A
guitar pick is a type of
plectrumA plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For guitars and similar instruments, the plectrum is a separate tool held in the player's hand...
designed for use on a
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
. Over time people have made picks of various materials, including
plasticPlastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic amorphous solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products...
,
rubberNatural rubber is an elastomer that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex, found in the sap of some plants. The purified form of natural rubber is the chemical polyisoprene, which can also be produced synthetically...
,
feltFelt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can be of any color, and made into any shape or size....
,
tortoiseshellTortoiseshell or tortoise shell is a material produced mainly from the shell of the hawksbill turtle, an endangered species. It was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s in the manufacture of items such as combs, sunglasses, guitar picks and knitting needles...
,
woodWood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees . In a living tree it transfers water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues, and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach large sizes or to stand up for themselves...
,
metalA metal is a chemical element that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat, forms cations and ionic bonds with non-metals. In chemistry, a metal is an element, compound, or alloy characterized by high electrical conductivity. In a metal, atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions...
,
glassIn general Glass refers to a solid, brittle, transparent material, commonly used for windows, bottles, or eyewear. Examples of glassy materials include, but are not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovy-glass, or aluminium oxynitride. The term glass...
, and
stoneIn geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
. They most often take the shape of an acute isosceles triangle with the two equal corners very rounded and the third corner rounded to a lesser extent. This shape is, however, merely one of many used by manufacturers.
Styles
Pick shapes started with guitarists filing down bone, shell, wood, cuttlebone, metal, amber, stone or ivory to get the desired shape. Most of today's classic guitar pick shapes were created by the company that made the first
plasticPlastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic amorphous solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products...
pick in 1922,
D'Andrea PicksD'Andrea Inc. is a manufacturer of plastic instrument picks. Luigi D'Andrea made the world's very first plastic guitar pick out of celluloid in 1922...
. The plastic pick was an idea that Luigi, and his young son Tony, Sr., had after purchasing a few sheets of the tortoise shell-like
celluloidCelluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856 and as Xylonite in 1869 before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily...
from a street vendor. It appeared very similar to the real tortoise shell picks the guitarists used in their Greenwich Village neighborhood.
Most users of picks are familiar with the most popular shape, the 351, which is merely the rounding off of the top of heart, which was a popular pick shape early on. The rounded triangle is the 346 and the small jazz pick, the 358. All these numbers represent the numbers the Luigi & Tony D'Andrea assigned to each of their new "creations" at the request of the guitarists they serviced. Soon after, they requested their names be imprinted on them.
D'Andrea PicksD'Andrea Inc. is a manufacturer of plastic instrument picks. Luigi D'Andrea made the world's very first plastic guitar pick out of celluloid in 1922...
was the first company to create custom pick imprinting in 1938, allowing customers to order imprinting up to 12 block letters. One of the first to make the player imprint popular was guitarist Nick Lucas in the early 1930s.
Custom Guitar Picks
Many picks have some form of imprint on them from simple manufacturer logos to completely customized artist picks bearing the imprinted signature or bandlogo of the musician. Probably the most famous and easily recognizable name on a pick is the logo of Fender Guitars. One of the early "mass distributors" of customized guitar picks was
Rick NielsenRick Nielsen is the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Cheap Trick. For the band's first few albums, Nielsen wrote the majority of the material himself. He is well known for having many custom-made guitars from Hamer Guitars, including his famous five-neck...
of the rock band
Cheap TrickCheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1974. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...
. Rick was known to toss out hundreds of customized picks over the course of a single concert. These artist picks have become more popular over the last few decades to the point it's somewhat rare to find a famous artist who doesn't use a custom pick. As the technology for printing improved over the years, so did the variety and quality of the imprints. What began as simple block lettering has evolved into multi-color and highly-detailed graphics. Steve Clayton was the first pick manufacture to create multi-colored imprinting for guitar picks. Shortly thereafter, the Steve Clayton facility was the first to offer multi-colored picks over the Internet direct to the public with incredible detail and photographic images on guitar picks. With such a wide variety available, people began collecting guitar picks as a full-fledged hobby. There is even a global network for collectors to trade their picks called PickNET that sprang up in 1994. Custom picks are available at concerts as the musicians frequently toss used picks out to the audience. Some artists even sell their picks through their websites or fanclubs. Custom Guitar Pick Imprint companies like [Steve Clayton] have made custom imprinting in low quantities starting at only 30 picks, so almost anyone can now have their name on a guitar pick. Steve Clayton also popularized custom guitar picks for promotional use. Companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Verizon, MTV, Budwiser, have all used custom guitar picks in their company marketing endeavors.
