eco

In case you are trying to learn the guitar, the first thing you need to know is how to hold a guitar pick the right way.

Guitar pick or plectrum is a small object that you hold in your hands and play the guitar strings. The quality of guitar you are playing depends mainly on the way you are holding its pick.

So, before you officially start learning guitar, you should learn to hold the plectrum in the right manner. 

Mentioned below in this article are some of the tips and tricks which you can use for holding the guitar pick in your hand so that it doesn’t feel awkward and helps you in playing the guitar in the most suitable way. 

Holding A Guitar Pick

The first and the easiest manner of holding a guitar plectrum is that you keep it in between your index finger and your thumb. Hold it in a way that it fits tightly in between your fingers. Now keep the position of your in such a manner that it can easily brush all the strings of your guitar.

As while playing, you will have to move the plectrum all over the strings and in order to be able to play guitar perfectly, the plectrum needs to touch all of the strings easily. 

One thing that you need to keep in mind is that there are a lot of different types of plectrums available in the market and you should choose the one that works best for you. Once you have chosen the perfect pick, try to practice with it as much as possible. 

We created a four-step guide to choosing your guitar pick, which you can find here:

https://rombopicks.com/blogs/insight-rombo/how-to-choose-the-right-guitar-pick

Brush it against the strings of your guitar so that your hands move easily and it produces a sound.

More Methods For Holding A Plectrum

Another technique that you can use to hold a guitar pick in your hand is that you keep it in your dominant hand. This is the hand that you use the most, so it will be easier for you to keep the plectrum in it and play the guitar.

Some people prefer to play the guitar chords with the hand that they don’t use more often i.e non-dominant. So by holding the plectrum in your dominant hand and controlling the chords with no dominant one, you can easily brush the guitar strings and produce music. 

Now place your one hand on the neck of the guitar and hold the plectrum between your index finger and thumb of the dominant hand. Keep in mind that the strings of your guitar are facing away from you. Keep the guitar on your knees, as for a beginner, it is easier to play the guitar while sitting. But in case you want to play standing up, you can use a shoulder strap so that it is easier for you to control.

Keep your hand steady but flexible. Steady because you need to hold the guitar plectrum and flexible because you need to keep brushing it over all of the strings.

A good sound will only be produced if you are moving your hands the right way. Keeping them too rigid will result in an unpleasant sound which no one likes to listen to. But once again, keep in mind that a good sound can only be produced after practice.

During the initial times, you only need to focus on getting your hands used to the guitar. So that it knows where the strings are, which chords to play and where to keep the plectrums. These are the basic skills that everyone needs to learn before officially starting out various tunes on the guitar.

For those more advanced guitarists looking to improve their guitar playing speed, click HERE.

Things To Keep In Mind

Once you are in your comfortable position, rest your hand holding the plectrum on the strings of the guitar. Keep in mind that your hand should cover at least half of the plectrum. Some of the picks are made in a way that they are folded from one side to easily fit your index finger and your thumb on it. 

Here you can find an example: Rombo Origami

Keep the grip of your hand as firm as possible but make sure it is easily movable so that once you start playing, you can brush the strings without making any extra effort. Never loosen your grip on the plectrum because it might fall off your hand while playing.

More Things To Focus

Now if you are a beginner, it is good that you are trying to get as much help as possible because this will help you in becoming a good guitarist within a minimum amount of time. By now, you do know how to carefully hold a plectrum (i.e between your index finger and thumb) now rest it over the strings. 

Keep in mind that it should just lightly brush them so that only placing it there doesn’t produce any sound. The sound of your guitar must only be produced once you are moving the plectrum all over the strings. 

One side of the strings is thin while the other one is thicker, practice on your guitar by gently moving your hand from the thicker side of the string to the thinner one. Although during the initial stages, rhythms produced would be rough but don’t worry about it. As you are only learning to hold the plectrum in the right way. There is a lot of time for learning guitar but prior to that, practicing is the most important thing that you need to do. 

As this is the starting phase, try to practice as much as possible. As practicing will not only make your hand steady but it will also help you in maintaining your physical strength. The more your practice, the better you will be at playing guitar.

All successful guitarists need to play for hours in front of their audience and a person is only able to do that if he has done enough practicing.

So, in case you are taking more time trying to hold the guitar plectrum in the right way, tune the string or adjust the strap, don't worry about it. As all the great guitar players have started from this exact step so just polish your skills and you too will be an amazing guitarist really soon.

