Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by Fiddy » Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:52 pm

I do. I mostly play with the tip of my thumb, but do use the tips of the rest of my fingers when, or if needed and also, but do also use the traditional strumming method of the back hand/finger

I don't care about tone or any non sense... But as of recently, ive picked up an acoustic and playing with my fingers makes the guitar i have sound kind of quiet.

For electric guitar, i feel it makes no difference, as i can just crank whatever amp I'm using atm...

/end crazy old man rant..
Last edited by Fiddy on Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by whitewatersky » Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:01 pm

funny you mention this. I often find myself *accidentally* playing electric without a pick. I sometimes find makes the widdly widdly hendrix-y hammer-on stuff a lot easier to play clearly.... {edit: when learning something new in that style - kinda translates over to pick OK once I've the fretting down...}

I really must do it more...
Last edited by whitewatersky on Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by Fiddy » Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:25 pm

I don't really have good control with a pick. Maybe that's why...

If I were to put it into percentages, I'd estimate my lifetime playing at 30% with a pick and 70% without..

And since ive pretty much settled into my own style, at least one upside is that i no longer lose picks.
Last edited by Fiddy on Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by marqueemoon » Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:43 pm

I don’t hate playing with a pick, but I usually play fingerstyle at home.

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Mon Mar 14, 2022 10:47 pm

I'm not keen.

I taught myself to play using my fingers and have all these little touches & techniques that just can't be done with a pick.
Nowadays, at home, I spend almost all my playing time on an acoustic & playing with my fingers makes me feel so much more connected to the guitar. It's a very "touchy-feely" thing.

Saying that, I'm glad I tried getting used to a pick when I was playing more electric guitar. It took a while to feel comfortable with it but I'm getting better & better. I'm still totally useless at quickly picking individual string though but I guess I've always been more of a strummer.
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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by JSett » Mon Mar 14, 2022 11:33 pm

I used to almost never play without a pick but the last couple of years has found me, certainly at home, very much playing with just my fingers a lot of the time. It might be because my right hand is in a grip state all day at work so having a more relaxed hand is therapeutic.

I'm also trying to improve my Jazz chords at the moment so that's mostly 4-note pulls on the strings.

With the band, it's a pick all the way.
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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by redchapterjubilee » Tue Mar 15, 2022 2:37 am

I play with just my fingers at home but the adrenaline surge from playing in front of people makes me do dumb things and cut my fingers. So I need the pick live. I’ve thought occasionally about trying fingerpicks but haven’t yet. Anyone have good luck with that?

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by UlricvonCatalyst » Tue Mar 15, 2022 6:10 am

I'm pretty much a finger-style guy these days, and when I hear arpeggiated stuff I did with a plectrum on old recordings I marvel at how I was ever able to do what now seems like a much more difficult route than the far easier thumb and x fingers approach.

Would still use a plectrum for rhythm playing, though.

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Tue Mar 15, 2022 6:37 am

I like both. I like slow arpeggios with fingers, and bolder lead playing with a pick. I'm much better with a pick, but I think both skills are essential for playing more than a single style/genre of music. To OP, I definitely can't play without a pick like Andy Martin...
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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by DrQuasar » Tue Mar 15, 2022 9:14 am

I've been working on my hybrid picking lately. There are some tunes that work a lot better with the snappier low end you get with hybrid picking, but others the thumb sounds a lot better.

I grew my nails out at one point while I was learning classical for a few months and HATED it all around. The sound, the feel, everything.

But my answer is no, I don't hate playing with a pick. Unless that pick is too thin or floppy, then I hate it. Thin picks are the worst.

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by seenoevil II » Tue Mar 15, 2022 9:23 am

I learned guitar with a slightly long index finger nail that I held in my thumb like an invisible pick. It was too delicate a set up for my growing interest in punk. Also, I remember up strokes having like a 50% failure rate. So, I slowly learned to play with a pick. I had to start with really really thin wispy ones and build up.

Just cut to ten years later and one of my pandemic projects was learning finger picking. I got as far as over-under (got a sick "The Boxer" cover out of it). All wiring lock down I had freaky Nosferatu fingers. That became unworkable too. I don't know how feminine folks deal with long nails. So inconvenient.

Now, I can kind of do both. I kinda feel like a fence sitter. I can totally see giving up picks I the future.
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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by mcbrandt » Tue Mar 15, 2022 2:43 pm

I don't really like using picks anymore, except for muted surf sounding stuff. I don't know if I just got used to using mostly my thumb due to only playing when everyone else was asleep or what, but I make way too much extraneous noise trying to use picks. It probably looks like bad technique and I should learn to use my other fingers more, but really I'm a mid 40s something dad playing in my bedroom. so who cares. The only people that'll see me play are my wife and daughters and I doubt they'd criticize.

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by i love sharin foo » Tue Mar 15, 2022 4:05 pm

I use a pick, fingers, and a combination of both. It just depends on what I am doing. Hybrid picking is a great skill that I am always trying to improve on. I’ve invested a good bit of time into learning to finger pick better on acoustic buts definitely a perishable skill. I have other things that I’ve bern focusing on lately, so I have let that fall by the wayside a bit. I use only fingers on bass though, well almost 100% of the time. I use my thumb a lot on bass, more like I do with a guitar.

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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by Dave » Tue Mar 15, 2022 4:44 pm

Acoustic- do not care for the sound of a pick, use the pad of thumb held in “invisible pick” position or struggle away attempting to accidentally learn a good fingerstyle technique without putting any actual effort into it.

Electric- generally use a pick.

Bass- either a pick or more often the thumb, I’m a complete mutant at “proper” bass playing and any attempt to use the traditional fingers with resting thumb technique is embarrassingly devoid of subtlety/precision/speed/rhythm.
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Re: Does anyone else hate playing with a pick?

Post by Maggieo » Tue Mar 15, 2022 5:03 pm

DrQuasar wrote:
Tue Mar 15, 2022 9:14 am
I've been working on my hybrid picking lately. There are some tunes that work a lot better with the snappier low end you get with hybrid picking, but others the thumb sounds a lot better.

I grew my nails out at one point while I was learning classical for a few months and HATED it all around. The sound, the feel, everything.

But my answer is no, I don't hate playing with a pick. Unless that pick is too thin or floppy, then I hate it. Thin picks are the worst.
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