Thickness
Guitar picks vary in thickness to accommodate different playing styles and kinds of strings. Thinner plectra are more flexible and tend to offer a wider range of sounds, from soft to loud, and produce a "click" that emphasizes the attack of the picking. However, some argue that heavier picks produce a brighter tone.
In rock and
heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
, while playing
electric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as...
with hi-gain amplification or distortion, thinner picks produce muddier, heavier, less controllable sound and thicker picks produce more delicate, more controlled and well-shaped tone. Thinner picks also tend to rip or tear more often if used too forcefully, whereas a thicker one is more likely to wear down over time. Thicker picks are generally used in more discrete genres, such as
heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
or
power metalPower metal is a style of heavy metal music combining characteristics of traditional metal with thrash metal or speed metal, often within symphonic context...
. However, there are many exceptions to these stereotypes, especially as there is an element of guitarist preference involved in selecting pick thickness.
Many
death metalDeath metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
musicians only use picks thicker than 1.5mm, because it allows more control over heavy gauge strings. Thinner picks tend to give less attack and do not give as much control when doing fast tremolo picking. Also, they tend to wear much faster when used with heavier gauge strings.
JazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
guitar players tend to use quite heavy picks, as they also tend to favor heavy gauge flat-wound strings.
BassThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
players tend to prefer thick picks because their strings are far thicker and farther apart than those of guitarists.
Most pick manufacturers (
D'Andrea PicksD'Andrea Inc. is a manufacturer of plastic instrument picks. Luigi D'Andrea made the world's very first plastic guitar pick out of celluloid in 1922...
, Jim Dunlop, Steve Clayton, Alice, Teckpick, Dava Control) print down the thickness in millimeters or thousandths of an inch right on the pick. Some other brands (
GibsonThe Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its...
, Fender,
PeaveyPeavey Electronics Corporation is one of the largest audio equipment manufacturers in the world, headquartered in Meridian, Mississippi in the United States.- History :...
,
IbanezIbanez is a guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki and based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in the United States and Europe.-History:...
) occasionally use a somewhat cryptic system of letters or text designations to mark the thickness. Approximate guidelines to thickness ranges are presented in the following table:
| Text description |
Approximate thickness |
Other possible marks |
| mm |
inch |
| Extra light/thin |
≤ 0.38 |
≤ 0.014 |
| Light/thin |
0.51–0.60 |
0.020–0.023 |
"T" or "Thin" / "L" or "Light" |
| Medium |
0.73–0.81 |
0.028–0.031 |
"M" or "Medium" |
| Heavy/thick |
0.88–1.20 |
0.034–0.047 |
"H" or "Thick" |
| Extra heavy/thick |
≥ 1.50 |
≥ 0.060 |
|
Plastics
Most common picks are made out of various types of plastic. Most popular plastics include:
- Celluloid
Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856 and as Xylonite in 1869 before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily...
. Historically, this was the first plastic ever used to produce picks, and it is still of some use today, especially for guitarists aiming for vintage tone. Occasionally, guitarists who smoke have accidentally discovered the extremely flammable nature of this material.
- Nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides and first produced on February 28, 1935 by Wallace Carothers at DuPont...
. Popular material, has a smooth and slick surface, so most manufacturers add a high-friction coating to nylon picks to make them easier to grip. Nylon is flexible and can be produced in very thin sheets. Most thin and extra-thin picks are made out of nylon. However, nylon loses its flexibility after 1–2 months of extensive use, becomes fragile and breaks, so guitarists that use thin nylon picks should have several spare picks just in case.
- Tortex / Delrex
Delrex is a plastic that is used to replace tortoiseshell since the trade of tortoiseshell was banned in the late 1970s. Delrex is essentially the same as tortex, only under a different name. It was created as an alternative to tortex, a plastic used by Jim Dunlop.Delrex is used as the material for...
. By Jim Dunlop and D'Andrea PicksD'Andrea Inc. is a manufacturer of plastic instrument picks. Luigi D'Andrea made the world's very first plastic guitar pick out of celluloid in 1922...
respectively. Brand names for DuPont Delrin which is specially treated to have a matte, opaque surface, surprisingly easy to grip even with sweaty fingers.
- Acetal
An acetal is a molecule with two single bonded oxygens attached to the same carbon atom.Traditional usages distinguish ketal from acetal...
