Picks and picking

[rocklander]

.... A few years back I was getting acrylic on my nails.... Often the ring gets some work...but never the pinky.

[calling card]

I never really got the hang of a pick. I used my fingers as a bass player, so when I moved to guitar I just shifted my right hand to use my thumb and fingers. A few years back I was getting acrylic on my nails (a flamenco guitar trick?) but I stopped that because I was starting to hit the strings like a pick and was losing the flesh tone I love.

I mainly use thumb, pointer and index. Often the ring gets some work on chords but never the pinky.

You can do a lot without a pick. Throw it away for a while and hear what happens.

Agreed, I often start out for the first few minutes or longer just with bare fingertips, slide seems to go with this well too. I'm trying to blend use of pick & fingers.

[Hot_Grits]

first thing I remember plucking with my right hand fingers was quiet parts to verses in Van Halen songs like Panama and Romeo Delight. Then around about the the end of the 80s I got wind that Jeff Beck played fingerstyle and really got into it from then on, mostly as a way to shade notes differently. I loved all the different colours and articulations I heard on the guitar shop record and wanted a piece of that action. I also kind of liked the idea of not being completely useless if I dropped my pick at a gig. Actually focusing on pick and fingers as a technique is a pretty recent thing for me.

[k1w1]

snip...

Agreed, I often start out for the first few minutes or longer just with bare fingertips, slide seems to go with this well too. I'm trying to blend use of pick & fingers.

Agree to a certain extent for the slide on electric, but having until recently played most slide on resonators and old archtops, I found fingerpicks to be great for more volume and cleaner/clearer attack.

[Zaulkin]

I naturally use the hybrid picking technique all the time. Picked it up two or so years ago and haven't been able to get rid of it since. It's kinda cool actually.