The most common way to hold a pick was between your thumb and index finger. I think that you could even state that 90% of guitarists held it with their thumb and index, 8% with their thumb and middle and the remaining 2% of them used alternative ways to hold the pick.
I like to experiment with this kind of stuff, that’s why I started to look into these alternative methods of holding a pick myself.
One of the methods I discovered to appeal to me the most was to hold the pick with not two, but three fingers. Namely with the thumb, index and the middle finger. A lot of guitarists that have been playing for a while will probably recognize this: you’re holding the pick with two fingers and as soon as your fingers get sweaty it decides to take off. This, obviously, is very annoying when you’re performing and your solo is about to come up next! With this technique that will never happen again. The question that immediately rose to me was “why is this?” The answer to that is simple: grip.
Let me give you an example. If you grab the remote control of your tv, with how many fingers do you hold it? Most people answer: with all of them. And why do you hold it with all your fingers? So that you don’t drop it off course! From this I could conclude that grip was the answer to not drop the pick ever again.
The more fingers, the more grip.
Another major advantage for me was that I gained total control over the pick with this technique.
When you hold the pick with 3 fingers, you can apply pressure with your middle finger on the pick. That will result that the pick rotates clockwise. If you apply pressure with your index finger then it rotates counter clockwise. This helps you to make the desired tone that you want, because you can decide at which angle the pick hits the strings. Making it possible to go from a raw/scrappy tone to a full rich and clean sounding one.
From here on I will describe how to hold the pick with three fingers.
If you are right handed then do what I’m describing. Are you left-handed? Turn everything around.
Put your picking hand, with the palm facing up, on your knees. Put the pick, with the point facing away from you, on the tip of your middle and index finger. Let it stick out about three or four millimeters over your middle finger. Rotate the pick a little to the left and then lay your outstretched thumb on the pick. Now pull your thumb back, towards you, so that it gets kinked.
That kink in your thumb can be seen as a kind of shock absorber. Everything for relaxed playing.
Apply this new technique to pick an easy song that you already know. A simple exercise can work to. Everything that’s new needs time to get used to and that even applies to a new way to hold a guitar pick.
