Acoustic Guitar Lesson: To Pick Or Not To Pick

The acoustic guitar is a truly beautiful instrument.  With it you can play an array of songs and one can use the acoustic guitar to express their thoughts and emotions.  If you’re just getting started with the guitar, the best idea is to take lessons.  You will quickly learn there are many different tips and strategies that can help you with playing the guitar.

 To pick or not to pick is really the question, one that a lot of people just aren’t able to make on their own.  It all depends on what type of guitar playing you’re interested in.  There are different styles of guitar playing and the sound of a guitar will change depending on the pick used.  Flamenco guitarists for instance will rarely use picks because it does not produce a sound suitable for their style of music.

 For people who want to play faster songs, using a pick is almost always necessary.  Even if you’ve had experience playing the guitar and have toughened up your fingers as a result, trying to play fast leads and scales could be so hard it may even cause your fingers to bleed.  You’re a lot more limited when you’re not using a pick because there are only so many melodies that you can play.  The sound is much sharper when using a pick and again more than anything it depends on the speed you’ll be playing the guitar at.

 Strumming slow acoustic songs is fine without a pick.  There are actually steps to choosing the right pick for playing guitar, something that would be covered in any basic acoustic guitar lesson.  Now it’s just a matter of choosing the right size and style of pick.  There are also different materials of picks to choose from including plastic, nylon and tortex.

 The size of your pick will have a great impact on how it sounds.  The smaller pick you use the lighter a sound you will get.  This is why guitarists like Carlos Santana use one of the smallest picks, to get the lightest, most mandolin-like sound.  Taking an acoustic guitar lesson will teach you all of these basics as well as more complex instructions on playing the guitar.