When it comes to holding a guitar pick, the bad news is that there is no single right way to do it. The good news is that there are lots of right ways.

As with everything in picking technique, this multiplicity of correctness is actually the greatest challenge. With so many combinations of contact points and orientations that actually work, it can be hard to know which one to choose.

In this section, we’re going to make that choice easy. The first lesson, “Choosing A Pick Grip”, we’ll give you a quick overview of three of the most common grips in popular use, as well as a few pointers about less common grips used by famous players. Any of these grips can work well as a starting point, so at minimum, this single video is all you need to watch on this subject.

For a more detailed overview of how pick grip works, you can check out the following section, “Understanding Pick Grip”. In this sequence of lessons, we’ll answer common questions about how much pick should be showing in your grip, which way it should be pointing, and what to do with your other fingers. If you’re comfortable with the grip you chose in the first lesson, feel free to skip this lesson sequence for now and head straight to the motion tests in the next section.