They don’t call them Max Grips for nothing. 
Hi, just got back in continuing justin’s courses. Just been going around his lessons for a review from the start in order not to miss some things until I reach some lessons that I find challenging but I stumbled upon this. I’m not totally a beginner with picks but I didn’t actually started with thin picks before as I receive a heavy pick the first time I started using a pick, now I got some thin picks but it just seems easy for me now so I decided to just stick with my dunlop 1.5 mm picks as I’m also in my guitar journey where I do a lot of picking already. My only problem is, I started to realize that this is something that I lack of, I’m not that actually good with thicker picks when it comes to strumming, well yes I can comfortably use it if the tempo is not that fast or moderate but when it starts to get quicker, let’s say around 120 or more it starts to get uncomfortable and the pick starts to move, should I try this out which justin suggested to build my way up from thinner picks or should I just keep going hoping it will feel natural with practice and time. I Hope someone from the moderators could help or anyone from here, any suggestion is appreciated.
Hi Neil, I’m no expert, but here are some things I think I understand: Lighter picks are suggested for beginners. I suppose that’s because beginners are often mostly strumming, and when picking single strings are still learning to manage the pick in their fingers. Leaving skill level aside, generally light to medium (up to about 0.84mm) are good for strumming, heavy (0.84 and up) are good for lead. Many folks feel a medium pick (0.61-0.84mm) is a good all-around pick, flexible enough strumming and stiff enough for lead. Personally, I’ve never used above a medium pick so far, but I’m only two years into this journey. Picks are cheap - maybe get an assortment and play around with various thicknesses and materials (which is another topic entirely!)
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I just received my ‘orange Dunlop picks’ a few days ago and now everything has stopped working for me! The new pick is sliding around like crazy and this is messing with my brain and making my fret hand forget what to do. Wow! I didn’t expect to be so thrown by this! I switched back to my ‘white’ pick and everything felt immediately better. I have a few other heavier picks, a .71mm Wingo and a Fender Thin (whatever that means) and I do better with both of those. This new orange one feels very slippery, like its got some silicon in it but it’s not just that. I think the thinner picks let me get away with a bit more sloppyness and the the thicker one is less forgiving and forcing me to be more precise. It’s definately a challenge but I’ve decided that this pick must be part of my learning journey and I’m going to give it some time and love to see if I can get it working.
Hi Karen @Kmdeleon, welcome to the community! Fellow beginner here (I’m assuming you’re a beginner since you’re struggling with picks 
). Many of us have gone through this. It seems picks are very personal, but I’ll share my experiences.
First - I’ve noticed my relationship to the pick changes. My skin tends to be dry, especially in winter, and my fingers are sometimes not as warm as I’d like. I’ve correlated that with picks slipping. On the other hand, some days it’s cozy in my practice room, and I guess my warmer fingers sweat a bit? Anyway on those days picks slip less. Not saying you’ll have this experience, just that our own physiology, as well as the environment, can impact things. Second - over time - at least a year - I’ve found I have less difficulty controlling the pick.
I’ve collected a bunch of picks for different circumstances. When I’m having a slippy day, I use the gray Dunlop Nylon (I like .60mm). They are textured, and really easy to hold. I also have several Tortex picks that I do use from time to time. My current fav, though, is the old-school Dunlop Celluloid Shell pick in medium. Honestly, I think I just like how they look. I’ve noticed with these picks that placing the logo against my index finger helps keep it in place. That’s counter-intuitive to me (more fleshy surface area on my thumb) but it seems to work - or maybe it’s just the placebo effect at work!
Anyway, don’t despair, this will get better with time and practice. In the meantime buy a bunch of different picks. They’re cheap! Dunlop have a light/medium variety pack with 12 picks for less than $10.
Now - if you’re up for it, head over to this page and tell us a bit about yourself!
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Judi @judi
You make an interesting point about moisture on your fingers. I moved over to the orange tortex picks a couple of months ago, which are very smooth. I had a few false starts with these before as I couldn’t control them very well. Getting on much better now but occasionally like today was having some problems so I decided to lick my fingers and found the pick hardly moved at all when strumming. Might be just a coincidence but it reminded me of back in the day when bank cashiers counted notes by hand they had a damp sponge in tray and dampened their fingers. Also most people if sorting through sheets of paper will lick there fingers, I certainly do. Ok might not be very hygienic but if it works it works.
Michael
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Hi Karen,
It took me until strumming was clean before a stiffer pick felt right and stopped rotating in my grip. My thought was it had to do with the direction of the strum, angle of pick, stiffness of the strings, and stiffness of my grip. Persevere through those a bit and you will find strumming just works right and they won’t be a problem. I suggest you use them for at least a few minutes a day before you go back to the floppy one.
One issue with the super soft pick is that you don’t really have good feedback that your technique is off a bit. I even used a 2.0 super stiff “gloss” pick for strumming to help me get the movement cleaned up a bit better once I had the orange working. I can strum with it, but don’t really like to. I used the orange for probably 18 months before starting to really want a slightly stiffer pick and am now using Ultex .73, but this is for a lot of individual string picking along with general use.
I found I didn’t like the nylon. They felt too soft of a connection to the strings. Lots of folks like them, so worth examining to see if they are for you.
The recommendation to get a variety pack (I got two to cover most variations) was a lot of fun to try out and gave the chance to try smaller variations than just 2 picks would. Dunlop has 3 variety packs, and I think the Dunlop LT/MD is a great option to try out some stiffer picks than the nylon. There is also an Acoustic Variety Pack that will better suit the stiffer strings of an acoustic.
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Michael, I’m glad you mentioned licking your fingers. I’ve done that as well!
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Thanks for your advice, Judi. I guess I needed to read up about the material these picks are made of. The .71 that I have seems to be a celluloid material and for some reason I can grip it better. Anyway, based on your advice I have ordered a few more types. I still think I need to keep trying with the orange tortex though, there’s something about it when I get it right that’s intriguing.
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Hi Sequences,
Thanks for the great explaination. After reading through your comments and Judi’s and thinking over what’s happening, I beleive my stumming needs more work all around. I think, as you indicated, the thin pick doesn’t provide the right feedback and the thicker pick demands better technique. I’ve also noticed that I’m pushing the pick way too far into the strings and that a lighter touch seems to help. Also, most of the pick movement is happening on the up strum. I suspect this has something to do with the pick angle as you said. I’ll play around with it to see if I can figure it out. This will take some work but I’ll stick with it so I can improve.
I really appreciate all the encouragement. It’s good to know that it’s not just me and also of how you were able to overcome the issues with time. I’ve ordered some additional picks to see if any of these help with my grip issues.
@MAT1953 I love this tip! I just tried it and it certainly helped! I woudn’t have thought of this on my own to be sure. @judi was right in suggesting that moisture was part of the issue. Thanks again Judi!
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That is perfect! You will do that a lot! 
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I have Zager guitar. I love it. When I bought the guitar it came with a bunch of Zager picks. Zager picks are nice because they have four holes in the pick that fit perfectly over the tuning pegs on the head of the guitar. I always keep a couple of spares up there. The holes also make them easier to hold with our gripping too hard.