POLL! What is your pick grip?
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- Опубликовано: 12 июл 2024
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What are the most common ways of holding the pick? Let's find out! Take the Cracking the Code pick grip poll here: www.troygrady.com/pickgrip 
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![How to Hold a Guitar Pick the RIGHT Way [Guitar Playing Masterclass PART 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/v9RIjw8psHo/mqdefault.jpg)
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I learned my pick grip from a Paul Gilbert instructional dvd that came with my guitar, so naturally i was taught to tape it to a power drill.
Good one !
LOL. Thanks for that. It went great with my morning coffee!
If pick gets to close to finger my finger nail starts to wear off 🙄
Play with a drill is the base of mastering guitar 👍👍
" Sometimes you jus wanna be held. Especially when you are a guitar pick. "
Now I know why my pick asked me to watch this video.
I'm all about classic rock showmanship...
I hold the pick with my teeth.
Dammit we forgot that one!
Yummy! I was going to pick with my nose, but instead I took the poll and found that I'm in the totally normal group for all 3. I guess I'm just dull, if efficient. :)
Natural evolution from playing with your tongue ala Jason Becker :)
Troy, you are the biggest contributor to guitar teaching and figuring out the guitar in general that there has ever been. The very first guitar enthusiast to leverage technology, accessibility to information + the internet to bring everything we know about the guitar together and shed light on grey areas and areas of conflict that people didn't bother offering much insight into before. People always used to talk about left hand techniques and scales and stuff but noone ever dared to put this much effort into compiling and assessing all the techniques there are in the right hand which for most guitarists is the confusing part due to all the conflicting teaching advice.
You are the pioneer of the new age of analyzing technique.
I have always held the pick with my thumb, pointer, and middle finger, having the extra finger there allows for more tone control, while also allowing for speed and accuracy. so I've just always done it like that. It has always worked for everything for me.
I started that way as it felt like the right way. I managed to force myself to not do that. I use the "ok" hand gesture while only using the tip of my 1st finger and thumb. Works GREAT for speed and accuracy. Can really just twitch a bit and get serious speed.
Just wanted to say thank you for your countless hours and analyzing to help us. I'm still struggling w the pick slanting and still getting pick stuck in strings but have moments where it feels like I'm getting it. I promise that if it weren't for you I would have given up. But I'm going to keep trying until I get it. You are invaluable to people like me who aren't natural guitarists Thank you
After 60 years I've finally figured out the optimum pick hold. I am so sick of other people telling others things like you have to have ringernails to play guitar (Tell it to Tommy Emmanuel) or you have to learn to read music (Glenn Campbell, Ray Charles didn't). I once went to a music teacher who told me that my fingers were too short to ever play guitar. He was astounded when I played for him, even asking me to show him how I did a couple of licks. Oh, yeah, I made a living playing guitar for seven years. So what is the best way to hold a pick? Whatever feels comfortable and works for you. NEVER let anyone tell you what you Can't do. Failure comes in Can'ts...Success comes in Cans. ;-)) Remember: Can't never did anything. Shalom/gw
Thank you!
That music teacher is an idiot. Kids dobt hace long fibgers either snd yet they play guitar just fine.
First grip desc, then comment beneath.
Pad of thumbtip against side of index fingertip. Pick tip generally in line with index finger is my comfort zone.
Blade of hand on bridge for orienting on acoustic, fingertips in body...or nothing... for my Jackson and Kramer electrics.
Troy,
I'm 55. I've played since 1974 at age 14. 25 years ago at age 30, I hit a wall figuratively speaking... I could not progress more than by nano-steps. 25 friggin years of frustration!!!
Then I blundered across Cracking the Code!
Your evolution, path to consistency, analysis of pick techniques... whatever the label, it resonated with me like being punched in the face by Connor McGregor...twice! 😉
I'd been completely awed and mystified by Yngwie's superpowers for years. There was no way I could ever comprehend his magic, much less enter that ballpark to save my life!
How the hell YJM could do what he does, while his pick barely seemed to move, made me wanna just head on outside and shoot myself...;)
Still, with my many years of life experience, ability to think critically and desire to get over that wall? I had neither the realization, intuition nor insight to consider and examine years of ignoring my picking, unthinkingly allowing instinct and picking habits to carry the overused hammer-on's and pull-off's I had naturally installed for speed.
