Thumbpicks

[cozimnot]

I went and bought one today- to me, it feels like a compromise between picking and finger picking. With practise, I think I might switch to thumbpicks. Two questions, though.

1)It feels awkward doing upstrokes with this thing. Are you supposed to only do downstrokes with this thing?

2)How should I go about playing scales and such? I have no problem until the g string. You can only go so fast using only upstrokes with one finger.

Thank you.

[LarryJ]

I think that's the point.

It's not made to be used for upstrokes, its meant to be used for downstrokes, like if you pick droning root notes and then play the notes on the higher strings like in classical music.

I do not use them, so dont take this as being correct, but I dont think I've ever heard of anyone picking up using one. The music they're designed to use is things like classical and blue grass, where you dont really use upstrokes. I'm thinking of someone playing a banjo right know which is the most obvious use of them. I would go about using them just as you would if you were fingerpicking normally. In other words, use it to pick the E, A, and D strings, and for the G, B, and high E strings, use your pointer, middle and ring finger to pick those. Thats the most common way of doing it anyways, its worth looking into , but if you have some other method that works for you I say go with what works.

As far as speed goes, you probably would be able to get that fast with it, so try playing with alot of legato instead perhaps. Might I ask why your using thumbpicks instead of just a regular pick, or using all fingers?

-Larry

[cozimnot]

Well, I decided to try 'em out just for the fun of it. I like to finger pick, so I thought if I used one of these, I could take advantage of both worlds. I could finger pick, strum with the thumbpick, and maybe even try to tremlo pick with it. But after a full day of trying it out, I've decided that the Thumbpick is not for me. I'll probably just use it for fingerpicking. Thanks alot for your help.

[LarryJ]

I know a kid online who is very good with them. He made a video of him playing a classical piece using one, and it made a bunch of people on another message board I visit go out and buy them. So maybe give it some time, just be realistic in your goals. I can't see tremelo picking happening, but I think you might be able to speed up picking using one over just your thumb.

[cozimnot]

Actually, yeah, I think I'll stick with it for a while. I'm not exacactly a fan of shredding, so I doubt not being able to do pinch harmonics and whanot would hurt me at all.