Edge Picking Guitar Technique

As guitarists it seems impossible to shift our attention from our fretting hand...it's where the really high stakes are played out: if you play the wrong notes, you're toast!

But ultimately we must return our focus to the picking hand in order to make sure we have a good, reliable core picking technique on which to build all future improvements.

00:00 Thesis
00:50 Introduction
03:00 Lesson
07:48 Wrap Up

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Thanks for watching!
Chris

[GigaBrowser]

I've been having so much trouble with some parts of the solo in "Do it again" by steely dan and this video just came out of nowhere and turned my entire playing about 30 degrees. Thanks for all of your epic knowledge chris I freaking love you

[kerryfromaj]

I joined up on Patreon a couple months ago.
Probably one of the best resources for learning guitar.
Theory and technique has progressed daily.

[akinkent]

Hi Chris it took me 4 years to figure this picking technique out
So pleased you explained this picking technique lesson
Wow simply one of the best guitar guitar teachers on the net.
Thanks again another informative lesson

[mattprince]

I like the front edge picking technique, rotating the pick inwards towards the strings. Path of least resistance is the best path there for certain.

[Jake]

Crazy how something so simple is so useful

[karthain]

I started doing this on my own naturally just because it felt right. No one ever told me this. It is nice to see that I figured out how to do something the right way. Or at the very least the way I should do something.

[mattprince]

This video has saved my hand, Bro! After a severe strain at the base of my thumb on my picking hand, I’ve been able to start picking a little more with this edge picking idea. I’ve also been using a thumb pick for a little extra leverage. Peace!

[NoBody-meme]

I started using this technique because I found it easier, I didn't know it was a thing...I thought it was wrong, THANKS Chris, that's my technique now.

[josephgraham]

I'm much farther down the road of playing guitar then this video, but I'm no pro. I can hold it down until someone better comes along. I can sit in with them and play guitar or bass guitar.
I just seen you on Marty's video. I've been playing guitar and bass guitar for 27 years. I don't use a pick on a bass guitar, but do when I'm playing a guitar. I need to look more deeper into your videos. I've been teaching a few beginners to intermediate players. I'm a lot better bass player than guitarists but I do know what I'm playing and how to show someone how to play. Then help them understand what they just played.
Thanks for your time Chris!
Blessings and Aloha from Maui, Hi.
Mahalo,
Joe Graham

[riffcodger]

Just finished watching your major scale lesson on marty's . Thanks. It was a Damascus road job. Precisely what I needed. All the lights came on .. at last.

[joycegrove]

Wonderful lesson! As a "lockdown learner" this is the first opportunity to be shown properly, zoomed up close, how to handle a pick effectively! Thank you! :)

[sandwichassassin]

Thanks for this video. I formed a bad habit of not using a pick when I played but recently I've been trying to force myself to use one. This helped tremendously

[mattprince]

Hey Chris! This video was crazy good for me. I recently injured the muscle or maybe the nerve at the base of my thumb. Haven’t been able to play with a pick for the last week because there’s no strength there. After one week, I’m able to pick with a thumb pick using my other fingers as leverage. On the plus side, I’m getting better at finger picking 👍

[Dave-gfkd]

Great Chris! I have been playing the solo for Pure Praire League's Amie for quite a few years....there is one little part I've never been satisfied with...this video might solve that problem for me. Love the right hand focus...haven't found much of that anywhere....

[bryvale]

Such a simple change but what a difference! Would love to see more technique videos. BTW, the video production value is looking really sharp!

[scottkidwellmusic]

Good lesson this morning!
I'll have to look at my picking hand playing when I get home from work...

[JCFern]

Luckily I already tend to edge-pick by default. Very early on when I began learning guitar, I discovered that angling the pick made it a LOT easier to “slice” through the string rather than trying to “slap” the pick flat-faced back and forth across the string.

Now, the “slice” vs “slap” techniques DO produce quite a different sound/tone from each other. In particular, on the lower(wound strings) the angled pick “slice” makes a scratchy/swooshy sound that may or may not be to everyone’s taste. One of my biggest inspirations, Paul Gilbert, absolutely loves that scratchy sound so much, he even uses pretty thin picks on top of an angled edge pick attack to get as much of that “schwush” sound as he can get. Of course, other guitar players might hate that scratchy sound, and resort to flat picking, or at the very least use a thick pick with softly rounded edges to keep that scratchy sound down.

While most beginner guitarists will tend to focus on fret-hand technique(and understandably so, I did too…), picking ideas, concepts and techniques can arguably be a deep-dive discussion in it’s own right.

Now… Developing bomb-proof two-hand synchronicity, where crazy fret-hand acrobatics are perfectly fused with precision picking chops? That’s been my personal Holy Grail of technique…

[joeym.delgado]

Thank you for this. So helpful! Wondering if you would make a lesson on hybrid picking.

[mattprince]

So far since I’ve been experimenting with the edges, I definitely prefer the trailing edge. Ninety-Nine percent of the time, I play standing up. Seems to be natural and ergonomic for me anyway. It takes pressure off both my right shoulder and the tendon at the base of my thumb. Thanks Bro!

[tone-glide]

just finished working out the solo to "highway star" by Deep purple and this technique is exactly what you need to use in order to execute the ending run of that solo up the fretboard!! .., were you reading my mind? Great stuff!!