# Official retarded picking technique thread!



## KAMI (Jan 1, 2013)

So, I figured I'd be wrong in thinking I'm the only one who has an unusual/retarded picking technique.

(I'll post pics or maybe even a video of my technique when I have more time)

Strengths:
-greater "reach over all the strings
-pick doesn't roll around or slip very much
-easy to get power with very little effort

weakness:
-super fast "meedlee" playing is hard
-If your not careful, the pick can hit the body of the guitar


Share a picture of your technique and list it's strengths and/or weaknesses.


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## rythmic_pulses (Jan 1, 2013)

I can't really get a picture right now but mine is similar to Fred Thordendal's, fingers curled under one another and it is really claustrophobic as you are constrained to the area you are playing in at the time.

Pro's:
-My wrist does most of the work F.E: faster palm muted power chords (Chugs)
-Pick never slips
-Better control over pick dynamics

Con's:
-Can get painful after several hours
-Sweeps are impossible
-Switching from pick to tap is quite difficult


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## KAMI (Jan 1, 2013)

Mine technique is actually similar to Ola Englund. (just forgot to mention it!!!)


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## tedtan (Jan 1, 2013)

Not the best video of it, but if you want to see what LOOKS like weird picking technique, check out Marty Friedman's right hand here. (I emphasize_* looks*_ here because the guy is a bad ass player).


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## DespoticOrder (Jan 2, 2013)

Instead of squeezing the pick between my thumb and the side of my index and pushing my hand forward/downward to pick (like I'm supposed to), I hold it between the tips of my finger and thumb and move my hand the oppisite way to pick. If its hard to picture how my hand is moving, it closely resembles masturbation. Oh yeah, and this is also with my second finger instead of index. 

*Pros: *
-Super comfy for me
-Really sharp and tight "digada" bursts in the middle of riffing
-Palm mutes feel cleaner for tricky riffing
-Easier to use the side of the pick, which gives the best tone imo for fast palm muting

*Cons:*
-Pinch harmonics are a bitch if not on the lower strings
-Almost impossible to mute strings during sweeps (Hair bands help here! )
-Hard to keep a steady hand movment when fast alternate picking licks walk too far up strings
-All the kids stare at it 

EDIT: Another pro - Sweep taps are really easy and smooth sounding this way, because my dominant finger is free to tap, tap, tap away!


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## SirMyghin (Jan 2, 2013)

^^

What in the hell is a 'digada' burst.

(also I don't have a unique picking technique. I hold it similar to Maniacal in his videos but do a lot of hybrid picking because I am lazy)

I keep a relaxed hand, fingers slightly curled (see relaxed) but not a closed fist. It is not constraining in any way, palm mutes well, and allows my fingers to be free for hybrid picking (albeit I can hybrid pick from a closed fist too, this is just too constrained overall).


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## TheOddGoat (Jan 2, 2013)

SirMyghin said:


> ^^
> 
> What in the hell is a 'digada' burst.
> 
> (also I don't have a unique picking technique. I hold it similar to Maniacal in his videos but do a lot of hybrid picking because I am lazy)


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## Metaljesus (Jan 2, 2013)

I hold the pick between my thumb and the tip of my middle finger, looks quite wierd but that's just what works for me.

Pro's:
-really easy to get powerfull chugs on palm mutes
-easy to mute strings while playing
-easy pinch harmonics

Con's:
-hard to alternate pick fast, especially on higher frets.
-thumb hurts after a while
-i slip further down the pick the longer i play wich means i have to make time to re-align the pick


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## Duke318 (Jan 2, 2013)

I used to hold the pick between the thumb and index finger pad, but when I switched to the traditional side of index and thumb, I noticed a significant improvement in everything within a few months. I sucked for the first month, but it was worth it. Less fatigue while playing rhythm. Paul Gilbert made a similar switch.


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## InfinityCollision (Jan 2, 2013)

SirMyghin said:


> What in the hell is a 'digada' burst.


di-ga-da, so a quick three-note burst. Makes more sense if you think about it from a wind instrument perspective, where that grouping is a fairly common approach to triple-tonguing.


