Hi guitar folks,

This video explores some pros and cons of playing with pick or/and fingers. I do both. Although 80% of my playing life (more than 25 years) and about 60-70% of my current playing involve fingers and more precisely, nails. It’s quite unusual, but in the same time, it’s starting to be kinda ‘hip’ these days. Whatever is considered ‘hip’ and it all depends on who we’re talking to 🙂 Recently I saw an interview by Rick Beato with Matteo Mancuso with a title of him being the best guitarist in the world. Why? Because he plays with fingers? Take any classical guitarists out there… I’m not questioning the level of Mancuso though. He is absolutely amazing! Rick Beato, who is probably the most influential music influencer ( Yes, the world now is that – youtubers and influencers are setting a pace for many and it doesn’t matter how much the ‘real’ musicians despise it… the ‘real’ musicians are entering online world themselves.). So Rick is featuring finger-style on electric guitar now. It’s very likely many will try to implement finger-style technique…

Weirdly, even though I am finger-style player myself, I still don’t fully recommend it. It’s simply easier to master guitar playing with a pick as electric guitar was intended. ( Ok, with a few exceptions. I do mention Wes Montgomery in the video. )

There are a lot of details involved in mastering any technique. Just with pick, there are so many variables: angles of the pick, angles of hand, the size and thickness of the pick, and the list goes on.

Playing is all about those tiny little details, repeating passages and bars, playing very slowly first etc. etc. As well as, if learning a transcription by saxophonist on a guitar you have to pick the best position and left hand fingerings first before looking at the details of your right hand. ( I am talking about right handed people.) If you play with fingers there are also way to many variables to choose from. I play with many different techniques, mixing and matching them depending on a musical situation. Yet, every situation needs to be practiced. It’s basically more work. But there is a certain type of freedom too. Not having to worry about forgetting or dropping a pick… In the same time, when my nail breaks, it’s a problem!

Really, whatever technique you have picked or will pick in the future, you just have to master that one thing. Before you move on to the next or add a new technique.

I always used a little bit of pick, but my main technique was always fingers with nails. The reason behind this was my background of flamenco guitar. Even though I’ve found most flamenco techniques doesn’t quite work with electric guitar, I ended up adapting my technique over time. Mascuso seem to use a typical flamenco technique ‘picado’ though. So everyone who does this finds a way that works for them. There aren’t really many tutorials or books about this, as most schools focus on plectrum playing for electric guitar.

There seem to be no need for hybrid picking if main technique is fingers. But that may be a whole other subject. And I never picked up hybrid as it seemed a little limiting techique for me and there was no need for it as finger-style covers things well.

I also express a bunch of thoughts similar to this in the video above.

Thanks for checking it out!

No specific practice tips this time, but it’s all still super relevant to all the things guitar.. as well as a question many have asked me to answer in the past regarding my technique.

Check out more Practice ideas and exercises here.

Also, if you’d like to book a lesson contact me here. I take teaching pretty seriously, especially when it’s intermediate and advanced students ( I currently don’t take beginners anymore), when teaching on Zoom I use method of video submission in between lessons, it proven to be an amazing method of teaching at the “Learn with Sonora’ program where i taught alongside guitar mentors with a long list of credentials ( Berklee, NYC New School teachers etc.).