. Acetal is a class of plastics, which is divided into two groups. The copolymer group, was first introduced by McAndrew Hoechst Celanese Corporation in 1960. Steve Clayton uses this branch for their line of Acetal picks. DuPont's (Wilmington, DE) Delrin developed and patented acetal homopolymer. Delrin is a Dupont trade mark/name. Dupont homopolymer acetal, is slightly harder, and stiffer than the copolymer branch. Also has a matte surface for grip, and is highly durable.
- Ultem. This space age plastic has the highest stiffness of all plastic picks. Produces a brighter tone. Introduced by Steve Clayton, the material is additionally popular among mandolin players.
- Lexan
Lexan is a registered trademark for SABIC Innovative Plastics' brand of polycarbonate resin thermoplastic. Polycarbonate polymer is produced by reacting Bisphenol A with carbonyl chloride, also known as phosgene. Lexan is the brand name for polycarbonate sheet and resin in a wide range of grades...
. Glossy, glass-like, very hard surface, though it wears out relatively fast. Barely bends at all and it's commonly used only for thick and extra-thick picks (> 1 mm). Usually has a high-friction grip coating. Best known example of Lexan picks are Jim Dunlop Stubby series.
Modern plastics can be ranged this way from the easiest to bend to the hardest: Nylon, Acetal, Delrin (Tortex/Delrex), Lexan, Ultem. This means that the same medium (for example, 0.70–0.80 mm) pick would be fairly flexible if made out of nylon and very solid if made out of Ultem.
Metal
Picks made out of steel will produce a much brighter sound than plastic ones. They do however wear the strings quickly and can easily damage the finish on the guitar if used for strumming, especially on acoustic guitars.
Brian MayBrian Harold May, CBE, is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. As a guitarist he uses his home built guitar, "Red Special", and has composed hits such as "Tie Your Mother Down", "We Will Rock You", "Who Wants to Live Forever",...
of
QueenQueen were an English rock band. Formed in London in 1970 following the demise of the band Smile, Queen consisted of vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor. The band became popular with audiences via their hit songs, live performances,...
uses picks which replicate his original choice — a silver
sixpence coinThe sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin worth six pence, 40th of a pound sterling....
. Some of them are produced by
The Royal Mint of EnglandThe Royal Mint of the United Kingdom is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but has functioned since 1975 as a Trading Fund, operating in much the same way as a government-owned company...
and are considered to be rare and precious among collectors.
Billy GibbonsBilly F Gibbons , nicknamed the Reverend Willie G, is a musician, actor, hot rod and car customizer and perhaps best known as the lead guitarist for ZZ Top. He is also the lead singer and composer for many of the band's songs...
from
ZZ TopZZ Top is an American rock trio, formed in late 1969 in Houston, Texas, by Billy Gibbons , Dusty Hill , and Frank Beard...
uses a regular
Mexican pesoThe peso is the currency of Mexico. The peso was the first currency in the world to use the "$" sign, which the United States dollar later adopted for its own use. The peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world and by far the most traded currency in Latin America and third most traded in...
, usually filed down to more usual pick shape, resembling
351.
Exotic
- Agate
Agate is a microcrystalline variety of quartz , chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color...
. These gemstone guitar picks range in thickness from 1mm (very rare) up to 5mm, and cannot be flexed. Stone is a surprisingly versatile material because no mold or press is needed allowing a single pick to be crafted to the desired specifications. Though they take some getting used to, they offer the player a pick that is harder than metal (guitar strings) and can therefore resonate the strings more completely. Stone picks are (usually) polished smooth and some even come with grip features.
- Lignum vitae
Lignum vitae is a trade wood, also called guayacan or in Europe known as pockenholz, from trees of the genus Guaiacum. This wood was once very important for applications requiring a material with its extraordinary combination of strength, toughness and density.The wood is obtained chiefly from...
is a rare hardwood with unique properties. It's very hard (4500 lbfhttp://surfpick.com/hardness/, according to Janka Wood Hardness RatingThe Janka hardness test measures the hardness of wood. It involves measuring the force required to embed a steel ball into wood to half its diameter. This method was chosen so that the result would leave an indention in size. It is one of the best measures of the ability of a wood species to...
) and its cellular structure is saturated with its own natural oil, giving a pick a unique feel and sound. Such picks are usually about 2-3 mm thick.
- New Tortis is a manufactured from organic materials, and these picks come remarkably close to the sound and feel of the natural tortoise shell plectrums that were made from now-endangered sea tortoise. These plectrums are hard, smooth, and thick, having only slight tip flexibility. With careful use these picks can be sanded and polished for long life.