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## fwd0120 (Jan 2, 2013)

Sometimes I accidentally move my other 3 fingers out of the 'fist' shape, and it looks kinda awkward.


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## SirMyghin (Jan 2, 2013)

InfinityCollision said:


> di-ga-da, so a quick three-note burst. Makes more sense if you think about it from a wind instrument perspective, where that grouping is a fairly common approach to triple-tonguing.



Well, at least it wins most retarded sounding phonetic, sounds like something Timmy from South Park would yell.


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## Manurack (Jan 2, 2013)

tedtan said:


> Not the best video of it, but if you want to see what LOOKS like weird picking technique, check out Marty Friedman's right hand here. (I emphasize_* looks*_ here because the guy is a bad ass player)



I _was_ going to post something about Marty Friedman's right hand technique but somebody already did lol Marty is GREAT!


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## Dickicker (Jan 2, 2013)

lolz day late and a dollar short. I was gonna say, if marty friedman is not on here....lolz


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## tedtan (Jan 2, 2013)

It looks like it would be physically painful to pick like Marty, but he makes it work for him, so more power to him.


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## Adam Of Angels (Jan 2, 2013)

I don't really have a steady technique - for certain things I move my thumb and index more than my wrist to pick, and for other things I only move my wrist. I don't know for sure if any of it is unusual, but I did always wonder if it was incorrect:


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## KAMI (Jan 2, 2013)

Thanks for the replies guys! there's more of us than I thought!

Keep 'em coming!

Things I forgot to mention about my technique:
-It's like Ola's but with my other three fingers pointing straight out
-Pinch harmonics are very hard
-easy to control pick dynamics
-Palm muting is clean
-can be painful after a few hours of playing


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## JosephAOI (Jan 2, 2013)

Pros:
- Perfect control over my pick
- Feels good to me
- Makes for easy use of tapping with middle, ring fingers
- Chugs are super easy

Cons:
- I drop my pick easily
- My index finger hurts after a while
- Faster alt. picking is difficult
- I use two different positions that I switch between. One for chugs, the other for everything else.

Pics:












Video:



In case you can't tell, I hold my pick with the tip of my index finger.


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## Aghasura (Jan 3, 2013)

Picking.....the fundamentals of everything, and thus, the thing I work on most. A lot of what I write is kind of tricky on the right hand because I use both inside, outside, alternate, and economy picking in my writing. It's never intentional. I write things SLOWLY and then my right hand figures out the most economical way to play it.

I have two approaches that I use, but for both approaches, I hold the pick in a fairly standard fashion between the thumb and side of inside finger. What varies is the degree of angle I use. Right now, I like the tone I get for many of my riffs using an almost flat picking style (I guess I just like the way the string is voiced), but when I am playing something that involves a lot of trem picking, for instance, I will angle the pick closer to 45 degrees.

I'm always experimenting and playing around, so I'm sure it'll change over time. From what I've read, many top players switch between different picking styles depending on the song or the individual parts of a song. For me it's just an ever-evolving thing.


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## Ocara-Jacob (Jan 3, 2013)

I have a fairly interesting way of picking due to an... issue with my right hand. I'll post pics later, but I hold my pick with my pointer, middle, and thumb, and I tap with my pointer. 

PROS: Everything
CONS: Nothing
For me anyways, I've just learned to work with what I have and it's ended up helping me in the long run.


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## MikeH (Jan 28, 2013)

SirMyghin said:


> ^^
> 
> What in the hell is a 'digada' burst.



3:39 of this song, we did it. Doing 20 takes of gallop picking makes your wrist catch fire. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXNW9BEVro


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## benatat (Jan 28, 2013)

I generally utilize two different picking strategies:

1. 
This is for playing heavy, fast palm mutes, solo's, etc:

I have my thumb on top of the pick, like normal, but my index finger holds the pick perpendicular to my thumb (more specifically the last joint of the finger). Pick tilted forward relative to string by about 10-20 degrees.

