How many picks?

Jeffrey McFadden · From: Missouri, USA

I long played bare fingered, thumb + 3 (includes ring finger.)

I broke down and learned picks this year, but stayed with the thumb + 3.

Looking at Paul Franklin's freebie intro to his course I see that he blocks with his ring finger, no pick. And I do see that most guys use thumb + 2.

Joe Wright uses 4 picks. There are probably others.

Any comments? Opinions?

Thanks.
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I've always used 4. I play with 4-note chord grips fairly often.
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Jeffrey McFadden · From: Missouri, USA

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I started out with picks on thumb, index, and middle. But one day I was hanging out and playing guitar with Bobbe Seymour at his shop, using flat pick and finger picks on middle/ring as I often do. When I donned the thumb pick and pulled off the ring finger pick to switch to steel, he commented that he couldn't understand why I didn't use my ring finger on pedal steel. Unable to give a good reason why I didn't, from that day on, I did.

I guess every approach has advantages and disadvantages, but I find the ring finger useful. Pinching 4-note chords, wide arpeggios, and so on. It's well known that the ring finger is, anatomically, significantly harder to coordinate and get speed on. But if you're already used to it, it strikes me as hard to not use when it's useful.

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I tried using 3 picks, and found that the weight of the 3rd pick threw my hand off balance, and went back to using 2.
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Bill Cunningham · From: Atlanta, Ga. USA

On advice from Maurice Anderson I put a pick on my ring finger about 2003. He said no need to use it until it gets comfortable being there. I don't have a lot of use for it on the E9 but love the fuller chords available on the hobby neck with 4 digits. It gives a different timbre even for chords that can be strummed with three. YMMV.
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Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Like Bill, I took Reece's advice to "just wear it and it will eventually find it's way into your playing". But Bill has a 14 year headstart on me, as I only started using it within the past year and it's only now starting to find a role.

I did used to use the tip of my ring finger to block notes played by the second finger but I guess I must be blocking them some other way now - I haven't studied my hand to see how I'm doing it but I think I must have figured out some kind of work-around, since I don't think my blocking is any worse now than it was before.

I guess time will tell...
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Dave Hopping · From: Aurora, Colorado

Thumb+3 here too.After I went to a U-12 I found lots of places to put bass notes underneath chordal licks. Very Happy

Bill C. Buntin · Posted 23 Feb 2018 12:36 pm

I went the opposite way. Reece taught me to use thumb +3 also. I did so for about 2 years. But dropped to Thumb +2 in 1994.

~Bill~

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Tom Bradshaw recommended 4 picks in his Guitar Player column around the time I started playing. I tried it for a month or so and then thought, "This is silly. I'll never use that extra pick." So I took it off.

To my surprise, I found that every now and then I was picking a string with my ring finger. I've been using 4 picks ever since that revelation 44 years ago.
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Darvin Willhoite · From: Roxton, Tx. USA

I use three finger picks and a thumb pick. I almost always use the ring finger on the chromatic strings, and occasionally a four string grip on E9th and C6th. I am totally self taught and it just made sense to use the third finger pick.
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Art Beard · From: Once upon a time out west (deceased)

When i first started, It made more sense to use the 3 finger for larger more full sounding chords. Too me that is. I had some guitar picking *started at 120 and while not a great picker , I now think 3 fingers is the way to go.
CAA
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David Wright · From: Pilot Point ,Tx USA.

1970, Jan, Maurice shaped and put 4 picks on me....update.......2018 Feb....all 4 still there....Great Teacher...and Friend.....

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

Tommy Roots had a VHS tape called 4 X 4 and showed different grips with the 4 picks. As mentioned, Joe Wright uses 4 picks and had an instructional tape showing drills and exercises. I use 4 picks. I feel naked if I am not usin* 4 picks.

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Bob Watson · From: Champaign, Illinois, U.S.

