Angling My Pick

[Dommy]

From a recent suggestion form my guitar teacher, I have been trying to angle my pick slightly (15-25 degrees), and I have had some relative success with it. A music teacher in my school said he tried doing this for a year, but nearly hurt himself in the process, so he switched back. I don't want to hurt myself, and I have experienced a little bit of pain from switching to this, but my guitar teacher said that doing this changed his playing so enormously...

I do really like the full tone you get when you play with an angled pick, and it also helps me to prevent wresting my hand on my bridge, which limits my mobility and speed...

Can anybody give me any input on the pros and cons of angling your pick?

[Koala]

Hey Dommy. Im just going to board this from a non-picking aspect. If anything hurts its wrong, so stop it immediately or else you might really hurt yourself. Try to find a picking technique youre comfortable with physically and tonewise.

hope this helps,

[metalprep6969]

I like to angle my pick. Like you said, it gives a full sound, and more importantly, it decreases the resistance of the pick against the string, so it's faster. I still will hold it flat for doing some rhythm stuff (I don't know if this is good OR bad, but mainly, it's habit at this point). I have redone my picking style several times since I've been playing, and each time I had to go through a small period of adjustment pain. I wouldn't worry too much, but if the pain continues for more than a few weaks, or if it becomes more severe, I'd think about adjusting my technique. Hope this help bro!

\m/

[Dommy]

I think some of the pain can be eliminated through better posture and fiddling around with my pick position. I agree with your general rule, but I think I might have to give this a try.