Completely clueless was I!
And then... One fateful day watching RUclips, revelation! Troy Grady's downward pickslanting took the inconsistent stumbling away. It took a few weeks to get used to it but just as depicted in your transcending CTC video, "Holy Shit! Did I just do that...?"
The unforeseen benefit was this:
Muscling through my inefficiencies took away from seeing the very patterns and paths of melody.
Muscle memory infected everything I regurgitated at speed!
After your hard work resulted in my concerted focus on my neglected picking? NOW, I can see the pathways emerging way ahead of time as I improvise. I can visualize the anchor notes and paths to melodic destination through the octaves without stumbling and I can do it with blazing speed, accuracy and fluency. Friends and family are now noticing the changes.
Troy Grady, you have truly enriched my life. Renewed my passion and afforded me playing abilities, far far beyond anything I've ever imagined since I was 30.
Now, every guitar player I know as well as any guitar player I meet, gets sent straight to your RUclips channel and Website. I cannot thank you enough for sharing the fruits of your labor of love with us all. I hope you reap fulfillment, benefit, goodwill and gratitude from this, long after you reach my age.
Although I tried, words cannot express the degree of appreciation here. There just aren't any!!!
🎸
That was so much better than the sneering posts those of us who follow this channel see from time to time dismissing Troy's insights as "obvious". :D
This video is really underrated. Thank you for relativating the freedom in gripping techinque. I used always a grip with my fingertips. The "more articulated way" i think you mentioned. I never read it it just felt comfortable always. I mean the function of the pickholdingtechnique is to hold the pick without loosing it. As long as it works and you can play everything the technique is the right for you in my opinion. I´m playing now for over 18 years and never used the "proper" way of holding it, even during gigs. Everyone always told me i hold it wrong. I use sometimes the mittlefingergrip and the same with the indexfinger, mostly with the indexfinger (creating a "O" shape with my fingers). Just works pretty well and i can articulate more with the movement of my fingers too. So i dont use too many angles...
I didn't have a lot of lessons, so I pretty much figured out what grip worked best on my own. Started out with Fender style picks my teacher gave me, and somewhere early on I discovered Jazz III's and they became my pick of choice. My grip came mainly from my desire to play fast and hit pinch harmonics easily. (Early influences where guys like Yngwie, MacAlpine, Moore and Lynch)
I'm glad you included the 3 finger grip since I use that one most often. I picked it up after somebody told me that Shawn Lane did it that way.
Troy once again you are the best, I love your scientific method keep up the great work man!
My natural way of holding it from when I started was the three-finger grip (thumb, index and middle fingers), but it was limiting my range of finger movement so I've consciously moved to holding it between the fingertips (pads) of thumb and index finger. It's just about the only conscious change I've ever made to my technique in my playing "career" :)
Doing this also naturally relaxed my other three fingers, so I've naturally drifted over to very loosely anchoring my little and ring finger blow the strings. Very comfortable way to play (for me).
i use one of the dull sides of the pick. I dont't use the sharp tip to pick the strings. It happened when I first started playing, and i wore down the sharp tip to a round soft shape. Ever since then it feels akward and unsmooth to use the sharp point of the pick, although it does darken the tone a bit.
This is something I’ve been obsessing over lately. So I was sitting here watching this, trying the various grips, and when you mentioned the Eddie Van Halen grip with the middle finger, I lit up. That seems the most stable to me, or rather the most natural for how I play.
If it's easy and works, do more of it! The sheer number of possibilities for things that work is large and confusing, so one good way to navigate it is simple the path of least resistance. Try them all, choose what seems easy!
You really teach guitarist an info and techniques for FREE! Thank you very much!
So interesting how different people can pick so differently yet all sound amazing! This aspect really does affect what type of pick will work better for you. Trial and error will always stear you in the right direction to find your perfect picking techique. I've always believed that your pick can be your weakest link or stumbling block to your success if your playing depends on it. So thankful Troy Grady has opened up this door of discovery for all guitar players to explore and define their own playing!!
I used to do the 3 fingered grip and rotate the pick so that my thumb was pointed towards the headstock. I came up with this as a teenager to get my trem picking super fast. I was told it was weird and wrong but it had always worked for me.
