How to hold a guitar pick

Beginner Guitar Essentials Lesson 4

This series of lessons will set you up for success on the guitar. You’ll learn what to focus on as a beginner, what to ignore, and how to structure your practice so you can start using what you’re learning to play songs as quickly as possible!

How to hold a guitar pick

 Here are some ways of thinking about how we hold a pick correctly when we are playing the guitar:

• Imagine holding the pick like a key and putting it in a lock

• The point of the pick should be at right angles to the direction of your thumb

• Try and maintain a straight line from your elbow through your wrist to the point of your thumb

• Make a fist, put it on the strings and relax it slightly

Playing with a pick will feel weird at first, but you just have to get used to it. Can you remember how it felt when you first started writing with a pen? You learned how to hold the pen between your fingers in a specific way because it allowed you to write with the tool more effectively in the long run. Learning how to hold the pick correctly will give you a similar long-term benefit.

Remember to only use two fingers (your thumb and your index finger) when you are holding the pick. This might feel weird to start with but it will allow you to have more dexterity later on.

I prefer to use picks that have no flex in them and usually recommend that beginners start with a rigid pick as well. This will better help you develop a light touch while you are holding it. I often find beginners who start with a thin pick (with lots of flex) end up holding it too tightly. Think about how you hold a glass of water. You apply just enough pressure so the glass doesn’t slip out of your hands, but you’re not trying to crush the thing.

Ultimately, you want to apply the minimum amount of force required to simply ‘hold’ the pick. 

You want a gentle touch.

Enjoying the lessons?

This series of lessons is test footage from the first part of our upcoming beginner guitar course. These lessons are all from the first of 10 sections that will help you form a rock-solid foundation when you’re starting out as a beginner guitar player.

If you’ve got any feedback on the material, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear what you think! 

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In the next part of this lesson series, we’ll go over how to strum correctly when you are playing the guitar.