How Do You Hold A Pick?, Pictures welcome Options

[Ayen]

I was wondering how everyone here holds their picks. I hold mine in my own way, but that might not be the best for speed. Could anyone show me a different way to hold it?

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[Evan]

I've been thinking about this subject a lot lately in the past few weeks. Since originally, I moved to the guitar from the piano and woodwind instruments many years ago I've always been struck by how when it comes to how to hold a pick -THE critical core component of picking hand technique-, answers are all over the place when you compare this to how standardized basic elements of technique is on the other instruments. Many 'major' guitar books that I've seen devote no more than one paragraph to holding the pick and often they offer basically no more than "do what's comfortable for you" and other advice that's so lacking in detail that it was useless for me.

Ask a few experienced violinists to show you the correct way to hold the bow, and you'll find little variation in the responses (certainly when compared to the pick question I think). Over hundreds of years, masters of the violin perfected every fine detail of the technique, and now it's standardized- either you follow the method that is so refined that only an even greater genius could hope to improve it -or you're just making things harder for yourself.

The guitar doesn't have quite the same formal history as the violin and piano, and there are techniques that have been widely known for as little as 20 years. We are still in the process of defining the pick grip and when we're done, I predict that there will be multiple pick grip techniques just like there are multiple stick grips for drummers.

When I watch my playing closely, I've noticed that I don't change my grip very often (I grip between side of the index finger and the 'fingerprint' area of thumb, index finger in a neutral position as if holding a pencil rather than curled inward to the palm). I noticed I will curl the index finger inward toward the palm depending on the situation (speedpicking vs. a strum etc.). There are things other than the actual grip that I change a lot though- closed vs. open fist, how much pick is 'showing', angle of the pointed end of the pick in relation to my hand, and then all kinds of things that have more to do with the picking motion rather than grip.

I found this article on the web, and it's the most detailed one I've found yet about his subject:
Pick and Finger Technique Article

I think some of you will find it interesting even though it includes fingerstyle information also.

I'm sorry this post was too long, but I think that this is a fascinating subject and that moving from where we are right now with many books failing to define much of anything at all when it comes to picking technique to the point where there are entire books on the subject and standardized techniques is going to be a key step in the growth of guitar playing as a whole.

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