I only realised since I started watching your videos that this was the reason why I was never able to progress passed a certain point as it made string skipping and other skills pretty needlessly difficult.
I'm 30 now and I've relearned how to approach the guitar by changing that one thing. Cheers buddy :)
I've done it the same way and for the same reason. Just found out i wasn't normal
I've tried all of different kinds of pick grip. So, I get tired and only use my nails since 1996. I call this "Nailpicking". I've already did an instructional video where I show the technique, which consists in a crossover between classical guitar technique and the picking technique. Now, I'm working in a second video where I'll play the "Moto Perpetuo", by Pagannini with the "Nailpicking technique". Best wishes and congrats for the excellent RUclips channel.
This doesn't have to do with pick grip, but I started using jazz III picks about five years ago and now I absolutely cannot use a bigger or normal sized pick. Anyone else experience this?
Shea Keith Saavedra Yep! I use the Tortex Jazz III now instead of the red/black nylons, because it actually feels a little bit wider. I'm pretty sure they are the same size, but for whatever reason I feel like the tortex has more surface area. Either way, I can't play with normal sized picks anymore.
thats half the people here. I recently switched to Jazz III to the John Petrucci... its slightly larger.
The Petrucci Jazz III's are the best pick out there, no argument. 100% the best pick I've ever tried, and I've tried a lot. The only time I use a different pick is when I'm only strumming or playing mostly rhythm. In that case, I use a regular size 1mm pick.
Shea Keith Saavedra I use the red Jazz III XL picks. They have the same articulation but have the size of a normal pick making them easier for my chubby little fingers to hold on to.
Shea Keith Saavedra I use the jazz iii 1.38mm ones and they're pretty good, small size, thick body and pointy at the end. I find that smaller picks don't 'interfere' with the way I hold my pick and the way my fingers are placed.
Well one of the reasons I was told to hold a pick with all the fingers curled up almost like a fist was to Help support the Index finger to keep it from moving back and forth every time a string is picked causing long term joint problems. I don't how true that is though. But it does give a nice sold feeling compared to the last 3 fingers out.
Had a few different suggestions so experimented until I found a way that's worked best for me so far.
thanks for researching these topics! it was a bit hard to answer the poll because i find myself using different grips at various times.
I filled in the poll with the one i use most (far knuckle, fingers out, forearm rotation) but I do use different grips for different situations. With heavy down stroke rhythm stuff for instance I prefer the pick closer to the inner knuckle with a closed fist and more elbow movement.
After watching your series, I started to adjust my pick angle from a left-handed approach to the (correct) right handed approach. The hardest part was changing from pad to knuckle. I still prefer the "old way" for strumming, and kinda alternate between the two depending on what I was going for.
Me too. Could never play fast enough so I've been trying to relearn but I fall back on my old ways which afford a lot of nuance in my picking but not a lot of raw speed.
I feel like there's a physical barrier for us, to a degree. Even with repetitive practice over days or weeks; there's a wall I hit that I can't get through. But with a few legato transitions thrown in; I can drastically speed up any unattainably fast lines.
At first, I thought it was the guitar, so I bought an Epiphone KOA top Les Paul Custom, then thought it was the amp, so I bought a Marshall Code 50, added in a set of Ernie Ball Extra Slinky strings and a Blue Chip TD50 pick and now trying pick grip choices and finally have come to the realization there is a reason I play drums.
Thanks Troy for making me look at my technique a little more closely. I just took this poll, and found that I must be more of an oddball than I realized. I use the "far knuckle" hold, but I turn the pick 90 degrees so that the point is toward my palm. The more rounded edge goes to the strings. I also extend my pinkie and ring finger and rest them on the body of the guitar as an 'anchor.' My middle finger is curled adjacent to my index finger that holds the pick. Finally, I tend to move the thumb and index finger more than anything, but the wrist +finger movement comes into play when there's more than three strings being played at once of if it is fast chord picking. I feel weird now.
For alternate picking I keep my wrist bent down I found simpler to move the arm fast in this way, plus I can keep the pick distant from the strings so that only the very little estremity make the contact giving more speed, but you can't have palm muting in this way...