Shapes
Some picks have small protrusions to make them easier to keep hold if the fingers start to sweat (very common on stage due to the hot lights). Some picks (as illustrated) will have a high-friction coating to help the player hold on to them. The small perforations in the stainless steel pick serve the same function. Many players will often have spare picks attached to a
microphoneA microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike , is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1876, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
stand or slotted in the guitar's pickguard.
The
equilateral pick can be easier for beginners to hold and use since each corner is a playing edge.
The
shark's fin pick can be used in two ways - normally employing the blunt end or the small perturbations can be raked across the strings producing a much fuller chord or used to employ a "pick scrape" down the strings producing a very harsh, scratching noise.
The
sharp edged pick is used to create an easier motion of picking across the strings.
BassThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
players who use a pick normally use much heavier picks than guitar players. Some bass players find that coins make excellent picks, though some prefer slightly thinner picks to increase speed and endurance.
There are some patented guitar pick shapes (usually these patents claim "ornamental design"): — pick with a hole that can be used to attach it to guitar strings while not playing to store guitar and a pick together and prevent a pick being lost; — pick attachable to natural fingernail with a spiral thimble; — pick with an extension loop to attach a pick to a finger — pick with non-planar dent to improve gripping — double blade pick; — rounded pick with two thick pads; — non-uniform teardrop pick; — pick with a flexible strap to grip to finger; — boomerang-shaped pick; — soft metal pick. — pick with perforation holes; — pick with sharper corners and a beveled playing edge; — a three-way pick that can be held multiple ways; — pick designs with 2 symmetric teardrop holes; — pick with extension relief to improve gripping comfort; —
equilateral triangleIn geometry, an equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides are equal. In traditional or Euclidean geometry, equilateral triangles are also equiangular; that is, all three internal angles are also congruent to each other and are each 60°...
pick with bevels and round hole in the middle; — completely round guitar pick with raised grip rings;
Innovations
In 1996, Dave Storey introduced the patented Dava
Multi-Gauge design pick, later trademarked as
Dava Controlhttp://davapick.com/. These picks are made of compound layers of plastic, connected to form a flexible central section of a pick. A guitarist can easily adjust the pick tip's flexibility by applying various pressure to this central section: a hard grip yields hard pick (thicker one) to play lead, a soft grip yields soft pick (thinner one) to play rhythm. , Dava Control offers guitar picks with tips made from
nylonNylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides and first produced on February 28, 1935 by Wallace Carothers at DuPont...
, delrin,
celluloidCelluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856 and as Xylonite in 1869 before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily...
and nickel silver.
In 2005, William Von Luhmann patented a method of producing guitar picks from credit cards and identification cards called the
Pick Punch.
In 1997 Canadian guitarist Jesse Little designed and patented a handblown borosilicate glass guitar pick that doubles as a guitar slide. In 2009 he successfully uploaded video to youtube in support of his claim for originality and demonstrating innovative techniques derived from his flameworked glass pick. Glass pick designs range from round and natural edges to sharp bevels for every tone from warm to hot.
Technique
Picks are usually gripped with two fingers—
thumbThe thumb when a person is standing in the medical anatomical position is the lateral-most digit of the hand. The Medical Latin English adjective for thumb is pollical.-Bones:The thumb consists of three bones:* Distal phalanx...
and
indexThe index finger, , is the second finger of a human hand....
—and are played with pointed end facing the strings. However, it's a matter of personal preference and many notable musicians use different grips. For example,
Eddie Van HalenEdward Lodewijkz "Eddie" Van Halen , is a Dutch-born American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. Van Halen is widely known for his rapid guitar playing, tapping, and high frequency feedback...
holds the pick between his thumb and
middle fingerThe middle finger is the third digit of the human hand, located between the index finger and the ring finger...
;
James HetfieldJames Alan Hetfield is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the American heavy metal band Metallica.-Birth:James Hetfield was born on August 3, 1963, in Downey, Los Angeles County, California...
,
Jeff HannemanJeffery John "Jeff" Hanneman is a guitarist and a founding member of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Hanneman grew up in Los Angeles in a family of war veterans, and his fascination with warfare is attributed to his upbringing...
and
Steve MorseSteven J. Morse is an American guitarist, best known as the founder for the Dixie Dregs, and the guitar player in Deep Purple since 1994....
hold a pick using 3 fingers—thumb, middle and index;
Pat MethenyPatrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer....
also holds the pick with three fingers but plays using the rounded side of the plectrum.
George LynchGeorge Lynch is a Hard rock guitarist best known as a member of the band Dokken.-Pre Dokken:Lynch was born in Spokane, Washington and raised in the small town of Auburn, California. Guitarist Mark Kendall claims George started two hand tapping before Eddie Van Halen did...
also uses the rounded side of the pick.
