POWER OF THE PICK! (Mar-05-07)

[moved from old forum:]

"I am trying to get my head around what happens when we pick a
note, at the point that the note begins to sound. Is this
what happens when we do a downstroke:

We apply pressure to the string by allowing the weight of the
arm to come through the pick. When the force that the string
is exerting back at us is greater than the force we are using
to keep the tip of the pick stable (which we control by how
tightly we are holding the pick), then the pick is no longer
able to hold the weight of the arm, so the arm drops as the
pick gives way, and the string tension (created by the weight
of the arm coming through the pick) is released, setting the
string in motion.

Is this correct? I have a reason for asking..."


No.

You dont use weight. You use your muscles to control the pick.Always. Unless you want a special effect.

-Ney

[moved from old forum:]

Ney do you vary how hard you hold the pick for different playing situations, or do you keep it fairly constant? I'm guessing that you vary it for different situations but I want to be sure. Also, do you guys find that to get an aggresive pick attack, you have to hold the pick quite hard (I understand that 'quite hard' is a relative term, but I can't think of anyway to better describe it).

-Fuzzyguitarman

[moved from old forum:]

"Ney do you vary how hard you hold the pick for different
playing situations, or do you keep it fairly constant?"

It varies constantly. I will play aseries of noted generally with the same tightness but the next few notes may be very different.

"I'm guessing that you vary it for different situations but I want
to be sure. Also, do you guys find that to get an aggressive
pick attack, you have to hold the pick quite hard (I
understand that 'quite hard' is a relative term, but I can't
think of anyway to better describe it)."

I think you mean loud and perhaps even violently rocking playing by aggressive?
Either way. You can do it both ways but it will sound off course different. Aggressive but different each way. The more you tighten your grip the more you flex the string a certain way. To get the violence you desire with a more relaxed grip you need to dig into the strings much more.

-Ney

[moved from old forum:]

I think the attack is controlled
a) by how tight you hold the pick
b) by how far you dip into the string

but most importantly I think its

c) by how the accurate muscle for your picking action works to get over the resistance of the string. It's NOT controlled on how fast the hand moves, but when the accurate muscle holds against the string, you get a nice attack. And I think the more that muscle works, the louder it gets/the more attack you get. Therefore you can also play quite loud when you don't hold the pick tight, and you don't dip in very much.
Since there are many ways to pick (from your wrist, from a turning motion of the forearm, from moving the forearm up and down, from stretching the index finger and moving the thumb, from your shoulder) there can work a lot of muscles together, although you can just as well only use one or two, and the effect will be quite good with only those.

-JayAr

[moved from old forum:]

"Ney do you vary how hard you hold the pick for different
playing situations, or do you keep it fairly constant? I'm
guessing that you vary it for different situations but I want
to be sure. Also, do you guys find that to get an aggresive
pick attack, you have to hold the pick quite hard (I
understand that 'quite hard' is a relative term, but I can't
think of anyway to better describe it)."


There is something else you should know.

'Aggressive' depends on how low your action is and how thick your strings are.


For a set of 009s or 10s on a very low action guitar you can't whack the string or you will get a brittle plincky sound instead of a full note when playing clean jazz.

In that case you squeeze the pick very lightly which changes your technique completely compared to a rock technique or a fusion technique or a gypsy technique and a bluegrass technique.

I am currently recording a jazz work and to get that sound on light strings you can't have the physical violence necessary for rock.

The power comes more jiu jitstu style from a light squeeze activating the string maximally consequently using a longer stroke WITHOUT slapping it on the frets. The result is the Mc laughlin/ Pat Martino tone: full , powerful and round, specially at mind boggling speeds. There is no brittle angst in the tone. It just rolls out of the instrument at trans-light speeds and hypnotizes at slow speeds.

For rock you need to be violent and grip much tighter or it will sound effete, emasculated, passive , anemic. This is due to the structure of the high gain notes an their decays and envelope outlines.

For gypsy you need to be brutal by comparison or "ca vas pas marcher ce truc la ". To get tone out of an acoustic : brutalism is elegance. In this case I am, off course, talking about perfectly controlled brutality which looks effortless and sounds very round on the acoustic..


STRONG WORDS?

I use strong words because on the internet one gets routinely zombified and completely desensitized to any physical realities of playing an instrument by very lightly touching delicate keyboard keys and softly touching mouses in comfy chairs and staring at a light emitting screen. The result is complete stupor and the ubiquitous " wimpy picking" as Jamie writes and that is, as we know, not part of the real guitar world.


So one has to be much more primalistic when writing about the real world of guitar to get a little bit pass the completely insulating digital barrier of the medium which constitutes as I call it a "spiritual firewall" as it were...

-Ney

[moved from old forum:]

By 'dip into the string' do you mean how far you push the string down before actually sounding the note?

-Fuzzyguitarman

[moved from old forum:]

It means how much of the pick you dip into the plane of the strings.

The maximum 'dip' on a solid body electric is essentially where the pick touches the face of the guitar.

-Changus