Note: There are many annoying things in life, but there’s nothing more annoying than losing a guitar pick you just had in your hand, and then realize that it has disappeared forever! - 4 Tips To Not Lose Your Guitar Picks

The Guitar Picks We Use Impact How We Play

If your hands do an arduous job, then you must give them the right tools, right?

The material with which it is made can influence the definition of tone, attack, and flexibility. Therefore, without paying attention to it, you could hardly find your personal sound.

Are you curious about the materials used for the Rombo guitar picks?

Read a full article about it here:

https://rombopicks.com/blogs/insight-rombo/guitar-pick-materials-at-rombo

Guitar picks can really be made out of anything. In the past, some exotic materials were used to produce guitar picks.

The technological wave that came with highly specialized polymers created a new era of materials with amazing properties.

How The Material Of A Guitar Pick Influences Your Playing

The material of a guitar pick is strictly connected to its flexibility and tone. It is hard to imagine that such a small piece can have a big impact on playability.

However, you will clearly notice some sound differences when testing a couple of different guitar picks.

Luckily, these small useful gems are the cheapest guitar accessory you can acquire, allowing you to test many guitar pick models.

The Constant Search For The Perfect Tone

When it comes to guitar picks, changing the properties of a material is not an easy task.

Flexible guitar pick materials:

Flexible guitar pick materials can create mellow and warm tones when using specific guitar techniques. However, they can also achieve brighter tones when holding the pick very closely to the pointy tip or “attack area”. This is the reason they have been the go-to choice for guitarists for decades.

Stiff guitar pick materials:

Stiff guitar pick materials can create a snappier, bright tone that can be very delightful, provide more volume and more clarity to your chords and solo notes. These picks are often used for more specific guitar techniques by lead guitarists.

Material Isn't Everything

Thickness, shape and size will play an important role too!

Flexible guitar pick materials can create mellow, warm tones. However, when using plectrum thicknesses over 1 mm, the tone will get darker and heavier. This can be used to create the feeling of having more “bass” in your instrument. The same effect happens with the size. The more material you have, the heavier the sound will be.

We have a guide to find your guitar pick HERE. You will learn how these 4 attributes (material, shape, size, and thickness) are connected.

Finding The Materials For Rombo Guitar Picks:

Every guitarist has different preferences. Throughout our development, we have involved as many professional guitarists as possible, and asked them to define how their perfect material should feel.

We came to the following conclusions. The guitar pick material should:

• feel nice to the touch and be comfortable, yet provide grip
• be able to create clear tones, without compromising the bass tones
• be very versatile: feel flexible when thin and feel stiff when thick
• be durable
• look nice

With these premises, we started our long journey: the search for a suitable material.

After lots of tests, feedback rounds and sending dozens of pick prototypes around the globe to our guitar pick testers, we think we`ve found it!

Guitar Pick Materials At Rombo

We are using a thermoplastic polymer that belongs to the family of the polyamides. This material is used in aerospace and automobile industries and has the following properties:

• High-mechanical strength
• Versatile (rigid or flexible -depending on the treatment and thickness)
• Excellent impact resistance (guitar strings)
• Superior aesthetic properties
• Medium / low friction

The raw material we use is produced in Italy. We have worked very closely with our material partner to accomplish every requirement we had, including the 100% recycled material of the EcoBlack sets.

We believe we have achieved an excellent balance between, sound, comfort, aesthetic properties, and durability.

Combined with well-thought ergonomic designs, different textures, and very good quality control of the process, this material can accomplish all 5 premises we defined above.

Eco-Black Range: 100% Recycled Guitar Picks

We are also experimenting with recycled materials. In our “ECO-Black" range, we offer the same material formula, but use 100% recycled material from pre-consumer waste.

In this product range, the guitar picks are only available in Graphite Black. Currently, this is the only color we can produce when using this compound.

In addition, during compound manufacturing, there are 90% less emissions, 65% energy reduction, and a 61% reduction of total resources.

We will continue our hard work in this area and someday in the future, we will be able to create colored guitar picks out of this material. When this day comes, all of our guitar picks will be 100% recycled.

Read more about the Eco-Black range and the recycled guitar picks in our article "ROMBO Unveils New “Eco-Black Range Guitar Pick Models".

Conclusion:

Finding a material you feel comfortable with is not an easy task, but you will have lots of fun along the way.

We believe material development is fundamental to ensure a future of plenty of functional, good-looking and environmentally friendly materials.

Did you find this information useful?

Share this article with friends to help us with our mission: vote for development, for the implementation of new ideas and for questioning deep-rooted standards to find something better.⁣

Thank you!