You’ve come home from the music store to practice your six strings with a bunch of new guitar picks. The question you are now asking yourself is: “Which pick should I use to master and learn to play the guitar?”
I would like to share with you three guitar pick tips that will help you improve your right hand guitar picking technique.
1. The feel of a pick
2. Choose well
3. Selection Maintenance
1. The feel of a pick: There are many different thicknesses and sizes of guitar picks. There are also different types of plastic that are used to make picks. Be sure to try a couple of different selection styles. Find out what your plastic preference is. Seriously, spikes are like a car wheel. Although you can drive a car with any type of wheel, professional drivers have a wheel preference that helps them drive their car better. The same goes for your guitar pick. You’ll play infinitely better with a pick that feels right to you, rather than playing with some weird plastic piece you’ve never tried before. If you get sweaty hands when you play your guitar, you’ll want to choose a pick that has some sort of grip or groove on the top.
2. Playing well: By constantly practicing with the same guitar pick, you will increase your playing technique with the right hand. This will allow you to play more accurately and quickly. Once you have consistently practiced guitar with one style of pick for at least 3-6 months, you can again experiment with different types of pick. For rock ‘n roll music, you may choose to always play with a medium light pick. If you decide to master and learn jazz guitar, you will most likely want to switch to what is called a diamond pick.
3. Pick Maintenance – The only real pick maintenance you will need to do is buy as many picks as you can afford. The tip of a pick, depending on how long and how hard you play the guitar, will eventually wear down to a smooth, rounded shape. This is fine if all you do is strum all six strings, however if you want to master and learn the guitar, you’ll want to change your guitar picks regularly. Change your picks after two hours of practicing or playing your guitar. One good thing you can do with your leftover picks is give your used picks away to beginning guitarists, kids, or friends.