder paint it black took 1 month to get from 60bpm to 105 bpm..
thank you for helping me fix this
💛
guitar pick keeps slowly slipping and it is very annoying
Max Grip
Honestly, one of the best videos I’ve seen on the topic!! My young student was cracking up when he saw his bad habits on film!,
Thanks bro!
Really great video; makes use of the video format (showing) and excellent technical advice as well (ball of the palm above the bridge, line the edge of the palm up w bridge). Thanks for making this!
when i was first learning i was taught to use two fingers and my thumb and it always sounded awful so i just took to using my thumb and fingerpicking. i’m excellent with fingerpicking now but couldn’t get my head around using a pick until now!! thank you
You right there, whoever you are, you changed my guitar life. Thank you❤️
I’m Darryl Syms 👋 You’re welcome! 🙌
Just into electric guitar for the first time and, wow, I never realize that I've been holding my guitar in wrong way all this time!
Your video really helped me with picking! Resting my hand on the bridge made it so much easier to pick.I could never pick with accuracy before and it really helped,thanks!
I just started using this technique to help deal with wrist tension. I've been using a death grip since i started playing guitar and nobody ever pointed it out, it's been causing me some wrist pain
recently. I can't pick as fast using this method, but my accuracy is so much better, and my wrist is more relaxed when i play.
With time and practice I’m sure you’ll develop speed 👍🙂
Been playing for 15+ year started pretty young. Unfortunately I always fingerpicked and didn’t think it would be a problem. Having a really hard time now that I’m playing mostly electric . Thanks for the tips.
Finger picking is awesome! It’s good to learn both of you want to be versatile, but don’t think that you can’t finger pick electric 😄
Darryl Syms agreed ☺️ Mark Knopfler and Albert King were two of my influences and part of the reason why I thought I didn’t need a pick. I’m learning some Randy Rhoads stuff now and am doing well but there’s some stuff I think would be impossible with my fingers and whenever I’d start going quick I’d lose control of my pick. Thanks again!
Great tips. The three fingers hold is actually quite good when you play a lot of funk. Gives an explosive attack when coupled with a loose wrist movement.
That way is definitely a good way, I'm no expert but have watched many videos of experts playing and the one thing that seems in common with them all is that there is no clear rule on how to best do it, there seemed to me to be a wide variation of picking styles, but who knows, your mileage may vary
I’ve been having trouble with the way I pick upwards and this helped me know in a way
Fantastic advice, I'm forever struggling to hold my pick properly, it's always slipping in my fingers, I'm trying your advice, great video, thank you for the tips, fantastic.
ive been playing for 1 and a half years. ive always been having trouble alternative picking and i never knew why. finally found out ive been holding my pick wrong
i'm gonna use this video to help my struggling guitar students. I needed a well angled tutorial on this.
You're welcome, thank you! 🙏
I hold my pick between my Thumb and the side of my 1st finger. Pretty much like you do. It's the most logical way of picking. However , I've seen so many pick grips that I stopped thinking about what's right and wrong. Your instructional here is rad. Well worth watching and all the points you make are valid....I just don't subscribe to teaching people a wrong or right way. Learning to play well and fast is more to do with well structured practice and persistence.
Keep up the good work dude. :)
Thank you, helped a lot, and this feels SO much more comfortable and easier!!!
👏🙌 You’re welcome!
I'm changing the way i hold the pick for more accuracy. It takes a while to break the old habit. Glad i found your posting. Where to place the heal the picking hand also crucial. Grazie.
Thank you so much. Im having major problems hitting the wrong strings. I'm gonna practise this.
I started trying to learn the guitar recently as a young guitarist. I was holding the pick wrong; with my thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger. I was wondering why my playing didn't sound that good. But thanks for this video! Bad habits are really hard to undo, but I'll try my best from now on..
There's no "wrong" way to hold a pick. This is just one guy's opinion. Lots of great players don't hold their picks this way.
Thanks for the video. I was doing more or less every single mistake and just couldn't figure out how to get the pick to work. Suddenly it's surprisingly easy. Will need some getting used to, but much better than before! 🤘
Glad it helped!
I waited way too long to look this up. Thank you so much
i was so used to holding the pick with my thumb in 90º angle. That's why i'm trying my best not to do it again because i couldn't play more faster solos, and you know i love playing solos and songs that're really fast.
For picking speed the biggest difference maker I found is feeling like you're picking the *top* of the string, not the side. Almost like tickling it.
Realistically you have to pick the side but try to minimize how far the tip of the pick goes below the side of the string.
ty for this video, 4 years of guitar and tremolo picking became a torture to me, cause i did it wrong, not with the wrist but with the arm, very hard to fix now,
Thanks for this! I’m a beginner and I’m glad I came across this video. Gotta develop good habits.
I'm legit eight months into learning and I'm just now learning how to use a pick. Mainly play fingerstyle, lol.
Thing about youtube lessons is how many bad habits I've had all these years. Like i don't even hold the pick right. This makes sense to me.
Thanks for this, I’ve been trying to play some alternate picking songs and I keep missing strings when I try and play faster so I thought I might be holding the pick wrong after playing for years haha. I think this will help 👍🏻
It certainly will Matt, good luck! 🙂
Only been playing for like four months or so, just realized today I should choke up on the pick lol. Was holding it so far back on the plastic to where it folds a ton.
Killer vid man, I’m just starting guitar, and this helped TREMENDOUSLY.
-Chris the drummer
This video helps more than I could ever say
🥰
The Jazz III has been my favorite pick for 30 years and now in the youtube age I'm surprised that so many other people think it's the only right pick as well! GMTA (well not sure about 30 ... at least from the beginning of the 1990s)
My hero! Thank you!
You have taught me well master. Now little grasshopper will go to practice. 🙏🎸
Great informative video, thanks my man!
I'd like to give another tip to anyone struggling with the pick sliding down their fingers.
Pay attention to which part of the index finger you're holding the pick with, even if you're holding it with the side of the finger. I used to bend my finger so much that I held the pick with my first knuckle (starting from the nail up) and my finger was bent perpendicularly to the pick, so whenever I played something faster or strummed chords or anything, the pick would slide down that bent part of the finger.
The point is, you should always hold the pick with the side of your index finger and it always follow the direction from the widest part of the pick down to the tip.
No wonder I've been holding the pick wrong all this time. Great video, thank you
Ah that example u showed at the beginning literally how I’ve played for 2 yr only just realised recently I need 2 fix it
ty bro you really helped me out
Was having trouble with crazy trains opening riff. Thanks mate
The best yt explanation on holding your pick. Thank you
Paul Gilbert uses three fingers for strumming, two for picking/lead. Eddie Van Halen used his middle finger and thumb. Many, many folk players use the three fingers (index, middle, thumb). What it comes down to is what is comfortable and allows the proper level of control. I hold the pick the same way Paul Gilbert does, btw - one way for strumming, another for lead.
Incorrect. I know Paul very well and whilst you've seen him use 3 and 2 fingers, that's not what he does all the time at all. Most often, he applies the same approach I demonstrate here
I very rarely comment on videos but I wanted to say thanks, a brilliant lesson for all of us beginners. Cheers mate.
Thanks Ollie, that means a lot!
Very helpful video. Thank you!
I feel like I unlocked a new hidden superpower learning this…
Thankyou this really helped
My guy giving a fast one in the thumbnail
Maybe that’s the secret to all these views 🤷♂️😂
Thanks, with these advices i started playing better!
Thank you brother😊