I gripped my picks, from Jazz III's to huge .38mm floppy's, with three fingers for nearly four years. I cannot even remember when I stopped, but I certainly remember doing it for far, far too long.
I use very different grips depending on what I'm playing. Funk-style strumming, for example, is very different from my single note shred grip, and so forth.
i've been playing for years and still have no idea what the best way is..My grip is different everytime i play...
that sounds exactly like me..and I've been playing for 35 years..hahaha
if your grip is different every time you p[lay, that means you have no consistency, and you suck as a player. you will have no accuracy, mistakes everywhere.
Different grips for different styles, moods, and situations!
rohadt Anyad calm down Mr roid rage
Rohadt: So when you drive a car do you have both hands on the wheel at the 2 and 10 o’clock positions always ??? Don’t be condescending please. Discuss and accept that some people may be different to you which doesn’t make them better or worse.
you changed my life, troy!
I hold mine between thumb and the side of my index finger end joint, the joint angled back toward my wrist at 45 degrees. It allows a lot of back and forth movement, giving a lot of variation fir angle of attack, basically the side grip shown. I can arch my wrist, EVH style, for trills and add in hybrid picking as well as manipulating the string rather than conventional up and down strokes. The flexibility is the key for me.
This was really interesting. I remember as a I started to play guitar I did the middle finger/three finger grip and I actively moved away from that grip because I thought it looked wrong.
I used "pad to pad" till four days ago. That was before I discovered this youtube-channel and the Cracking The Code-videos.
Now here I am, 'unlearning' the "pad to pad"-grip in favour of the "pad to side"-grip (in my case) for only that reason:
I want to use the leading edge of the pick to attack the strings.
I have been using the trailing edge of the pick to attack the strings before, with a bend in the wrist and the thumb of my picking hand. But I didn't have the feeling, the pick could fall out of my hand at anytime. Nevertheless, the thumb of my picking hand can be bent easily way further, than the thumb of my other hand, through holding picks that way ever since.
I change it up a bit, but my most common is 3-finger grip, fist, wrist. I started the 3 finger thing when trying the EVH middle finger grip thing for ease of tapping, but I found I needed more stability for rhythm picking.
Forced myself to learn the 3 finger hetfeild technique and now it’s the most comfortable one
Well out of curiosity I tried the Hetfield way. I can't do right (forget about speedy down picking) but I fin convinient for picking a slow playing it feels strong and controlled.
Practicing this I realize that I can actually hold the pick in between my thumb and my middle finger when doing so I use the palm of the thumb and the side of the finger (same as with thumb+first finger)preferentially.
The fisrt finger can come to complement the grip in various ways for exemple if I use thte tip of the finger which other wise feels weak for me (both middle and first finger).
I also use a pretty close grip ala Gambale (damned how I dared I said that being as bad as I am... anyway), I like more than with the first finger.
I realize I like a lot, it easier to have the other fingers less in the way and the movement seems to starts from a more neutral point as far as wrist movements are concerned (wrt to ulnar and radial deviations). I find it more noticeable the more close my grip is.
A benefit is also that it makes my pick further from my wrist which help with amplitude I'm not using my foremarm much .
It takes actually few time to adapt but old habits make it that if not thinking I'm back to a more standard grip.
I hold my pick like Robert Marcello. It works for speed picking Gambale style, alternate picking and for sweeping arpeggios equally good.
Thumb and middle finger. I was curious to know what other guitarists used this grip. cool video thanks :)
i dont feel like the only one any more :p
I use different grips for different techniques. Pad to angle for picking, and then middle finger for strumming, backed up by three fingers for strumming.
Rest of fingers vary from out and loose to loosely curved.
And mechanics starts at the elbow with a little bit of forearm rotation and minimal wrist rotation.
I hold mine like ed van halen and michael schenker,. between the thumb and second finger and anchor the the first finger along the side of the pick.
For a while i had tried to hold it like Yngwie but could never get it to his speed so i went back to my original way of second finger and thumb
I also switched from the classic Jazz III to the dava grip delrin(red) jazz picks.
These are even better for me than the dunlops were.
Oy, I'm glad I found this. Every video telling me how to hold my pick gives the same technique, and I hate that technique. It feels weird and sounds stilted. Relieved to hear lots of guitarists have alternate methods!
