Proper Picking Techniques

Holding a guitar pick is pretty simple as long as you apply some basic common sense. The guitar pick should be held between your thumb and index finger on your picking hand. You will want to keep your wrist locked and utilize your elbow as the pivot point to move the guitar pick to pressure the guitar string.

Some people will recommend using a light grade sand paper on your guitar pick to sharpen the edge and help it grab the strings. This is a good trick to use as your competency improves.

It is recommended that you use a medium or heavy gauge guitar pick with a standard width. There are some over sized picks that you can use for the very beginner or for the younger guitar players. These picks are good for strumming and for establishing the very fundamentals of using a guitar pick. Lighter gauge guitar picks tend to be flimsy and can break quite easily.

Name brand guitar picks are usually good to start with, but guitar picks, next to guitar strings are probably what you will be likely to replace the most, so it is important to finds picks that are within your budget and picks that last based on your playing abilities and preferences.

It is recommended that you learn to be able to use a guitar pick using both down and up strokes on the strings. Your picking hand will become fatigued very quickly if you utilize only up or only down strokes with the guitar pick. You will also be able to play much faster over time if you are able to pick using up and down strokes.

For the very beginner, start by just using open strings (no pressure on the guitar strings or neck from your fret hand), and practice using up and down strokes on each string. As you are able to produce a consistent ringing from the open string, practice going a little faster along each string.

When you feel comfortable with your ability to pick up and down consistently, try playing some notes on the fret board and using the same exercise until you are comfortable with the sounds being produced. These sounds should be a clear ringing, sustained sound with no "dull" non-ringing of the notes.

To prepare for strumming some chords, practice by strumming the pick along the open strings, again with no pressure on the guitar strings or fret board, as you did in the beginning. Be sure to use both up and down strokes to keep your pick hand from getting tired and developing your up and down picking ability equally.

Once you are comfortable with the individual notes, move along to strumming some chords, using simple chords first and being sure to be able to ring out each note of the chord both individually and together. Once you re comfortable with a few basic chords, try changing between those chords until you are able to do so efficiently and without stopping between chords for finger placements on the guitar strings.

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Kevin Uhrig is a singer and guitar player and director of http://www.trurewindmusic.com, and believes in providing good information to allow consumers to make educated decisions.

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