#321 - You're Probably Holding Your Guitar Pick WRONG.
Added 2024-04-19 14:30:01 +0000 UTCMy friends, today I'd like to talk about the topic of holding a pick, and I want to show you the grip that changed everything for me :) Additionally, I also have 5 new awesome exercises for you, including a full daily picking workout routine and a way to test if your current grip is actually working.
Download your practice files for this week (guitar pro files, tabs, play-along videos, backing tracks): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Slt8tsffkgOZtWrPYYbDPTll2W6qvo02?usp=sharing
If you need help with fixing some bad habits when it comes to your picking technique, remember that I'm still active in the secret Facebook group for VIP/Platinum members and I give feedback to student videos there every day :)
And as always, I also made a Dropbox folder in case Google Drive doesn't work for you: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/uay0icjz9zlbxst7tymxn/AAEqR9z0wcphSWI3TjtsmWg?rlkey=xzmv9afriro16cq57f1ccps4o&dl=0
Comments
Ironically I have been picking like this for years, for this sole reason: I like to play lead guitar, but I also like to do alternate picking RHYTHM guitar, and it's really really difficult to do the upward brush when alternate picking if your pick is flat. So I angled it down, then I realized I was holding it too close to the edge of the pick, so I gave it more space. I found pretty quick that I could go from rhythm to lead without muting or hitting other strings, and most importantly, I could gallop too. My difficulty has been trying to ensure I can bounce from the low strings to high strings and STILL palm mute. When I was a kid I injured my right pinky finger and cut the tendon, I can't close it naturally, so it just kind of sticks out and sometimes gets in the way. I've tried to use it to my advantage by allowing that finger to naturally palm mute for me, but by doing so it changes the rotation of my pick and makes it more difficult. Any thoughts on this??
CitizenFortress
2024-07-29 23:14:54 +0000 UTCI've tried this pick grip and it actually puts my hand a bit too low to the strings and so my tucked fingers are in contact with the strings. Even if I fan them out, I still feel too low and the grip is too awkward plus the pick tends to slip. For me, I use the first joint (between finger nail and knuckle) hand to hold my pick. I think when finding a grip and really even the lines you choose to phrase is kind of dependent on each persons physical size. I find it frustrating because I have quite small fingers, or at least my pinky is so tiny, even little girls on the internet playing guitar look to have longer fingers. Interestingly, at 57 years old and lots of hours playing have developed a MCP sprain (yep, the pinky joint up at webbing of hand on inside) from constantly having to stretch the ring and pinky out to play typical 3nps major scale in G position. Again, I've adapted, I simply try to play on the neck where my fingers are less prone to injury but ironically, this didn't work either. Lastly, there are many other aspects of picking to learn from Bernth and for me, I've been working on wrist only movement and not engaging the elbow motion (too much tension and no coordination) if possible. I would like to know how Bernth 'tracks' across the strings. I have to reset almost every two strings or I feel restricted. Maybe he already mentioned it but I think I forgot. Sorry, I got off the subject but I wanted to give more context to my issue in case others can relate.
Tolprog
2024-05-02 21:06:55 +0000 UTCI keep the exercises in my routine until I can play them cleanly at the "fast" speed Bernth set.
Bill Combs
2024-05-01 20:22:33 +0000 UTCThe amount of stability I gained in the holding of the pick itself (from the shift Bernth suggests) is a huge improvement in and of itself! Thanks for the tips Bernth. I really feel like you are a great teacher if you are able to help people make these kind of gains with just videos over the internet. Almost instantly, my sweep picking movement in my right hand improved a ton! And I could really feel the advantage of not having to switch grips. I need to get over to the Facebook group 😎
Chris Davis
2024-04-29 04:01:02 +0000 UTCThank you team Bernth! That is very understandable, he must be very busy. So, can you tell us how to hold the pick, it is unclear (at least to me and others) from watching the video. Thank you in advance for helping.
Marc Jekel
2024-04-26 19:12:10 +0000 UTCTOTALLY TOTALLY AGREE!!! This support dude might want to PERSONALLY let Bernth know he is about to lose some “Patrons”. As we are helping him by paying for this content! Not the generic answer I keep seeing from support here. Sometimes you HAVE to step up and re-address the masses!
Gregory May
2024-04-23 15:06:00 +0000 UTCHey there, thanks a lot for leaving a comment! :) That's correct, Bernth is still very active in the VIP group and coaches students every day over there - it's sadly not possible to extend it to all messages and comments on Patreon anymore due to his daily schedule and hundreds of messages and emails coming in every day by now. Since it's a very important issue for him, I took over for customer support here a while ago and I'm very happy to help with anything concerning this :) Hope this helps, have an awesome day and thanks for understanding! Team Bernth
Bernd Brodträger
2024-04-23 10:31:00 +0000 UTCHi Bernth thx for the reply! It's less that I wanted personal feedback, but more that I would appreciate you showing more clearly and detailed how to hold the pick (i.e. also when the hand is at the guitar) in the video. You spent a lot of time showing how you should NOT do it. But missed the point to put the emphasis on the correct way to do it, which I thought would be the topic of the video. Btw: showing wrong things is in the most cases pedagogically not the best thing to do... no offense! Since I'm not the only one who was not able to figure out the right way to do it just by watching the video several times, I would be much pleased to see some pics or another video to clarify things. I can understand that you'd like us all to get VIP or Platinum membership, but I think the patreon videos should also be clear enough that one can learn things from them without personal feedback. I'm pretty new as patreon, but frankly that was my expectation when signing up. And I do not say that this isn't the case at all with your other videos (I'm new, I don't know...). I just state that this specific video leaves open a lot of questions (i.e. how to do pinch harmonics this way, how to not rub open your finger joint, and so on...) for me and others.