PROS:
-Excellent control
-Nice speed
-Comfortable, for a time
-Easy tapping
-Super easy pinch harmonics
-Huge amounts of pick attack coming through, could be good or bad

CONS:
-After a while, starts to hurt index finger
-Huge amounts of pick attack coming through, could be good or bad

2.
For playing clean melodies, and chords.

I have my pick held by the finger picks of my thumb and index finger. Almost perpendicular or parallel (I don't know which word would be accurate) to strings in how it's held. Holding pick roughly 1/3 the way from the top

PROS:
-Excellent sound in terms of pick attack and how the strings reverberate 
-Looks cool (Shouldn't matter, but, w/e)
-Nice for playing at higher strings

CONS:
-Less control
-Uncomfortable and slightly awkward until the "sweet spot" is found
-Bad for tapping/harmonics
-Bad for palm muting

Anyway, thanks for reading!


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## Sixthsant (Jan 30, 2013)

Ocara-Jacob said:


> I have a fairly interesting way of picking due to an... issue with my right hand. I'll post pics later, but I hold my pick with my pointer, middle, and thumb, and I tap with my pointer.
> 
> PROS: Everything
> CONS: Nothing
> For me anyways, I've just learned to work with what I have and it's ended up helping me in the long run.



I do the same when I play rhythm, but as soon as I play lead, my middle finger points down


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## Konfyouzd (Jan 30, 2013)

I knew Marty Friedman'd be on the first page of this... I honestly expected the vid of him to be in the OP. 

A lot of these videos/pics of what ppl consider weird technique actually look pretty normal to me. Maybe my technique is weird too.


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## Ginsu (Mar 2, 2013)

I guess it's not THAT weird, but I mute my unused strings with the side of my picking hand thumb as opposed to the meat of my hand like I see most people do...I used to struggle with muting the normal way, and I tried it that way...and it's been working ever since. I have no muting problems, even with sweeping (which I suck at, but hey, it's not because of a muting issue!). Pinch harmonics are incredibly easy most of the time too. When I can remember they exist.

UNLESS I'm playing some riffing on the low strings. In which case I adopt the second position here (which isn't that weird, but I feel like the gap between my index and middle fingers looks weird). It gives me a bit more pick attack. For everything else, I use the above, though. The only bad thing I've noticed is that switching can get a tad awkward sometimes if I have to do it back and forth a lot, but I suck, so I don't play songs with that, and it's not much of a problem yet. Maybe after a year or two of all this metronome-practice.

Oh, also, my upstroke is almost as strong as my downstroke in the second position, I think it's because of the angling of my hand in the first position. But I have no clue.


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## AlucardXIX (Mar 2, 2013)

I tend to use my elbow a lot, which I've tried very hard lately to switch to mostly wrist picking(especially learning Nile and Beneath the Massacre stuff, with tons of trem picking)



But you can see, my hand opens and closes depending I guess. I've never really paid too much attention to my picking technique, unless a part makes no sense to me and I absolutely have to pay attention to it.


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## groverj3 (Mar 4, 2013)

I think my technique is decent. I just need to work on speed/accuracy.

I do have a hard time switching between rhythm and lead quickly due to angling my pick slightly differently depending on the situation.



Apologies, I needed to clean my apartment at the time of recording


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## Bucketheadtwo (Mar 5, 2013)

Glad to see that I'm not the only one who lets their other fingers fly freely 
Seems that a lot of people have a sort of "claw" grip and I'm just noticing it.
Feels weird, man.


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## groverj3 (Mar 5, 2013)

Bucketheadtwo said:


> Glad to see that I'm not the only one who lets their other fingers fly freely
> Seems that a lot of people have a sort of "claw" grip and I'm just noticing it.
> Feels weird, man.


 
I just relax them and they go where they want  Which is how I was taught, many years ago.

Usually I anchor my pinkey and sometime ring finger to the body of the guitar. Some people say this is a no no, but it works for Petrucci.


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## Bucketheadtwo (Mar 5, 2013)

groverj3 said:


> I just relax them and they go where they want  Which is how I was taught, many years ago.
> 
> Usually I anchor my pinkey and sometime ring finger to the body of the guitar. Some people say this is a no no, but it works for Petrucci.



