Pick grass is a basic picking technique that is absolutely indispensable to guitar players especially
in the beginning but understanding the foundations of it will really truly help make you aware of the
guitar while you're playing.
Unlike just about any exercise will do.
And unfortunately this exercise is not taught by a lot of guitar teachers probably because they think
it's so simple but yet it's such a necessary part.
Not only is it not really very simple in the beginning for beginners but it's absolutely crucial to
understanding how to approach the string so we're going to cover that.
OK.
Now the idea of picking the strings may seem very natural and very easy.
I'm sure you've done it you've taken a pick and you've got the strings to some degree before and that's
great.
But in this case here what we're doing with the pick rest is we're doing more of a controlled type of
pick and you're going to see that you may have a little bit of an issue with this because I've seen
many other students have issues with it and because of that.
That's good news if you end up having an issue with it.
That's great news.
If you don't have an issue with it that's great news to them then.
Then this will be very easy for you but for folks that have a problem with the pick rest what that means
is we are we are ready tackling technique in getting to something that's going to make you a superior
player.
Literally just because of this.
OK.
Now here's the deal.
Usually when people go to pick a string they'll kind of whack at it like this.
Or sometimes they'll pick up or they'll use their thumb.
What have you we're going to use a pick.
And hopefully throughout the program here you're going to use a pick as well.
You don't have to but it will really help with the volume of the guitar and it will help with your tone.
OK.
Because if you use your finger your finger fingertips without using the nails it tends to dull the sound
a little bit.
Most pros don't do that don't do that.
There's a handful of guitar players over the many many years that have done that.
Obviously if you have nails or some sort of fingerpicks or some you can you can also fingerpick but
just using the fingers themselves is not very common.
Not so you can't do it but hopefully you're using a PIC for this exercise.
OK.
And even if you're planning on on doing mainly fingerpicking I would suggest that you use a pick as
well.
Get good at both.
It's important to do both.
To be a versatile player and there's times where you're really going to need to do it and there's times
where you'll probably want to do fingerpicking but make sure that you that you at least do this exercise
and understand how to use a pick.
OK.
So the ideas were you know obviously you know how to use a pick and that you can just kind of hit the
strings.
But we're going to do something more controlled.
And it's going to go like this.
Basically you're going to take your pick and you're going to place it you're going to rest it on the
second string.
OK.
Now instead of just kind of picking out like this away from the guitar or picking up basically I'm coming
up at an angle instead of just straight down or up.
I'm kind of coming away from the guitar and that's how a lot of people pick a lot of time to pluck away
like that.
But what we want to do is we want to pluck straight down to where we pick the pick actually rests.
So watch this.
So I'm picking and I'm letting to pick automatically slip off of the second string.
So it's I'm applying pressure right now and I'm kind of pulling away just a little bit so that the tip
of the pick will slip off of that string producing a sound for that second string and then letting the
pick fall where it may.
In this case I'm kind of holding the pick at an angle maybe a 45 degree angle.
It is not exact science here as long as it's at an angle so that the pick naturally rests on that first
string.
That's what we're looking for.
You're missing it sometimes.
Go ahead and try to do a more a steeper angle.
OK.
Just like that.
And then what I want you to do is I want you to go through each string.
Doing this.
So obviously the first thing we don't have a string to rest on.
So you don't have to do that.
So start at the second string and the idea is here is you're not trying to do this really super fast
you're just really trying to observe what you really want you to do is just take your time to look and
observe with your eyes with your ears field.
So the tactile feel of what that feels like for the pic to hit that next string.
You can feel it resting.
Hopefully when it's going to do for you is going to take a lot of obligation of this hand to stay in
control.
It's going to take that away where you don't have to do it because of pick rest is a technique that
once developed really well allows you to not have to think lets you go on autopilot with your picking
to where you don't have to be concerned with.
Am I going to get run into another strain.
You're not going to because you're using this thing this picking technique.
OK.
Once you do the second string I want you to go to the third string and practice that a bit.