Stevie Ray VaughanStevie Ray Vaughan was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Eighteen albums of Vaughan's work have been released...
also played with the rounded edge of the pick, citing the fact that the edge allowed more string attack than the tip. His manic, aggressive picking style would wear through pickguards in short order, and wore a groove in his beloved
Fender StratocasterThe Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top horn for balance while standing...
, Number One, over his years of playing.
Jimmy RogersJimmy Rogers was a blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters' band of the 1950s.-Career:...
and
Freddie KingFreddie King also known as Freddy King and "The Texas Cannonball" , was an influential Afro-American blues guitarist and singer. He perfected his own guitar style based on Texas and Chicago influences and was one of the first bluesmen to have a multi-racial backing band on stage with him at live...
had a special kind of technique utilizing two picks at once. David Persons is known for using old credit cards, cut to the correct size, angle, and thickness and using them without a tip.
The motion of the pick against the string is also a personal choice.
George BensonGeorge Benson is an Grammy Award winning American musician, whose recording career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist. He is also known as a pop, R&B, and scat singer. This one time child prodigy topped the Billboard 200 in 1976 with the triple-platinum album, Breezin...
and
Dave MustaineDavid Scott Mustaine is the lead/rhythm guitarist, main songwriter, and vocalist for the American heavy metal band Megadeth. Mustaine grew up in various Southern California suburbs. He currently resides in Fallbrook, California. Mustaine was also the first lead guitarist and co-songwriter of...
, for example, hold the pick very stiffly between the thumb and index finger, locking the thumb joint and striking with the surface of the pick nearly parallel to the string, for a very positive, articulate, consistent tone. Other guitarists have developed a technique known as
circle picking, where the thumb joint is bent on the downstroke, and straightened on the upstroke, causing the tip of the pick to move in a circular pattern. Circle picking can allow greater speed and fluidity. The angle of the pick against the string is also very personal and has a broad range of effects on tone and articulation. Many rock guitarists will use a flourish (called a
pick slideA pick slide or pick scrape is a guitar technique most often performed in the rock, punk or metal music genres. The technique is executed by holding the edge of the pick against any of the three or four wound strings and moving it along the string...
or pick scrape) that involves scraping the pick along the length of a round wound string (a round wound string is a string with a coil of round wire wrapped around the outside, used for the heaviest three or four strings on a guitar).
The two chief approaches to fast picking are
alternate pickingAlternate picking is a guitar playing technique, used only by pick users, that employs strictly alternating downward and upward picking strokes in a continuous run, and is the most common method of plectrum playing...
and
economy pickingEconomy picking is a guitar-playing technique for a guitarist who uses a pick. A hybrid of sweep picking and alternate picking, economy picking involves using alternate picking except when changing strings...
. Alternate picking is when the player strictly alternates each stroke between downstrokes and upstrokes, regardless of changing strings. In economy picking, the player will use the most economical stroke on each note. For example, if the first note is on the fifth string, and the next note is on the fourth string, the pick will use a downstroke on the fifth string, and continue in the same direction to execute a downstroke on the fourth string. The economy picking technique sounds as though it would require more conscious thought to execute it but many guitarists learn it intuitively and find it an effort to use alternate picking. Conversely, some guitarists maintain that the down-up "twitch" motion of alternate picking lends itself to momentum, and hence trumps economy picking at high speeds.
Jazz guitarist Tuck Andress has written a comprehensive article on picking technique.
In popular culture
- Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny features a mystical guitar pick carved from the tooth of Satan, which possesses "supra-natural
The term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are spells and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others...
" qualities (a "whole other level above super-natural").
- In the film Wild Zero
Wild Zero is a 2000 Japanese "Jet rock 'n' roll" zombie horror comedy cult classic directed by Tetsuro Takeuchi, and starring the Japanese garage punk band Guitar Wolf...
, Guitar Wolf uses electric picks as a weapon against zombies
- Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
was said to have always hid an extra pick behind his pickguardA pickguard is a piece of plastic or other laminated material that is placed under the strings on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument...
. During the restoration of his 1958 Fender StratocasterThe Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top horn for balance while standing...
in 2006, the pick was discovered.
- The video game Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS
The is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in 2004 in Canada, the United States, and Japan. The console features a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP, with two LCD screens inside—with the bottom one being a touchscreen...
includes a guitar pick shaped stylusA stylus is a writing utensil. The word is also used for a computer accessory . It usually refers to a narrow elongated staff, similar to a modern ballpoint pen. Many styluses are heavily curved to be held more easily...
which the player can use to strum the touchscreen.
External links