Joscho Stephan hides his pick in his right hand

BluesBop Harry · March 2009

I think he's "palming" the pick, lightly holding it in the center of your palm you can make it stay there, takes a little practice but works and frees all the fingers, it would be difficult to keep it there for extended periods though.

spinality · March 2009

The light dawns. That must be it. Since I use little picks, this doesn't work well for me, and I had ruled it out as an explanation. Thanks for the great illustration! I'll start experimenting with this more seriously, and maybe I can make it work reliably after all.

BluesBop Harry · March 2009

It can be done with little picks too! (Little stubby in the pic).
Just takes some practice, try carrying your pick around all day and work at palming and then switching to the normal grip and back (pretty hard), you can try playing with one pick while palming another one too.
I hope it works out for you.

frater · March 2009

Next step you're doing magic tricks with ping pong balls!

P.S.

Another route you could go: play with a pick AND with fingers, Tommy Emmanuel's style (not so difficult as it seems...and it's a very flexible technique, ranging from Albert Lee to Bill Frisell...)

spinality · March 2009

Heh heh. Or flipping quarters along my knuckles. My little mandolin picks are going to be tough, but I will work on it. They do OK when I catch them vertically, but horizontally they sure slide out easily.

Pick and fingers is always an option, and that's what I mostly do today. (Chuck Wayne advocated this since the fifties, by the way.) But pick-and-fingers is a compromise -- the rotated right hand position prevents normal classical guitar finger movement, and the short pinky just doesn't have what it takes. And as Tommy points out, harmonics aren't as smooth and natural as using the thumb.

Thanks for the suggestions.

frater · March 2009

spinality wrote:

the rotated right hand position prevents normal classical guitar finger movement, and the short pinky just doesn't have what it takes. And as Tommy points out, harmonics aren't as smooth and natural as using the thumb.

Yeah, it's more difficult but as Tommy proved, it's very hard to tell the difference once you've mastered the technique. The "palmed pick" thing is a much more awkward position for your right hand IMO...

Oh, and you don't have to use the pinky. Just put a golden ring on it and the gypsy mojo will flow!

richdaigle · September 2009

This is the way i do it, you lose some articulation with the second finger but I rarely drop a pick
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Buco · September 2009

I asked Joscho about this when I saw him this summer at Chat Atkins conference in Nashville and he said he holds it with his pinky and middle fingers. He liked the variety of answers I mentioned appeared in this post thou.

noize · September 2009

If you watch the Masterclass video of Stochelo playing "For Sephora" you can see him clipping his pick with his index finger, and finger picking with his middle, ring and pinky fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycNGSXhclY