# thumb or pick?



## Tricket (Jan 3, 2008)

hey, i've been playing for a couple months, and was strumming with a pick for a while but today started strumming with my thumb, everynow and then i get a high pitched noise from one of my strings but usually i'm just slacking off the chord or something similiar. so my question is this, which is better a pick or a thumb and why?

thanks for your input
:rockon:


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## Tarl (Feb 4, 2006)

I only use a pick and sometimes some fingers. Some folks only use their thumb and fingers. Depends on what style you play (Rock, Classical, Blues etc...) and what you find most comfortable.


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## Tricket (Jan 3, 2008)

hmm interesting to me fingers produce a better sound, but a pick is easier to play with. and i plan on eventually playing rock, pop etc.


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## Wheeman (Dec 4, 2007)

I find a pick makes a more consistent sound. BUT fingers and finger-nails can make an interesting sound. Try hitting the strings with your hand perpendicular to the strings with your finger-nails hitting the strings on the down stroke and your fleshy fingertips hitting on the up stroke. This is what I default to if I drop my pick.

Plus, on a related note, I was told not to use my thumb for playing [bass] guitar by an adjudicator, a *brass* player, at a jazz competition. After that, its been just fingers.

[edit: FWIW my finger picking skills are lacking.]


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## Tricket (Jan 3, 2008)

usually i go skin on downstroke, and fingernail on the upstroke.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Wheeman said:


> Plus, on a related note, I was told not to use my thumb for playing [bass] guitar by an adjudicator, a *brass* player, at a jazz competition. After that, its been just fingers.
> 
> [edit: FWIW my finger picking skills are lacking.]


Man, that's just asinine. Same guy would probably have told Wes not to do it either. Told Eric Clapton to turn down (your amp is distorting! Don't you know anything). Have Jimi ejected for offensive feedback. John Lee Hooker, stop stomping your damn feet. Thelonius, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? BB man, if you can't sing and play at the same time get out of here. Eddie, your right hand stays down next to the bridge - get it off the fretboard. Edge dude, turn the delay repeats down. Jaco, just stop doing all that stuff, it's NOT ALLOWED! ("How can you have any pudding if you won't eat your meat")


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Tricket said:


> hey, i've been playing for a couple months, and was strumming with a pick for a while but today started strumming with my thumb, everynow and then i get a high pitched noise from one of my strings but usually i'm just slacking off the chord or something similiar. so my question is this, which is better a pick or a thumb and why?
> 
> thanks for your input
> :rockon:


Lots of players use only thumb&fingers (Wes, Jeff Beck, JLH etc.), lots use only a pick (BB, just about everybody really), lots use both - sometimes at the same time (Eric Johnson does this a lot, Chet Atkins(?), lots of country players). I think it's a good idea to be able to fingerpick, whether you end up using a pick or not. I played classical guitar for years, so I'm quite happy fingerstyle (although I never learned any of that chicken pickin bluegrass banjo style stuff) -- it translates well onto bass, for certain types of bass playing, which I also did for a while. I usually use a pick & fingers, doing hybrid picking, on electric guitar, but usually fingers & thumb on acoustics. Your post suggests though that it's more a left hand and muting thing that needs work than a thumb vs. pick thing. YMMV


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## Tricket (Jan 3, 2008)

thanks for the replies, i'm taking guitar classes in school starting september, so i'm just trying to get as much of the basics, and a solid play style down, so i'm comfortable.

and what do you mean by muting and left hand thing? i know what muting is, but what specifically is in need of work?


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## Wheeman (Dec 4, 2007)

Paul said:


> It occurs to me now though that I have *never* accidentally dropped my thumb into the soundhole of my acoustic.


Hehe, you would have to hit the strings pretty hard to manage that. 

devnulljp: I have to wonder sometimes about the adjudicators at these competitions. They are all brass players, with the odd percussionist, with classical training under their belt. I'm playing a traditionally non-classical instrument in a music style that has no set in concrete playing style. Meh, what do I know? I'm just a student. 