I've found that if I'm playing primarily with an upward pick slant, I'm slightly more on the edge of my thumb with my thumb rolled inwards, towards the point of the pick. When I need to use a downward pick slant I sort of roll my thumb from the point of the pick towards the back, putting the pick more on the pad of my thumb. It's a pretty modest change but I can't rotate my wrist enough comfortably without that little tweak to be able to switch between a downward and upward slant.
my pick grip and movement changes depending on what i am playing...
for two notes per string runs, i curl up fingers and use angle pad and writs movement, then for riffs, i switch to first knucke-pad combination with open fingers and elbow movements...for leads sections it is a mix of angle pad, curl and elbow + wrist movements
it confuses my instructor too sometimes why and how i do it XD
Flat of the thumb and flat pad of the index finger ( on the fingerprints, basically). These 2 fingers push against each other for control. I try to show my students that the thumb and index operate mostly independently of the other 3 fingers ( makes it easy to hybrid pick etc.)
For POWER and SPEED parts I use the "side grip" where the pick is off off my KNUCKLE on the index finger.
For articulation on feel, with almost as much speed, I have the pads of my index and thumbs FLAT on the pick, but it's slanted at an angle. I'm more comfortable with that one though, because it gives me more "spring" the strings and I feel better overall control, but gives up maybe 10% speed..
I actually was thinking about sending an email to you guys about this. Whenever I practice the "Pop-Tarts lick" with the knuckle grip I tend to go faster, but feels awkward compared to the fingertip grip.
It also depends on the pick. If I use a jazz pick I use the fingertip grip more than I do with a normal pick.
i use the purple tortex
Exclusively. ..but jus now getting into the black jazz III sharps..looks ike that's my pick of destiny to shred into the night
I would have added questions about the type and amount of (leading/trailing) edge applied to the picking, I think that it also influences your grip.
Like to anchor my pinky on bottom pup like Petrucci. The COOLEST player to watch & I tried to emulate without success was Marty Friedman's AWESOMELY ULTIMATE picking stance!
Hi Troy, I just discovered your awesome videos yesterday (via one of Ben Eller's videos) and am finding them very insightful. Realized after 30 years of playing that I'm a downward escape picker with angle pad pick grip (which many told me was strange but your poll helped me realize it's not) One extra variable I'm wondering if should be included in this poll is how tightly curved the index finger is. When you said that you use angle pad grip, I expected it to look like mine, but when I watch some of your videos, your index finger is curled up very tight (like 90 degree angle on middle knuckle). When I hold mine, there's a huge "O" shape (about as much as you'd see if you were giving someone the "OKAY" hand gesture). My fingers are also outward. Curious what you think of this nuance.
I use slightly different techniques depending on which way, or what I'm picking at the time. But it will be very interesting to see what the results are.
Same here, most of the time its thumb pad to knuckle for me, but if I'm digging in too much (tend to do this when recording to get more oomf/energy into the sound) and my finger gets a bit tender I switch to tilted pad. The other fingers seem to have a mind of their own in regard to being open, closed or anchored!
Having said that, I started playing between both fingers, switched to middle and thumb then realised I had to revise my technique for consistency and moved the 1st finger. That overhaul was a total pain in the ass, I tell you!
pick grip has been a real challenging aspect of guitar playing for me. i am left handed but play right handed, so of course my pick hand is the weak link. i absolutely can not use the thumb tucked to the index finger method at all (i always think of Robert Fripp for that particular holding style), it feels clunky and useless. so over the years i've switched back and forth from the Steve Morse style to just the thumb and index finger with loose fingers (think Warren DeMartini) and now i find i switch between them even within one tune. the Morse method is fantastic for string skipping, arpeggio's and gives a ton of punch to the notes (you can really pick HARD) but for fast metal rhythm style downpicking the rotating wrist action is not very efficient at all, so i switch. as if that wasnt enough another huge problem for me is that my hands sweat profusely when i play. to the point that i finally started super gluing 220 wet or dry sandpaper to the top 2/3 of the pick on both sides, to help prevent slippage. but the biggest challenge of all is still learning to keep my right hand relaxed. theres always something to work on!!!! your channel is fantastic and has given me insights into my own playing i probably never would have uncovered on my own, thank you!
