The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I don't know this guy (Leon Brown) but I found this short video useful. And I love his attitude: "There is nothing wrong with your pick. The problem is YOU."
    I've always had this problem. Mainly the turn. "Why hath my pick turned against me?" How many times have I said that? Well, none, but the pick turns against daily.


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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    My solution is to get a Blue Chip pick. They don't move in my hand, sometimes it's hard to make it move if I want to. They stick to my fingers, and stay attached even if I remove the thumb or other fingers and hold my hand with the pick underneath. I don't know what makes that happen, but it does, at least on my fingers.

  4. #3

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    He's correct in showing the way to hold the pick and in his conclusion that there is nothing wrong with the pick - that the problem is with the one holding the pick.

    There is a simple way to fix this; you train your hand how to hold on to the pick and how to maintain and never loose control of the pick. You do this by forcing the hand to completely re-establish your hold of the pick by periodically flipping the pick over. This teaches the hand more than everything it needs to hold, monitor, correct, and maintain the pick automatically.

    When watching TV, movies, listening to music, reading, or anything like that away from the guitar, just hold the pick and flip it over every few seconds... each time regaining the exact correct grip and position. Do this for a few days or so until it is easy and natural - until you think "flip it" and it takes less than a second to flip it and regain perfect hold without any apparent level of effort. If you do this every ten seconds for three hours for three days you will have re-established holding the pick about one thousand times.

    Then do it while practicing the guitar, between phases, between pauses in chords. Once your fingers can reliably do this flip (which requires extreme recovery), they will immediately detect the slightest occurrence of pick slip or rotation (which require minimal recovery) and re-establish your perfect grip instantly. In the long run it becomes continuous.

  5. #4

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    I usually use picks (e.g. Blue Chip, V-Picks, Gravity) that have a composite that gets grippy as you hold it. I have enough going on between comping, keeping good time, and tracking changes . Don't need another worry with picks. And did I mention difficulty with concurrent walking and gum chewing?

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by sgosnell
    My solution is to get a Blue Chip pick. They don't move in my hand, sometimes it's hard to make it move if I want to. They stick to my fingers, and stay attached even if I remove the thumb or other fingers and hold my hand with the pick underneath. I don't know what makes that happen, but it does, at least on my fingers.
    Blue Chips do adhere to the hand (without being sticky).
    But I've been using a Fender Medium teardrop since watching this video and having no trouble.
    The guy in the video (Leon Brown) is right: the problem wasn't the pick, it was me. (There CAN be grip problems, esp with older musicians---Ron Eschete is an example; he uses a Strum-n-Comfort pick with a wrap that goes around the thumb.)
    Something Leon doesn't mention but has made a huge difference for me is the way the arm rests on the guitar. I don't think there's a hard and fast rule but once I found a workable position, the pick stopped moving around.

    I have much less trouble with funk strumming (16th note strumming for several minutes at a time, keeping it even). The pick doesn't move. Before, it was a struggle for it NOT to move and even when it didn't, I worried it might start any second. That anxiety was a groove killer.

  7. #6

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    TBH, I've never had a problem with picks moving in my fingers. I just find that the Blue Chip picks are more difficult to move, once they've been in place for a few seconds, and I like the tone I get from them more than I like any other picks I've tried. And I've tried a lot of picks.

  8. #7

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    IMHO people inaccurately think larger picks are easier to hold and control. IME they are not. Using a small pick (358, Jazz III) I can feel the upper edge and shoulder. The pick doesn't move and is always under good control. With a larger pick (351 or larger) it feels the same no matter what direction it's pointed. There's no reference point.

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by sgosnell
    TBH, I've never had a problem with picks moving in my fingers. I just find that the Blue Chip picks are more difficult to move, once they've been in place for a few seconds, and I like the tone I get from them more than I like any other picks I've tried. And I've tried a lot of picks.
    I think Blue Chips are great at staying in place. But I prefer a Medium pick and AFAIK Blue Chip doesn't make anything under 1 mm.

  10. #9

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    Blue Chip offers several varieties of .035", which is .89mm. Nothing really thin, though. For me, .040" is about as thin as I would consider, but YMMV.

  11. #10

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    Thanks, I'm trying it and, so far so good. Also better tone than my former fist-like grip.

    I also like the smaller Jazz III pick.

  12. #11

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    On warm evenings I like to go out on my deck with a guitar and a cocktail. If I used BlueChip picks, I'd also bring a reciprocating saw and a crowbar.