How much just do it to where it feels comfortable to where you're not making mistakes while doing it
OK.
You don't have to spend hours doing this.
If you were to spend a solid five or ten minutes doing this with really concentrated effort it would
probably get the job done.
OK.
And you're going to do all the strings.
Good good we're going to find yourself.
OK.
Then now here's where it starts getting more interesting.
Now what I want you to do is do two strings at a time and then you do three strings four strings and
five strings.
So here's how it's going to be different in this case here.
I'm going to pick strings three into
the object here is that you want to pick both strings.
So it has somewhat of a one sound.
We were were trying to stay away from this sound
but we hear the notes individually.
More guilty for
then you're going to notice that this starts becoming a little bit more difficult.
When we start adding this second strain on when we add two strings or add a second string to the first
string.
Ok so you're going to start noticing this.
And when you do that's good because it's going to make you more keen.
It's going to make you more aware like oh wow I'm over shooting that or I'm getting that sound that
Eric was talking about.
Getting that sound I don't want to I want to have more of a solid.
If you start doing that and you find that you're getting that third string.
Well then what you do is you need to compensate.
You need to adjust and that means either you're going to be lighter with your touch or you're going
to be at more of an angle.
Nonetheless whenever you're doing this this is great news because you're getting your technique adjusted
OK.
This is basically like you're you're tweaking the knobs of an amplifier or something to get the sound
just right but you're doing this with your picking technique.
And guess what.
When it comes to playing guitar picking is half of the game is half the battle right.
Fretting is the other half of the battle.
Obviously we've got the theoretical knowledge we need to know what's going on.
But in regards to actually playing the guitar actually physically doing something 50 percent 50 percent.
OK.
So absolutely crucial that you understand how to do this and that this feels good to you because it's
going to absolutely make such a huge difference when you're doing any sort of picking strumming or anything.
OK.
So you can do the two strings until that feels comfortable.
Now you notice I've got my fingers kind of tucked underneath that first string.
Totally acceptable to do that.
You don't have to do it.
You want to rest your fingers on the chord like that on the face of the guitar you do that on the top
the guitar totally fine if you do that or if you want to just have your hand kind of floating in the
air.
You can do that as well.
Now most people will find that that's a little harder because you don't have a pivot point you don't
have an anchor or something to hold down to make that sound better.
OK.
They you notice just now I did it two notes and so I adjusted my technique right away.
Now this is something that I don't practice anymore.
In fact you just have to over some time but right in the beginning absolutely super important.
OK.
So you're going to do two strings than three strings and remember whatever you do in this exercise there
has to be a string to rest on.
Every single time.
So for the two you know you're going to have three to four and three five five and four six and five
which you will do one and two and then you'll do three strings four strings and five strings.
OK I want to six strings.
We don't have a place to rest after that.
But the point of this is that you really want to get it's going to get you light with your touch in
regards to picking and it's just going to be just the right amount.
Really what we're looking for when we're playing guitar both left and right hand as we're looking for
just the right amount.
OK.
It's not too much that we're that we're pressing down it's not too hard that we're picking it's not
too light that we're fretting not to like that we're picking It's just the right amount.
And this is how you're going to learn that in regards to your picking.
All right.
So you know what your homework is.
Do this with one string two strings three strings four strings and five strings.
Take your time with this.
The more that you concentrate the more that you just kind of rest in your playing and really have fun
with this and with each lesson that you go through you just take your time and enjoy the ride if you
do that you're you're going to be an absolutely exceptional guitar player if you're always trying to
get to that place that you're not at yet is going to be very frustrating because I've been playing for
over 30 years now and I'm still not at the place that I want to be at.
But I don't think about it like that anymore.
I used to and it would frustrate me very much anymore.
I really just enjoy the process.
Some plan I see that I'm becoming a better player even 30 over 30 years later.
I see that I'm becoming a better player always getting better as long as I'm practicing and I put it
down I can see me slipping backwards in regard to my technique.
I still got it up here but the technique.
So you always have to practice.
So make sure that you do these exercises before the next video.
And let's keep going.