Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Beginner Guitar Tips: Choosing Guitar Picks

Although you can easily play a guitar with your mere fingers, the great guitarists understand that the sound of the guitar is much more powerful and clear with the use of a pick than without. At the same time, playing with a guitar pick is a basic skill every aspiring guitarist should master.


Learning how to use a guitar pick is roughly 80 percent practice. The other 20 percent? It’s learning how to choose an appropriate pick. This is because your ability to play notes in different ways heavily depends on the type of pick you use so consider these two important factors when purchasing a pick:

Thickness

The thickness of guitar picks are often classified under five main types: extra light, light, medium, heavy, and extra heavy. The thickness of your guitar pick depends on the type of sound you want to produce. Thick picks create a more calloused and heavy tone, while light picks create a brighter and more cheerful melody.

Playing Style

If you need to strum or pluck a quick succession of notes, you’re better off using a thinner pick than a thicker one. The latter tends to glide from string to string with less effort, allowing you to play notes fast. Strong, repetitive downward strokes need a heavy pick.

As a fledgling guitarist, you’re probably busy perfecting your other skills by playing as many different pieces as you can. In this case, you might benefit from buying several picks of different gauges.

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