you know, as you’re plugging it in you’re kind people who never uses a pick, and thank God, thumb, so if I’m holding up my thumb whether
of hearing an amplified version of what you’re I finally learned how to use one. But I remember straight in the air or sideways like a horizon, the
playing so it’s not a totally pure representation that being a real frustration when learning how pick would be like a ‘T’, a ninety-degree angle
of what your fingers are doing. I’m thankful for to play acoustic, like, “Man, I just can’t figure from the thumb. So that’s not the angle, when
that foundation with acoustic guitar and that I this pick thing out.” Everyone seems to hold I say I’m hitting the strings at an angle that’s
first started there because that really gave me a it just fine but I was struggling. So that was a not the angle, the angle is that I twist my hand
chance to learn to get the guitar to speak, or let journey a little bit as a approach the string, so the pick
doesn’t come at an angle, I adjust my wrist so
the note resonate or intonate, or how to fret a
string, and it really makes your hands stronger [WM] How do you hold the pick (in terms of it’s coming at the strings at an angle. (laughs)
because the strings were so much bigger. I had pick angle and so on) when you play acoustic This is a little hard to describe, but it makes a
to develop some tough fingers early on, so it and how different is that from what you do on lot of sense to me.
was a really great foundation for me. the electric?
I might have picked this up from an Eric
[WM] What would you say the difference [Daniel] I probably hold it the exact same Johnson Hot Licks video that I watched when I
between just strumming an acoustic guitar way on electric as on acoustic, but it’s the was in the 8th grade, which is hilarious because
versus making it really speak? way I hit the strings that would be different. I can’t play anything like him on the speed side
I hold the pick with just my thumb and index of things, but I picked up a lot of tips from him,
[Daniel] When you’re playing an acoustic, if finger, I’m not adding any more fingers to the it’s a really amazing video, he was one of my
you want to get a different tone out of it you’ve equation. It kind of looks like a ‘T’ if I hold my guitar heroes. When I first started playing guitar
got to hit it differently. You have to maybe turn thumb sideways and at an angle and the pick is I had just watched his Austin City Limits episode
your pick at an angle, or slide your hand closer perpendicular, like an exact cross shape where and I because obsessed with Eric Johnson,
to the bridge, or closer to the neck, or strum the pick comes down, so it’s probably about I’d never heard anybody play like that. I was
with a thinner or thicker pick, there are so many half or two thirds in my fingers and the other watching his Hot Licks video and he talked a lot
different ways to get different tones out of an half sticking out toward the strings. It’s probably about his pick technique, he uses these small
acoustic guitar. I think learning to hear all that different for everybody but that’s how I got used jazz picks that I never got comfortable with,
really helped me to develop an approach. to doing it. but he talked about how he would pick in this
In all of those examples that was a pick, but I From there it’s just about getting comfortable through a pattern or a scale or something. And
think finger picking would be a great example of with it and figuring out how to use it. I he talked about this bouncing motion that he
that as well. Learning to strum was a tricky one, mentioned holding it at an angle, that’s would do where he strikes the string coming
and I remember getting frustrated and feeling something I developed later when I realized up from the sound hole or down back into the
like my pick was getting hung up in the strings. I could get, especially for the strings that are guitar, like this up and down motion with the
You’re talking about fractions of millimeters wound, you can get like a scratchy tone if you pick as opposed to what seems natural when
difference in how you hold the pick, but once hit the string at an angle. If you hit the strings you first pick up a guitar pick that you just go
you figure out how to hold it just right so it’s dead on it’s that thud sound, which is fine but back and forth across the strings. So he was
not getting flicked out of your hand but also you can kind of choke the string a little bit, but if talking bout this circular motion with your pick
not getting buried down in your strings, once you strike it at an angle the pick will scratch the and at the same time doing this up and down
you figure that out it’s just a touch thing. You string in a way that will produce a rich harmonic motion, it’s so hard to describe, I can’t figure
start to realize if you hold it just right, or feather sound. It works on the steel string too, but out how to describe it but it really changed the
it one way… I’ve always used medium to light with the wound ones you get a nice scratchy way that I hold a pick and how I approach a
picks on an acoustic, I feel like that really helps sound, especially if you’re doing a palm muted string. To get a note to really pop on guitar I will
with strumming, especially if you’re a beginner acoustic rhythm part, you can really get that kind of come with an up motion from down in
to start with a lighter pick because the strings scratchy sound which I think is cool, and I use the sound hole up into the guitar, so it sounds
aren’t getting dragged down, you’re not getting that angled pick thing for that. weird but it really works if you can figure out
circular motion when he was working his way
what that motion is.
caught as you’re going across the strings.
The pick thing is hard. I remember when I first [WM] So you hold the pick at a 90-degree
started guitar I was using my fingers a lot and I angle to your thumb?
[WM] What’s interesting is that with the
exception of how hard you need to press, just
would strum with the back of my finger nail or
fingers and thought maybe I’d be one of those
[Daniel] Yeah, a ninety-degree angle to my
March 2019
about everything you’ve mentioned so far has
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