I downward pickslant. I noticed yngwie using it and I had to switch it up. I do find it hard to use yngwies technique with a floyd rose. You have to cognitively anchor your hand more towards the back pickup.
Thanks for the video but too bad the poll didn't have up-close photos showing one grip from another so we could definitively distinguish between them. A picture is still worth a thousand words and it's nice to hear from an expert such as yourself that there really is no right or wrong way for holding a pick. Do you have a list of how some of our guitar heroes held it?
i have a question troy, do ever hit the string below the one you are playing with your index finger? That happens to me quite often and it isnt audible but im not sure whether it might be holding me back and if i should change my grip so i can stop that from happening..
It would be great to have a decision tree that, for each pick grip, identifies the barriers and enablers for speed improvement. Maybe that's already on the CtC website hehe.
I hold the pick with only my index finger and thumb, so that the centerline of the pick is about 45° off the lenghwise centerline of my finger, being held in place by the most distal 1/4" of the pad of my thumb. I don't expose much pick at all, maybe 3/16" at most, and I attack the strings with it at about a 30° angle.
I hold my pick in different ways depending on what I am playing. I have only recently noticed that, because it is all unconscious "muscle memory" with my pick-gripping.
My grip somehow automatically changes to suit the job at hand.
was wondering whether hand size would show some correlation between different types of grip. I have quite big hands and find when playing the low E my middle finger tends to generate unwanted noise as it rubs on the g and b strings.
Love your vids BTW, More More! :D
Apparently I've learned the george benson 45 angle wrong way than usual. Sometimes it pisses me off and doesn't feel good but learning it the other way around seems so much work
Hi Troy, I grip thumb pad to index fingertip.
I thought this was quite a standard way, but it seems not. I only see one other person here with the same grip.
who knew?! Interesting
No love for the George Benson picking grip? Holds the pick on the tip of the pad of the thumb then the index finger first joint clamps down on top, sounds and feels awkward at first but is actually pretty good for various techinques, particularly speedy tremolo with low wrist and forearm tension. Changes the angle that the pick crosses the string and is almost like a "bow" strike like you might imagine a violin or other stringed instrument is played with a bowing action. Check out Tobi Morelli and Dean Lamb of Archspire for a really good example of the power of the grip.
What about if you hold the pick at a 45 degree angle upward? So that instead of the thumb being mostly straight it instead curves back so that the closest side of the pick to high e is towards the inside of your thumb?
And do you switch the way you hold your pick for playing rhythm guitar parts like I'll see the light tonight by Yngwie thx!
i use something between martys picking position and conventional position. i have a problem with my ulnar nerve and it's the ONLY style that allows me to play guitar without my hand hurting within a minute.
+gatomaru interesting - glad you found a system that works
Awesome. Marty McFly was way ahead of his time.
Curious to know wether there's any correlation between pick grip and hand size?
Ah...I was a student of Curt Mitchell and the "Guitar Method In the Stlye Of...." VHS tapes, lol.
Thumb pushing flat on side of bird finger with index on top edge of pick
I don't even need the index but I Never drop picks🤘
i hold my free fingers in a clenched fist and immediately noticed faster picking speeds and i hold the pick in first knuckle in upward slant
Mine is open ,pad to pad, downward pick slant ,trailing edge..I have to have an anchor, usually my pinky..This way just feels natural to me. I've been trying the roll technique which has opened more doors for me..it still feels strange to me..This way I can learn to use leading edge also..It's tough for me since I've been playing trailing edge for so long. I'm still string hopping when I do. I'll get it eventually..it's just weird.
Hey Troy! Where is your video playing Shawn Lane's solo from Centrifugal Funk - So What?
I know this is an old video, but I just submitted my grip; Middle finger, curved fingers, and wrist picking. I've noticed I use a similar grip when using a pen/pencil. Anybody else notice a correlation between the way they write and the way they pick? Particularly the holding aspect.
I'm not sure how I hold the pick. I think it's far knuckle,but my thumb sticks out about half an inche. Also the thumb sticking out has a major importance for me. I use the leading edge and the trailing edge (it's random when changing strings or a certain lick). Having my thumb out lets me switch between the two with ease during string changes and changing pick slants. It does make it annoying to video record my picking hand because the thumb hides the pick at certain angles. so i try not to stick the thumb out and everything feels strange like my movement is restricted or everything feels stiff.