RiffKlaW
2024-04-22 17:43:42 +0000 UTCAs others commented this pick placement seems extremely awkward to me. Not just awkward as in just have not been doing it, but awkward as in doesn’t seem right. Read some of the above comments and they seem to be on the same page as me. The only “Bernth” reply was to go to VIP or platinum status and get feedback. I hope that’s not true. Or a way to get people to upgrade. Really wanted this video to help as I DO have this picking issue. Anyways…
Gregory May
2024-04-22 16:44:16 +0000 UTCHey RiffKlaW and Marc, in case you need feedback on your technique (via videos, questions, pictures, anything you want) in addition to the video lessons, feel free to join the VIP or Platinum tier anytime! Bernth set up a secret Facebook group where he gives feedback to VIP/Platinum members every day :) You can post your progress videos for helpful input and there are over 900 students in the group already. Hope this helps!
Bernd Brodträger
2024-04-22 12:52:15 +0000 UTCHey Rodrigo, in case you need feedback on your technique (via videos, questions, pictures, anything you want) or you have any additional questions like this, feel free to join the VIP or Platinum tier anytime! Bernth set up a secret Facebook group where he gives feedback to VIP/Platinum members every day :) You can post your progress videos for helpful input and there are over 900 students in the group already. Hope this helps! Team Bernth
Bernd Brodträger
2024-04-22 12:46:20 +0000 UTCThe top joint on my index finger doesn’t bend down like Bernth’s does so this is an impossible for me. I have the pick pointing down my finger tip. I can strum and do lead work using the same grip. I did learn the closed grip through BERNTH, however and I have cleaned up some string noise.
Doodad68
2024-04-21 19:44:11 +0000 UTCHey Bernth. Great content as always! I definitely agree with your point that your pick grip should allow seamless transitions between different techniques. I'd suggest however that your pick placement on the pad between the first and second knuckle is actually fairly unusual. Most people hold it on the pad distal to the first knuckle. See John Petrucci as one example. Or EVH (though his technique was unusual in a lot of ways so perhaps not a great example after all...). There are of course some players who are close to your biomechanics (Guthrie G for example). Personally, I can't physically hold a pick like you do - my thumb just isn't long enough relative to my closed hand without clenching into a tight fist. Anyway - I'm only pushing back gently on this video as I don't think(?) your intention was to suggest that this is the "right and only way" to hold a pick. Again, I think your overlying message is to find a way to hold it that allows the greatest consistency as you move between techniques. Thanks as always for your great work!
Lonny Handwork
2024-04-21 19:18:57 +0000 UTCI also have this problem; I cannot quite figure out how to do this
Marc Jekel
2024-04-21 17:39:20 +0000 UTCThis helps indeed a lot for a more consistent picking technique, the only thing I cannot figure out is doing pinch harmonics this way...
OhMyMndy
2024-04-21 16:08:40 +0000 UTCHey Bernth thx a lot. But I'm still not quite sure, how to hold the pick correctly. When I'm holding the pick exactly like you've shown, the pick points kinda forward and not in the direction of the strings. I'd have to move my angle away from the guitar to get the pick pointing to the strings, which I do believe is absolutely not the way to do it - so I'm obviously missing s.th. The other method is to bend the index finger more to get the pick pointing to the strings. Then I have the problem that I need the pick to reach out pretty far so that I do not scrub my finger joint of the first phalanx on the strings while playing chords... How I used to hold the pick was in a way that it extended kind of the intermidiate phalanx, so my joint was always save behind the pick point. How can I fix the problem?
RiffKlaW
2024-04-21 12:01:23 +0000 UTCHow long do you all tend to keep an exercise in your practice routine?
Rodrigo Nikolof
2024-04-21 10:36:32 +0000 UTCI love this video. I have a bad habit of constantly shifting my pick around. No so much between techniques, but while playing just rhythm. After a little while it would start to feel uncomfortable. I would get this overwhelming urge that I absolutely have to adjust the pick, even if it hasn't shifted in my fingers. I spent what felt like forever trying to figure out why. I finally identified what ended up being three issues; pick depth, arm tension, and I realized that when my arm or wrist tensed up I would start using a death grip on the pick. After a few months of slowing everything way down and focusing on playing with as little tension as possible, I have see huge improvements there. Oddly the pick depth issue started correcting itself when I let go of the tension. I remember your picking video from a while back, and this refreshed everything for me. I have been wearing exercise 2 out. It highlighted a major weak point for me. I can't transition comfortably or seamlessly. I'm still playing the exercise slow, and I'm not there yet, but in the 24 hours I have spent with this I am already feeling more comfortable. I've been recording my practice sessions, which I am going to keep at 4 times a day for 10 minutes each. I am really seeing improvements. Learning to not adjust the pick needlessly feels like it did when I quit smoking in 2012. You're going along fine, and then suddenly you play a lick or do something else that would psychologically trigger a pick shift and you have to resist it with all your might. Eventually you break the mental pairing, but it's not something that happens overnight. Nothing worth doing on this instrument happens overnight.
Bill Combs
2024-04-20 16:07:07 +0000 UTC@Kemikziel me too ! Thx Bernth ❤️🎸 St. Louis Mo. USA
jon gergeceff
2024-04-19 18:45:59 +0000 UTCThis is exactly what I've been needing! Thanks Bernth! :D
Kemikziel
2024-04-19 18:30:39 +0000 UTC
