Slippery picks are one of the most common annoying issues guitar players have to deal with when playing. Guitar picks are supposed to ease and enhance the guitar playing experience, but that’s impossible when you cannot keep the pick in your hand long enough to get through a song. Fortunately, there are various solutions you can employ to address this problem, including some crafty DIY hacks.
Here are 16 ways to fix your slippery pick problem:
- Ensure your hands are dry.
- Try a different holding technique.
- Change your strumming pattern.
- Use a different pick angle.
- Roughen your pick.
- Drill holes into your pick.
- Use double-stick tape on both sides of your pick.
- Ensure the pick points to the guitar’s bridge.
- Get a larger guitar pick.
- Experiment with pick thickness.
- Buy a textured or non-slip guitar pick.
- Apply adhesive to your fingers.
- Use guitar pick sleeves.
- Use a thumb pick.
- Buy guitar pick rubber grips.
- Practice with different guitar picks.
In this article, I’ll explain how these tips help guitar players prevent their picks from sliding, thus enhancing their playing experience. Keep reading to find out more.
Related: our guide to must-have guitar accessories covers the basics in one place.
👇😀👇NOTE👇😀👇
If you want to find out what my recommended guitar gear is, then here is what I recommend on Amazon:
- Fender Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Guitar Bundle (MY FAVORITE GUITAR)
- Snark SN-8 Super Tight All Instrument Tuner (Easiest Tuner I’ve Used😏)
- 6 String Acoustic Guitar Capo (Best CAPO for quick changes)
- Dunlop Max Grip 1.0mm Nylon Picks (Thick Guitar Pick So You Don’t Lose Grip!)
- Universal Guitar Stand (Cheap & Minimalist Guitar Stand I Recommend)
- Levy’s 2″ Wide Quick Adjust Guitar Strap (Best Guitar Strap For Any Level)
1. Ensure Your Hands Are Dry
There could be numerous reasons why your guitar pick keeps slipping. One such reason is that your hands are wet. Holding a guitar pick with wet hands 一 either from water or sweaty palms一 increases the likelihood of slipping as you play.
Most guitar picks are made from nylon and plastic material. These materials are relatively slippery when they come into contact with wet surfaces. This causes the pick to move around and slip from your fingers due to the opposing force from the strummed strings.
Ensuring your hands have no traces of water or sweat will significantly enhance your ability to grip the pick and prevent it from sliding.
So before you begin playing, wipe your hands dry and avoid touching wet surfaces or sweaty parts of your body. And if your hands keep getting sweaty due to the heat generated as you play, consider investing in a bottle of talcum powder (AKA, baby powder) and make a habit of carrying it for every gig.
2. Try a Different Holding Technique
Your holding technique could be another possible reason your guitar pick keeps slipping. If this is the case, consider a different holding technique that gives you enough leverage and flexibility to strum and pick guitar strings without losing hold of the pick.
Guitar players use different pick-holding techniques depending on the type of pick, personal preference, comfort, and the type of song. For instance, songs that require light strumming need a different holding technique from what’s used for songs with accented strumming.
The ideal holding technique should allow you room to express yourself on the strings with little hindrance. Play around with your grip on different songs and see what suits you best. Try tightening or loosening the grip while strumming, taking feedback with each adjustment.
Next, compare the feedback from the various grip strengths and use that information to choose the most comfortable pick-holding technique for your playing style. Ensure you use a firm but relaxed grip to allow your pick to move along the strings flexibly as you play.
Another tip you should try if you use thin picks is to hold them closer to the tip. Doing this offers extra leverage for more action on the strings, preventing the guitar pick from moving or slipping.
3. Change Your Strumming Pattern
Your guitar pick could also be slipping because you use the wrong strumming pattern. To find out whether this is the case, try changing the strumming pattern and see if it fixes your slipping pick problem.
Most beginner guitarists usually have a stiff or robotic motion to their strumming pattern, which causes the pick to slip most times. This is because the strumming pattern’s stiffness does not provide the pick enough space to adjust to the opposing force exerted by the strings as you strum.
Rather than strike the guitar strings stiffly, think of it as applying paint with a brush. Your strumming stroke should be as smooth and gentle as a brush doing up and down the strings. Focus on moving the pick by rotating your forearm rather than moving the elbow vigorously.
Changing to a better strumming pattern that is gentle on the strings minimizes the force between the strings and the pick, which prevents it from slipping. It also reduces the rate of wear on your guitar pick.
4. Use a Different Pick Angle
Your guitar pick could also be slipping because of a wrong pick angle. While the pick angle is closely linked to your strumming pattern, it’s significant enough to cause pick slippage on its own. So if changing your strumming pattern didn’t fix your problem, try hitting the guitar strings at a 45-degree angle.
Usually, striking the guitar strings with a pick at different angles produces distinct tones. It also produces varying opposing forces from the strings because the pick angle dictates how much force you apply to pluck the strings.
For instance, using a lower pick angle attacks the strings lightly, drawing less pressure from the strings. On the other hand, striking the strings at a right angle draws more resistance from the strings. The extra resistance pushes the pick from your fingers, causing it to slip and fall.
So before you resort to the somewhat drastic measures we’re about to cover in the next sections, try changing your pick angle as you play to minimize the force exerted on the pick from the strings.
5. Roughen Your Pick
Roughening the pick is one of the most effective DIY fixes for slippery guitar picks. Some guitar picks are made from smooth plastic surfaces, which facilitate slipping and moving.
Roughening the pick surface creates traction and makes it easy for your fingers to maintain grip with minimal movement. You can use sandpaper, but any other appropriate roughening method will suffice.
Ensure you roughen both surfaces of the guitar pick to maximize your finger’s grip on either side. It will enable you to play freely without worrying about the guitar pick flying out of your hand when you least expect it.
6. Drill Holes Into Your Pick
Another DIY fix you should try is drilling holes into your guitar picks. This effective approach makes your fingers and thumbs hold the pick and maintain contact, allowing you to strum as hard as you need to without the pick flying off your hands.
Use a drill or hole punching machine to create holes through the guitar pick. When doing this, ensure the guitar pick is well-positioned and held into place on the surface. This step is important to avoid accidents when drilling holes into the pick.
If you’d rather not go through the hassle of punching holes in your pick, I recommend purchasing Lohanu Leather Picks (available on Amazon.com). They are designed from durable leather material and have easy-to-hold triangle-shaped cutouts in the middle for easy grip. These cutouts serve the same purpose as your drilled holes and allow your fingers and thumbs to hold without stress.
7. Use Double-Stick Tape on Both Sides of Your Pick
Another fix you should try to solve the sliding pick problem is using double-sided adhesive tape on both sides of your guitar pick. This simple and quick