Ok to just use right hand fingers (no pick) on an acoustic guitar?

September 7, 2006 4:16 PM

I do not use a plectrum. At all. Everything I play (and I am in the initial - mid level proficiency stage) whether it is chords, scales, full songs, licks - I play them on my acoustic with my right hand fingers. I feel fine doing this, and I know that I am probably never going to play an electric. Should I be worried about anything in the future (besides the low volume as compared to a pick)?
posted by raheel to media & arts (18 comments total)

A lot of people seem to think it's okay.
posted by jellicle at 4:18 PM on September 7, 2006

Do you finger pick or do you use your nail as a plectrum substitute?
posted by fire&wings at 4:22 PM on September 7, 2006

fire&wings: finger pick only. Never tried the nails - I wouldn't grow them long enough to use them anyway.
posted by raheel at 4:34 PM on September 7, 2006

Whatever works. Lots of electric guitar players also forgo picks too, at least some of the time: Mark Knopfler, Albert King, Joe Pass, the guy on the Tonight Show, Wes Montgomery and Jeff Beck come to mind.
posted by timeistight at 4:35 PM on September 7, 2006

One of my concern would be: is playing using a pick in general faster?
posted by raheel at 4:37 PM on September 7, 2006

I'm the same way. For whatever reason, I just can't seem to comfortably hold a plectrum and do anything with it. (Maybe because I'm left-handed?)

Anyway, yeah, the only thing that bothers me is that I can't play fast. But I lean more towards folk or folk-rock, so there aren't a ton of HOT LIXX anyway.
posted by danb at 4:47 PM on September 7, 2006

I believe that Jeff Beck's right hand technique involves pinching his right thumb and first finger together (as tho holding a pick) and using the fingernail for fast single string lines. You can do the same on acoustic, but the volume drop might be bothersome. And the heavier string gauge might play hell with your fingernail.

If you're used to using all your picking hand fingers, you might try using a pick and fingers style a la Richard Thompson or Danny Gatton.
posted by landis at 4:55 PM on September 7, 2006

I'm with danb.

I've played acoustic off and on for 10+ years and haven't had any problems sticking with the fingers. I generally use my thumb when strumming. The sweet thing about not having a pick is you can switch up your playing very easily, i.e., going from strumming to fingerpicking as your taste or the song demands. The trade-off, as mentioned above, is that you won't be able to play superfast and what comes out of the acoustic will sound a little more muted and less crisp.
posted by quadog at 5:00 PM on September 7, 2006

If you're playing lines and scales, then while a pick is most common, it's no problem to learn to play fast with your fingers instead. Classical guitarists finger pick everything and good ones can play extremely fast. Similarly most bass players use their fingers to play and there are a number who can keep up with the most insane guitar players out there. Billy Sheehan, for instance.

Actually using a pick makes some things harder. Arpeggios are difficult. String skipping is pretty much irrelevant if you finger pick. Plucking multiple strings is hard or impossible.

Sheesh, I'm kind of puzzled now why we even use picks at all!
posted by Khalad at 5:01 PM on September 7, 2006

For those who can't or won't grow nails of sufficient length/strength, there are finger picks. If you start playing 2 handed hammer style, like Stanley Jordan, you eschew picking mostly, in favor of hammering tones, "picking off" fingering, and harmonics. Part of the fun of learning to play guitar, however, is experimenting with all the different techniques and means of making sounds with the instrument. Why would you just arbitrarily never experiment with all the common techniques?
posted by paulsc at 5:40 PM on September 7, 2006

Ditto Khalad. Flamenco players don't use picks, and I don't you'll ever need to play faster than them. Arguably it's easier to play fast with a pick, though. If you're happy with what you're doing, keep doing it.
posted by futility closet at 5:43 PM on September 7, 2006

Playing fast without a pick is easy, you just have to use more than one finger. When picking out fast lines I either use 2 fingers or occaisonally 3, alternating as needed. You can do some things *faster* this way than with a pick since you can easily use some fingers for one string and some fingers for the other.

The sound of using your fingers is quite different, acoustic or electric. The attack is much subtler and when playing chords I feel the individual notes are less distinct and more muddled together. Sometimes I like this, other times I don't.

Note also that the guage of the pick you use makes a huge difference in how it feels to play with a pick, and how it sounds. I favor big thick hard picks for jazz solo lines, and for the abrupt short chords of jazz comping, but I like thin soft picks for lots of things too. When I was a kid I bought like 3 of every kind of pick I could find at a guitar store (skipping ones that were the same but different brands) and I still have a lot of those. Sometimes I just pick one out at random to see if I like it.

*Where* you pick, or where you use your fingers on the strings makes a lot of difference too. Near the bridge, you get sharp attacked notes with more high end. Near midway between the fretted note and the bridge you get a very full mellow sound. Watch Stevie Ray Vaughn videos some time, for example, he picks over the neck a lot.

Anyway, don't use a pick if you don't want to. I don't think you need to be able to do everything on a guitar, just the stuff you want, that interests you. Make it your own.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:51 PM on September 7, 2006

One technique that is much, much easier to do with a pick, than without, is playing deadened (or muffled) string chords. Basically, the left hand relaxes pressure slightly on the strings, or lightly lays fingers on the strings below the fret point, to create some dampening, while the right hand plucks hard. A lot of blues players use this on offbeats, to create an acoustic "dirty" sound, and lend a rhythmic drive to the chord line. A pick is almost required to do this, as the level of energy required on the deadened stroke is much greater than on the cleanly fingered strokes. Moreover, this is usually done with some intentional emphasis on the dirty strokes, to create a nearly syncopated feel for a rhythm part, that is only being partially played by a solo performer, who is also cutting in lead riffs. You can really give an audience a strong sense of beat doing this, so much that it once was a kind of shorthand to the audience in the Mississippi juke joints, to "put your hands together."
posted by paulsc at 6:25 PM on September 7, 2006

I can't stand using a pick. Must've picked up the habit from playing bass guitar originally. But now I've migrated over to a classical guitar and I bang the hell out of it with my empty hand, I slow to finger picking (how could one pick ever be as fast as five fingers?) and I strum with my thumb. I do keep my nails a bit longer on the right/strumming hand. I would certainly recommend you look into the classical guitars if you plan on staying acoustic and pickless, the extra space between the strings is a blessing.
posted by iurodivii at 7:13 PM on September 7, 2006

Another vote for flesh on steel. Interestingly, I started out playing with a pick all the time, but when I started having babies (one of us had them, anyway) I had to keep the sound level down a lot more. Today I pick up a pick and try to play with it, and I might as well be trying to hit the strings with a George Foreman grill, very awkward.

I like the tactile sensation of making the music directly wiith my fingers.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:46 PM on September 7, 2006

I am starting to learn fingerpicking after 22 years of playing with a pick.

It's not better or worse, just different. I enjoy them both, now.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:06 PM on September 7, 2006

I play with a pick or fingers, depending on style. Mark Knopfler's finger method of using the thumb, index and ring finger fits perfectly with a double-stop/plucked triad rhythm technique, and for flamenco it has to be fingers all the way (again, generally just the ring and index fingers, though rather than being curled under your palm a la Knopfler, then then to be extended and pluck more like a bass player would)...
posted by benzo8 at 4:59 AM on September 8, 2006

it's very much a matter of individual taste and style ... if it feels right to you, than it is ... i play electric and use a nickel for a pick, most of the time ... the rest of the time, i fingerpick or strum without a pick ... it's all dependant on what i want for the song
posted by pyramid termite at 6:21 AM on September 8, 2006