Pick Thickness

Lewy

ditchboy said:

Lewy said:

octatonic said:

ditchboy said:

Genuinely can’t understand how you’re able to use a pick that thick for strumming. I’ve tried and it sounds awful and I can’t control it. Maybe my shoddy technique. I’ve just invested in some snarling dog brains picks .6mm. They are great for strumming. 

Practice.

Exactly this. Thin picks can sound nice if you want that unobtrusive pop strumming sound but then you've got nowhere to go dynamically or technically from there. If you find the sweet spot of relaxation and control in your picking hand so you can strum with a thick pick, you can then punch out bass notes and single note runs as well. For the average player I'd say it's not more than a few weeks investment in focused practice and you'll have it.

Trust me I've tried, I've had lessons where I have asked the instructor just to look at strumming etc and I'm still shite at it. I've had to compromise by using picks around .6-.88m as a work around. Don't think I've ever found a nice pick which is both thick and grooved like the dunlop max grip ones either. 

Wegen Bluegrass picks are thick an have grip holes which might suit.

I'm not entirely surprised that your guitar teacher couldn't move you on because acoustic flatpicking is a specialised thing and teh average general guitarist or guitar teacher doesn't understand it at all - they just think there are two things you an do on an acoustic - fingerpicking, and "strumming" a.k.a. flailing away like some sort of hippie chimpanzee. 

Look at how Bryan Sutton does it here, especially how he's moving his picking hand, angle, relaxation etc. It doesn't matter if you love or hate bluegrass...this is how it's done:

Lewy

And check out Chris Eldridge here....