I have been playing for a while but am new to bluegrass. I never thought about it and held my pick the way I held it. After watching the videos on how to old a pick, I am all messed up and that is all I can seem to focus on is I am not holding it right. Has this happen to anyone else?
Holding your pick
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Hey, @ynnodleetsac, welcome to the forum! I fortunately learned proper pick grip when I started on the guitar, but there were other things that I did not learn properly. When I tried to fix it, I ran into exactly what you’re dealing with now. I encourage you to just keep at it. Pick grip is important; once you get the hang of it, you’ll notice that you have better control. The more you practice it correctly, the easier it will get. Hope this helps you out!
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Yes, happens to many. Can you post a picture here of how you hold your pick?
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Thank you for responding, yeah now every time I mess up or cant play as fast I think this is the problem so I change it and that works until it does not and then I change it again. It turns in to some sick ground hog day.
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Yeah, that pick grip looks great!
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@ynnodleetsac, welcome to the forum!
I learned to hold the way you hold it only from Ben’s video a couple of years after I joined the forum 6 years or so ago. After solving the hold position, I still had issues up until very recently due to pick, grip, depth and movement issues. As you practice more, I’m sure you will be able to audit and auto adjust to reach an optimal level in these areas. You should watch Ben’s videos on pick hand fundamentals. As for pick, I now use Blue Chip, and if yours is primetone you should be somewhat ok. As for grip, I hold my chest and shoulder somewhat tight to get a relaxed grip and movement at the hand and wrist. When I grip, I grip more on the right half of my thumb (portion towards the palm) and leave the left half (towards the strings) free so as to get a relaxed grip and not loose pick at the same time. For depth, I think the pick should only touch at the tip. For movement, I started to use floating movement as I previously have not floated enough which compromised accuracy and in turn speed. After I fine-tuned and adjusted my grip and movement lately, there was a vast improvement in terms of accuracy and speed in the last 2-3 months after many years of practice. (I will see if I can post some audio of my progress, I have to delete my old ones in the forum to make some room). It takes some time (how the players handle soccer ball like Maradonna, you got to get that familiarity and fluency with pick) but with better understanding of what is going on with your pick hand, you could reduce the learning time significantly.
I found this exercise a great beginner one to attempt for speed.
Lesson Preview - Billy in the Lowground- Basic - Guitar ★ Banjo Ben Clark ★
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