I apparently hyper-extend my thumb and hold with my second and third fingers, which is totally "wrong" but also works. Been doing it for 20 years.
Sounds like you're describing what we sometimes call "trailing edge" grip. Nothing wrong with that, many great players have used it. If you find that comfortable, absolutely.
Troy, yes we all do some variation of a "grip". But is there rule of thumb that determines how much of the pick is exposed for striking the strings. I stopped playing for about 12 years and then picked it back up....but I was a much smoother soloist back then....thinking this maybe from a different grip...(choking up more of the pick...less pick is exposed to strike the string with.) Yeah, seems so simple huh? lol Thanks!
I used to hold my pick with my thumb index and middle finger but half way though me playing guitar after a year I changed to the thumb against the index finger
Steve Morse will use 3 fingers to hold the pick alot well 2 fingers and a thumb lol... the pointer , middle and the thumb. Idk it's what's comfortable for u but depending on what style ur playing u may have to change ur holding style so its good to have different ways of holding it.
I use thumb and pads of index and middle - type G I believe it was.
Can someone explain Paul Gilbert old technique of holding the pick backwards ? Buckethead also used to do this as well
I started out with the three finger style to help with transitioning to tapping.....
Not such a great plan, as I don't do enough tapping to make it worthwhile and it really complicates strumming. And as with many early decisions, I am "stuck with it" ;)
What would be very interesting: Who uses one way, two way ps, crosspicking and how this relates to chosen musical styles of the guitarist. What I observed in my own playing was, that depending on what I play different string changing strategies are handy, While twps is great for metal, in a improvisation over changes I tend two switch to the EJ method. Why is that? Restriction leads to more creativity ?
I have seen players who hold the pick with the tip of the index finger and the knuckle of the thumb, or even further than that. I find that I use all 3 different finger positions all the time, depending on what I'm playing, so that one was hard to answer...
what if you change your grip depending on what you are playing? I change it depending on if Im playing downstrokes, alternate or tremolo
i’m just starting out so is it bad that i use 3 fingers because it’s so much more comfortable and easier for me but i hardly see anyone else do it and i hear it makes things harder but it seems easier to me
I see "three finger" grip on the website but not "two finger?" Seems odd to me. When I started I used my index and middle finger together but in time I realized it slowed me down and changed to what you call "angle pad."
Notwithstanding Troy's great videos, I saw a few vids of Takayoshi Ohmura and () I canceled any efforts made in developing any one method of picking.
Depends on the genre im playing.
Hi Troy, I am curious as to why you did not include options for "trailing edge" pickers? (Not that I am one) but the grip is a bit different, no? Or maybe a poll to find out what percentage of players use trailing edge. When you have Hendrix, Benson, Santana, Vernon Reid, Randy Jackson, Nile Rodgers and Paul Gilbert (in his early days) to name a few, it bears looking into...
I actually started out holding the pick with both i and m (and thumb, obviously). Had to relearn holding it with the index finger only, when I started practicing hybrid/chicken picking. I would not recommend the i&m grip to begin with, since its only merit seems to be a firm grip on the pick. It works best for strumming, but as soon as there is melody to be picked, it is less precise and rather bulky. It's easier for beginners, sure, but nothing a little practice with the index finger only wouldn't make up for. Also, holding the pick with the middle finger would make hybrid picking quite hard for me, since I'm not used to using my pinkie for picking. Thus, tme it would be most reasnable to hold the pick between thumb and index finger.
Also, you can switch between upward and downward pickslanting by slightly rotating your index finger. I usually hold the pick between my thumb and the side of my index finger, with the index finger's first joint slightly bent. If I bend the joint further and push the pick to a slight angle with my thumb, I get an upward pick slant. If I straighten my index finger out, instead, the pick slants downward.
Depending on what I'm trying to do, I'll sometimes use this "push the pick further around the index finger" approach to switch from dwps to uwps. I've even had some interesting results where the pick is in what Troy's terminology in this poll might describe as an "index side/nail" position. The greater the amount of upward pickslant desired, the more bend in the last joint of the thumb and the last two joints of the index finger (driven by pressure from the thumb).
