acoustic guitar

[jakey365]

do you need to use a pick / plectrum for playing an acoustic guitar?

im an ameteur wanting to learn and wouldnt know.

thanks.

[Dr Wu]

It's a question of personal preference really.

You get a much brighter sound with more attack if you use a plecky. But it's also useful to develop a basic fingerpicking style too.

There's no right answer but I'd say to begin with the plectrum while you're learning basic chords and how to put them together and then begin to experiment with picking.

Try to find simple songs that you like with 3 or 4 open chords in them (you will be amazed at how many songs you can get away with with G C A D Em !!) to practice on so it doesn't get too boring.

There's loads of sites on the net with the chords for popular songs if you just google say, oasis guitar tab or Travis guitar tab. Those sites are also a good place to begin to read simple guitar tabalature.

Good luck!

[Miss-taken]

As a fellow amateur (I've been learning for just over 2 months) I use a pick as I find it much easier and it also sounds a lot better. I find it quite difficult to strike all the strings using my hand and also its a bit too quiet :o)

[futurama4]

It's all good advise so far but try growing your nails. I hate using a pick and have developed a style when struming using my thumb and first finger like I was holding a pick.
This gives a good balance of volume and attack.
It also means your hand is near the strings for damping if required and makes picking easy in quite sections of some songs. Down side of this is breaking a nail!