I used nothing but a thumb pick for the first year on a recommendation from a great local player. After a year he all of a sudden said to use metal finger picks, and he suggested using 3, index, middle and ring. I did that for around 15 years. I lived in Nashville for around ten years and after the first few years of being there I noticed that all of my favorite players only used two finger picks, index and middle. I wasn't using my ring finger much and decided to stop using it. I instantly noticed that I had better technique and tone. I know some people who use a thumb pick and three finger picks that have great tone and technique, but it just didn't work that way for me.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I tried 3 finger picks, but the third pick interfered with my harmonics, and sometime tangled (because I tuck that 3rd finger a lot). Sure, I listened to arguments for 3 or 4 finger picks, and could see that they certainly sounded logical. But then...I'd listen to Curly Chalker (with his only 2 finger picks on only 10 strings) and then I'd listen to all the devotees of "more", more picks, and more strings. The final analysis was that - to my ears, nobody played fatter, bigger, and more chords than he did. Nobody emulated that "full sound" better than he did. Players with more picks and strings just didn't do it any better, and the vast majority of them didn't do it nearly as well.

Listen to Curly; maybe you'll agree, and maybe not. I settled on just 2 picks, but firmly believe you can use however many you think you need. Cool

Douglas Schuch · From: Valencia, Philippines

I am going to be the oddball here - I use thumb and two fingers (with picks, of course) when playing E9. But I put on another pick when I play C6. I find C6 particularly lends itself to the extended chords.

I use to wear four when playing E9 also, but found I almost never used it. I should try again - sometimes it would help when hitting say string 4 or 3, followed by string 1, then back to 3 or 4. Here is an example, from Mooney's intro to "Swingin' Doors", as tabbed by Ricky Davis, I believe:

The issue comes in the last full bar - I currently pick string 4 with M, then while my thumb goes for 6, my M can reach for string 1. But I am a pick-blocker, so this means string 4 did not get blocked the usual way. If I put M (or my ring finger, per PF) down on 4, I have a hard time then reaching string 1. Joe W would have me block 4 with M and pick string 1 with ring.

I find it easier to play with the middle, but the blocking is the issue then. So maybe it is time to experiment again with a fourth pick on E9, just for hitting string 1 or 2 in the middle of runs.

I use to try to do runs up and down the strings as Joe Wright teaches, using 4 fingers. But I find it easier and faster to use either 2 or three, depending on where I need to end up. I can not think of any instance on C6 where I use my ring finger to pick a single note - only for 4-note chords.

It takes a lot of training to get the ring finger to act independent of the middle finger. I was a pretty competent finger-picker on six-string in my youth, using thumb and 3. Yet I still find it hard on pedal steel.
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Jeff Harbour · From: Western Ohio, USA

Took a class from Maurice at one point, at the time I was set on Thumb + 2. He didn't attempt to 'convert' us, but he did explain his preferences. A few years later I switched to Thumb + 3. The deciding factor happened while learning some of Maurice's licks. There are certain voicings that just are not possible with less. For example, C6 strings 2-3-5-8 or 3-4-6-9. They are just so rich, I've tried and there's no other way to get that exact sound.

One other factor though is likely the fact that I'm Left-Handed, so I benefit from any extra containment and control of my right hand.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Thumb pick + 2 finger picks here. **Not a pro**, but I have seen other pros play with that arrangement of picks...

I just use a pickless ring finger to add the 4th note to a chord, or to grab a double stop when it is not convenient to do it any other way. Probably against all the rules, but the reality is, it sounds good to me and Iâ€™m not going to get fired from any of the gigs I play for doing it. Probably not going to be hired by a Nashville producer any time soon for doing it either Cool

Jeff Harbour · From: Western Ohio, USA

Buddy Rich broke every "rule" of drumming... and ended up with a technical prowess that to this day has never been equaled.

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Okay, thatâ€™s two people who have compared something I do with two of the greatest Buddies who ever played anything. I should probably just quit now while Iâ€™m way ahead.

Bill Cunningham · From: Atlanta, Ga. USA

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