Thumb, pick, fingers. They all have their place.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Mix it up.

I started by using my thumb--then added my fingers, then used a pick. For guitar I usually use a pick--but I use my fingers and thumb every now & then. I also sometimes use the outside of my index finger fingernail for power chords. It has a different tone.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Tricket said:


> thanks for the replies, i'm taking guitar classes in school starting september, so i'm just trying to get as much of the basics, and a solid play style down, so i'm comfortable.
> 
> and what do you mean by muting and left hand thing? i know what muting is, but what specifically is in need of work?


Maybe I misunderstood your original post - you said there's excess noise when playing with the thumb? One way round that is to be very careful with making sure there's no stray notes available with the left hand -- everything you're not expressly playing is damped. It's hard to explain, but comes with practice. Eric Johnson talks a bit about that in one of his videos, and it's quite clear.

FWIW, I've just recently started playing around with Wes Montgomery style octaves, and it's hard to do right with the thumb - I can hybrid pick it fine but that's got more attack than Wes' thumb style, which is nice and fat and round, and I still can't do it properly -- but damping all the other notes with the left hand is the key I think.


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## Warren (Mar 2, 2007)

devnulljp said:


> FWIW, I've just recently started playing around with Wes Montgomery style octaves, and it's hard to do right with the thumb - I can hybrid pick it fine but that's got more attack than Wes' thumb style, which is nice and fat and round, and I still can't do it properly -- but damping all the other notes with the left hand is the key I think.


A little off topic but maybe I can offer this to help. I have a video of Wes at home & I watched it last night after reading this thread. 

Right hand,
Wes' thumb attack looks like a relaxed rest stroke. So, the trick to the thumb technique is rest stroke.

Hand position:
Put the tips of all 4 fingers & your thumb extended outward, the outside side flesh (about 1/2 inch of contact area) on the same string. That's the hand position to get lots of "thumb meat" on the string. Now take your fingers off the string and keep your hand in that position.

Rest stroke:
plant the thumb on the string to be played push into the string & land on the lower string. Practice with one string, one note, then slowly do 2 and 3. Multiples strings technique: plant the thumb on the top string, play it, land on the next, make sure you're on the string before playing it, so pause, play the next string, land on the one lower, pause. Practice this way before you speed it up. Speed it up & don't worry so much about perfect technique.

Left hand:
I didn't see Wes ever play the octave this way (I could be wrong):
Octave A's
_5_
___
___
_7_
___
___
Only like this:
____ 
_10_ 
____
_7__
____
____

or
___
___
_7_
___
_5_
___

So, there's a Pat Metheny riff that uses similar muting. The octave is formed by index and pinky or index middle depending on what strings. So, the index mutes the middle string (because it's played with the right) by letting it touch (really sloppy bar).

so you fret it more like:
_10_ 
_7__ just touching not pushing down
_7__
____
____

Hope this helps. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.


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## Warren (Mar 2, 2007)

I posted a tune that used a very similar technique. In the first couple bars of this I used the rest stroke over the chords and stopped before hitting the string that the melody is played on. Over the G# and G, I skip sounding the A string by muting it with the flesh of the finger playing the bass string.

Sloppy on purpose, does that make sense?


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## Chelter (Mar 25, 2008)

i always finger pick over using a pic, but that could be due to the fact of i was always terrible at keeping the same pic for more than one session, and going to the store for more was just too much of a hassle... so I just stuck with finger picking, and its grown on me.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Warren said:


> ...So, there's a Pat Metheny riff that uses similar muting. The octave is formed by index and pinky or index middle depending on what strings. So, the index mutes the middle string (because it's played with the right) by letting it touch (really sloppy bar).
> 
> so you fret it more like:
> _10_
> ...


Not to hijack the original thread, but yes that's kinda what I was shooting for - both in the initial reply and in playing those Wes octaves. It's not as easy as it seems like it should be - I can hit it maybe 80% of the time. Nice explanation thanks.


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