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Am I severely limiting myself by pick playing?

#22
Pablo Fanque said:
Besides, I'm really really trying to focus on my fretwork; finger coordination, learning chords and scales, etc.
Click to expand...

It's not an either/or question. If you are more comfortable with the pick, use it until you get your fretwork and finger coordination down.

Then, once you are comfortable with that, you can look at adding fingers tyle if you want. By then you will have more experience to make the choice. You might want to stay with the pick.
 
#24
I started fingerstyle, found pick playing years later.

I find myself more creative with a pick as of right now, and in general(I love the precise attack a pick makes).

Who cares what you use to make the sounds that are in your head.



Now, if you are going to be a session player?

Yes, playing with one style will "hurt" you - you might find less jobs as a pick-only player.
Same goes for fingerstyle-only.
 
#27
seanm said:
It's not an either/or question. If you are more comfortable with the pick, use it until you get your fretwork and finger coordination down.

Then, once you are comfortable with that, you can look at adding fingers tyle if you want. By then you will have more experience to make the choice. You might want to stay with the pick.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what I was thinking. I've not wanted to stagnate on my fretwork because I'm bogged down with trying to finger strike.

But I was concerned that it might be best to try to learn both hands/fingers at the same time, thinking that might be the better long term strategy.
 
#28
Pablo Fanque said:
....bass feels comfortable ONLY with a pick or my thumb.
Click to expand...

Playing with your thumb is close enough to finger style for now. I suggest that you just keep learning and playing as much as you can. Later on you can add "finger style" to your technique practice.

You might want to check the link in my sig. for more information that you can use to progress.
If you haven't already, check out Rocco Prestia on Youtube.

Good luck.
 
#29
I used to only use a pick but over the past few years of just noodlin' around, I'm finding fingerstyle to be more enjoyable for me. In some ways, I'm faster with my fingers than I am with a pick.

It's a good idea to broaden your skills BUT go with what works for ya. If that means playing with a pick, go for it.
 
#31
I'm by no means an amazing player, but I play with a pick 95 percent of the time and don't feel "limited." It just works better for the type of music I generally play... and to my ears sounds better for the type of music I play. Some people would argue that I just don't know how to play with my fingers... and that's fine... to each his own.

I may be crazy, but I can and do use a couple of different gauge picks depending on the song I'm playing for a different attack. I find mediums are a little more whumpy when that is called for.

I've played guitar for 20 plus years, I don't play much fingerstyle guitar either, though I can if I desire, with all 5 fingers on my picking hand. I studied the stuff, and learned it. It's cool to sit down with an acoustic guitar and show off... I just don't play that "style" of music very often.
 
#33
Were I your teacher, I would have you chuck the pick. However, that's not what you asked...

IMO, if you are *only* playing with a pick, you are limiting yourself. Some might argue that if you only play with fingers you are imposing similar limitations... but I suspect most would agree that fingers playing offers more versatility than pick playing - so if you had to do one to the exclusion of the other, fingers is the way to go.

Besides, playing bass with a pick is such a... Guitar player thing to do...
 
#35
I don't understand how people on TB can say that fingerstyle is *objectively* better than picking, haha. Don't get it. Personally, I play fingerstyle 95% of the time. That's how I learned, and that's the way I like it.

You are definitely not "doomed to suck" if you use a pick: Think Paul McCartney or Chris Squire. Are you severely limited? No. Not at all. You're just as limited as the players that shun picking like it's a sin.

But I also agree with what others are saying about learning multiple techniques- that is, if you like picking, get comfortable with that, and, if you want, you can gradually ease yourself into learning fingerstyle, just so that you have that option, not because it's any "better" than picking...
 
#36
You're definitely not doomed to suck by playing exclusively with a pick. There are tons of great players who do exactly that. That said, I think it's a mistake to look at guys like Paul McCartney or Carles Benavent and think that their example makes it ok to never learn fingerstyle. They are brilliant musicians who have become famous for a certain style of playing, and they're always going to be in bands that take advantage of that style. Most of us don't have that luxury, which means you'd be better off learning to use your fingers in addition to the pick. I'm mainly a fingerstyle player but in bands I use a pick about half the time because that's just what sounds best for the song. This idea that you have to choose one or the other and get all defensive about it is stupid. Flexibility makes you more valuable and it's also more fun.
 
#38
Ah, to me, the pick makes the bass sound like a "low guitar". It just doesn't differentiate the bass from other attacks that are hitting on the one. Also, the pick just has less to inflect on heavier bass strings versus those of a guitar. The versatility that a pick gives you with an overdriven electric guitar is just isn't happening as well on bass. A nice fingerstyle technique really gets the gears to start turning in any girl's head, not for nothin'.
 
#39
Both are different sounds. In that sense yes you are limiting yourself by not learning both. If you want to be a versatile player learn both at the same time. If you get good at one and then go back and try to learn the other it will be frustrating and it will feel like a long time before the newer technique feels good enough to play onstage.

That's my experience as a pick player for many years who is learning finger style. My fingerstyle will probably never be as good as my pick style because I have to use pick style to get the job done for rehearsals and gigs. Pick style keeps getting better and I would have to put in mondo practice time for the finger style to keep up, much less catch up.
 

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