First of all sorry for my bad English. I’ve been following your course for the past few months and I decided to not use a pick. Now I’m stuck in this lesson. How do I practice alternate picking without a pick. Please help me…
Welcome to the group btw.
Why not use a pick, you really do need a pick, its requested in so many lessons, start with the soft pick to get used to them. ! ?
R.
Hello,
I’m a little confused. If you have decided to forgo using a pick, why do you need to practice alternate picking?
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Actually I started learning guitar offline and my offline teacher suggest me to not use a pick because at some point we all need to learn finger style picking and it’s better to stick with one style. That’s why I stick with finger style even after I stopped offline classes.
I don’t know, I thought it is a mandatory lesson.
AT SOME POINT ! yes, but finger picking starts AFTER pick usage in these tutorials.
so, unless you mean to only EVER use fingerstyle then you can skip the alternate picking.
So the question is, do you only intend to use finger picking, if that is a NO, get a beginner pick.
R
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So you are suggesting me to start use a pick.Do I need to start over the course with a pick?
https://www.justinguitar.com/modules/before-you-begin-guitar-basics
I think just follow the instructions, this is the info in the introductions to grade 1. !
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Everything in this sentence is wrong 
Many accomplished guitarists don’t play fingerstyle at all. Many are great at both fingerstyle and playing with a pick. (And of course many play only fingerstyle).
If you’re interested in also learning to play with a pick, I wouldn’t necessarily start over, but I would go back and go over the lessons about strumming. See if you can re-do those, playing with a pick.
Lots of beginners avoid the pick because “it doesn’t feel natural”. That’s another way of saying it’s hard, which it is, compared to strumming with the fingers. But, I think it’s worth it to learn how to play with a pick, even if you end up playing mostly fingerstyle (like me).
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Thank you for explaining this to me. I’m on it sergeant 
Welcome to the Community, Goutham! You’ve gotten great responses here. I’m currently in Grade 3. My thoughts go like this: I want to become a competent guitar player. That means being able to use many techniques, even some that I think I’ll never use. I skipped a couple techniques in Grade 2, only to go back and learn them. We can specialize later!!! Keep us posted on your progress, and keep asking questions!
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Goutham, that may be true if you are training to become a professional classical guitarist, but most acoustic guitar methods teach both plectrum (pick) and fingerstyle. I enjoying learning both techniques. You will need to play with a pick if you want to play sing-a-longs for large groups to achieve enough volume.
If you want to use the classical guitar version of alternate picking, pick the string alternating between your first and second finger (index and middle) to pick the notes. I think some bass players also use that technique.
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I would suggest that this then a question for that teacher. But if you don’t want to use a pick, then alternate thumb and index finger. Thumb down Index up. Simples.
First of all sorry for the late replay. Thank you so much for spending your valuable time to help me. I have already started to play with pick and iam enjoying it 
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I have a question since now, I have been holding my pick a bit differently. I do have the thumb as supposed to but I am not holding it simply with the thumb and my first finger, but also with the third. Is this a problem. It feels extremely uncomfortable just holding it between thumb and first finger for me…
If you keep holding the pick using first & third fingers plus the thumb, you won’t be able to do “hybrid picking” later. Hybrid picking combines using a pick and finger-picking with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers.
I can’t imagine how using the fingers you describe to be comfortable. Could you post a picture of your hand holding the pick the way you describe? This may help us better provide feedback.
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Hey all : -)
This lesson has been an eyeopener for me 
I have been doing my picking always flat. Just now I realized how much smother it is with an Angle! Guess I never thought much about the pick and how to Angle it in the first place:flushed_face:
Jep same here, wish somebody told me this way sooner:zany_face: Thanks Justin:partying_face:
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Thank you so much for this tutorial! I kept struggling with picking since i was picking flat and when I first heard about holding my pick at an angle it didn’t make sense to me. I thought that after an downstroke i had to reangle it for the upstroke so i kept it flat because it was werid. Now after seeing your video it all clicked for me when I noticed you just kept the same angle for both the downstroke and upstroke. I don’t know why I didn’t just try that. Thanks again!