Troy Im surprised you are not including the picking method on any of these polls. ( DWP, UWP, DPS, Cross/U-Picking). I switched my grip, anchoring, and my motion mechanic after I switched picking methods (to cross picking).
We do have the picking motion in this poll in the sense of, which mechanical system are you using, be it elbow, forearm, and so forth. But you are correct, we're realizing here is that there are a ton of variables we like to correlate with one another. At some point in the future we'll probably put together a mega poll that's got everything in it. This way we can ask questions like, show me edge picking versus pickslanting, or show me motion mechanic versus pick gauge, or musical style versus motion mechanic, or what have you. That'll be really cool when we get there.
Brian Nordman I think having a poll purely for holding style is good, because many of us use several picking techniques depending on what kind of lick we're playing, without necessarily having one predominant one, even though we usually only have one pick holding style.
I switched as well, from pad to pad holding to angled/side holding because I want to improve alt picking. Exact same switch misha mansoor made. Also it looks aweful when you do pad to pad holding and your wrist chicken-wings out lol
For me, it would be beneficial. From what I've seen, theres only a handful of cross-pickers here, and I'd love to compare holding/mechanic techniques with them.
Fingers rolled in, pick held sideways and I pluck/strum with the corner.
My hand positioning and pick placement naturally kind of look like Di Meola's. This is despite many years of forcing it to be anchored. Free hand works hest for me.
Hi Troy - I've notice from your iPad camera views that you often 'choke up' on your grip where the pick appears to be gripped between the first knuckle of the thumb and first knuckle of the curled index finger, giving the visual impression of the pick being perpendicular to the index finger. The 'free' fingers curl up in a upward 'telescoped' arc. My main obstacle, which I'm still trying to correct is the pad of my index finger obstructing the pick's trailing clearance. Yet when I imitate the above grip by curling the index in to allow the trailing edge not to be muted, the grip feels too 'fisty' (lack of better term). I'm trying to overcome a long term bad 'habit', so what's been comfortable and natural cannot work for alt. picking consistency (life lesson metaphors abound). Any suggestions?
That's the triggrer style grip, and I specifically made the effort to learn it over the past couple years or so, along with middle finger grips like what EVH and Albert Lee use, to get a sense of how they work. They're all getting pretty comfortable now, and I am more able to switch between all of them. In general, more extended grips require more supinated arm positions, and trigger grips require less supinated arm positions. This in turn determines what picking motions you have available and how they will work. So everything works together as a system. Beyond that it's hard to say what you might be doing wrong without actually seeing it. If you head to our forum and link to a clip, we'd be happy to take a look and provide some feedback. Sorry for the long reply!
@@troygrady Thanks! I love the long reply, btw. I'm grateful for your in depth, 'holistic', inclusive approach to learning. I follow and admire Albert Lee, Benson, Kessel, Grant Green etc, as well as the Manouche players and the 'Shredders'. Not to mention trad. blues from the 30's ( Blind Blake etc):
So I have my ears full. I developed my neglected right hand (paradox?) with a Clapton/Green style, so called old school electric blues orientation when I started playing in the very late 60's and all that mattered to me was tension, release and vibrato. Thanks for your brilliant insights and expansive appreciation which merges neuroscience, personal development, critical thinking and endless curiosity. Fun!!
I hold it like Shawn Lane does. I have for a long time. It seems as though that my hands are too large to do it the other way (such as you) comfortably; which also makes it harder to tell if I'm doing something inefficiently due to moving different muscles and trying to translate the techniques your trying to teach, to what is seemingly backwards of what you're doing. I'm not sure yet, perhaps, alas, I still need a bunch more practice after many years of trying to play like the greats...
Great videos by the way! As you know, you've completely changed the game. Before looking at "Lesson" videos of 'the greats' was like; 'well that's nice and all, but how do I do it'?
I used to be a Metallica fan back in the day. I read an article that Hetfield played with three fingers and I instantly switched to that after reading it in 92' or so. I wish I never did because I feel like it is so limiting.
experiment... if it works, you keep doing it. Simple! 😃
Adds another layer to the confusión, I think you should do what comes naturally.