An Important Acoustic Guitar Lesson: Use A Pick Or Not?

The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments in the world. Whether you're a child or adult and regardless of whether you have previous experience with a musical instrument or not, you can learn to play the acoustic guitar in no time at all. If you're just getting started with the guitar, the best idea is to take lessons. One is to figure out whether or not you want to use a guitar pick for playing.


One important step is to decide whether or not to use a pick when playing the guitar. You see some guitarists using picks and others not, so which way is better? There are different styles of guitar playing and the sound of a guitar will change depending on the pick used. Flamenco guitarists for instance will rarely use picks because it does not produce a sound suitable for their style of music.


On the other hand if you want to play fast leads or scales you're going to want to use a pick because you wouldn't be able to do so with just fingertips or hard fingernails because it would hurt your fingers. You're basically more limited if you're not using a pick. In the basic acoustic guitar lesson your teacher will show you how to play the guitar using a pick, because a good teacher wants their student to have as many options as possible. The sound is much sharper when using a pick and again more than anything it depends on the speed you'll be playing the guitar at.


Strumming slow acoustic songs is fine without a pick. There are actually steps to choosing the right pick for playing guitar, something that would be covered in any basic acoustic guitar lesson. Picks come in a variety of sizes and styles. Common materials for picks include plastic, nylon and tortex.


The size of your pick will have a great impact on how it sounds. If you're just getting started with playing the guitar it's best to stick to a larger pick as it will be easier for you to handle. This is why guitarists like Carlos Santana use one of the smallest picks, to get the lightest, most mandolin-like sound. Taking an acoustic guitar lesson will teach you all of these basics as well as more complex instructions on playing the guitar.