Off Topic SM 3 finger pick grip

[cionian]

I'm relearning picking from the traditional grip and am having some trouble with speed, specially on the higher strings.

Pros - way better string skipping, muting, low string riffing and tone..
Cons - articulation, speed.

I've watched/analyzed tons of Steve clips/tutes and as far as I can tell, his upper arm is stiff but his wrist is fairly relaxed..can't tell how hard he holds the pick though. Of course, he makes it look effortless!

Does anyone here hold/switched to holding their pick this way?..care to share any insight?

 

[joe web]

for normal rhythm playing and mid-tempo soli i´m holding it with three fingers, kinda morse like, but if i need some up-tempo lines i switch to the classic two finger holding.

if i remember right, steve said on a clinic, that his way of holding the pick is not so quick in the end as the "traditional" grip.

as everything else, to get faster, you´ll have to practice more often. don´t forget, SM is a pro, just like JP and all these other great guitarplayers. they play 8 hours a day, just like we go to work 8 hours a day.

 

[cionian]

Hi Joe, figured you'd reply That's what I've experienced as well and atm I also switch between the grips but I don't like the noticeable tone change (I use only delay in the loop so it's very noticeable) and also I've noticed that my conceptualisation of the fret-board changes as I switch to traditional (from vertical to linear lines if that makes sense) which I'm trying to get away from.

 

[Cleptric]

When I started to play E-Guitar, I holded the pick with 3 Fingers, but mostly with my thumb and middle finger. That works well until I joined my first Band. We played Metal and I was way to slow so I switched to the classic way of holding the pick. Since them I only use the 3 finger grip when I do volume swells. The funny thing is that I cant sweep pick fast, I'm a way faster when I do Alternate picking oO

 

[cionian]

When I started to play E-Guitar, I holded the pick with 3 Fingers, but mostly with my thumb and middle finger. That works well until I joined my first Band. We played Metal and I was way to slow so I switched to the classic way of holding the pick. Since them I only use the 3 finger grip when I do volume swells. The funny thing is that I cant sweep pick fast, I'm a way faster when I do Alternate picking oO

As a matter of course, I too have held the pick this way when doing faster runs..the advantage is that it's easy to combine the two depending on what you're doing..I'm experimenting with this atm. The other option which I think works quite well is retaining the three finger hold exclusively and using the entire arm during the faster scalar runs..this seems quite effective as well. Since I've started to use more and more string skipping lines, I'm finding the traditional approach quite limiting where as the 3 finger grip is limiting in the fast stuff, maybe this hybrid approach is the key? It's fun to experiment as you do learn from each approach..for example, by switching I've noticed that I've started to pay more attention to note choice with respect to the underlying chords.