Yeah! I do that too! With my RG7321, sometimes my pinkie goes in the little bridge pickup wood mount space


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## KAMI (Mar 13, 2013)

I've only just noticed that JB Brubraker of August Burns Red has a weird technique:


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## Idontpersonally (Mar 13, 2013)

I play with my pick backwards as in not with the tip.

Pros- easier for me to play licks in between strings
-I can ap faster
-feels natural

cons- it looks fucking retarded
-easy to talk shit about "a guilta, if you just turned ur pick around it wouldnt sound like shit!"


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## 1Fate4all (Feb 19, 2014)

This is late but I pick weird as well. I don't know how to describe it. Its just strange.


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## innovine (Feb 19, 2014)

I hold the pick moreeor less between thumb and tip of my second finger, with the index offering some support.
Pros: nearly perpendicular to the string giving excellent attack
Cons: increasnng the angle for fast picking creates a bit of stress

I also play leads and licks using mostly upstrokes.


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## redstone (Feb 19, 2014)

I use the Shawn Lane / Mclaughlin technique

pros

- I know precisely why and how it works
- it's quick to learn, no need to slow down to learn how to change strings
- can alternate pick what people usually need to sweep
- can alternate pick what people can't economy pick

cons

- downward inside picking is the little weakness, needs more work to get it right
- more exhausting than some alternatives.


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## DoomJazz (Feb 20, 2014)

Not my technique, but I have a friend that picks like he's sawing the ....ing strings. Safe to say he isn't the cleanest player


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## MarcusProg (Feb 21, 2014)

I hold the pick similar to the correct technique, at least I think so. Basically, I have my index finger curled inwards in a "C" sort of shape, and I balance the pick roughly on the center of the first joint from the tip of the index finger and my thumb.

I leave my other three fingers almost completely relaxed, except for the pinky finger, which I place on the side of my pickup/on the high E string to use as a fulcrum of movement.

It keeps the movement unbelievably efficient in my picking hand, especially for rhythms. Also, since I need to angle my hand ever so slightly, it makes lead playing really great too.

Pros:
1. Palm Mutes are easy to execute and clear.
2. Sweeping is dynamically consistent. (No random notes being louder than the others)
3. Very easy to switch to strumming.
4. Since the middle finger is free, tapping becomes very easy without having to switch fingers.
5. Hybrid picking is easy to do, due to the proximity of the relaxed fingers to the strings. All you gotta do is lift your pinky finger off of the pickup's edge.
6. String skipping for both solos and rhythms is easy, since the pinky acts as a strong center point.

Cons:
1. If your sweeping isn't really clean without a hair band, then open strings can become a problem. (Of course, this can also be a good thing, because it indicates that you need to work on your technique.)
2. The index finger can start feeling a little tired after a few hours of intense practicing. 
3. Finding the balance between efficiency and ease of use can take a while if you're new to the technique.


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## TauSigmaNova (Feb 21, 2014)

1Fate4all said:


> This is late but I pick weird as well. I don't know how to describe it. Its just strange.


Looks similar to Marty Friedman.


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## WhoThenNow7 (Nov 30, 2014)

Metaljesus said:


> I hold the pick between my thumb and the tip of my middle finger, looks quite wierd but that's just what works for me.
> 
> Pro's:
> -really easy to get powerfull chugs on palm mutes
> ...



Funny.. Because I play more traditionally- with the pick between the side of my index finger and my thumb- and I run into the same problem.. I guess that's a reason why they make picks with the "grips" on them. I need to try some of those out.


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## Luna Lee (Dec 1, 2014)

pros:
-Unique finger picking style
-weird alternate finger picking 
cons:
-Using my elbow 
-Anchoring my pinky finger on my guitar 
-While anchoring I can't reach certain strings and up with a crappy muted sound 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmDwiwLOdgQ


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## stevo1 (Dec 1, 2014)

I hold my pick with my thumb bent, as I have a hitch hiker's thumb. Like Rob Barrett and Marty friedman. Never bothered me though.


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