I know, using picks with the ukulele is a bit of a sacrilege, and I never thought I'd go there, but recently I picked up a bunch of different picks (plastic, nylon, wedgies, in different strengths ranging from .38 to 1.00mm, and however thick those light and medium wedgies are), and I actually like the sound they produce (the .38mm nylon one being my favorite). The wedgie and felt picks didn't capture as much of my interest as they sounded more like fingers, and I'd probably just use fingers for this flavor of sound.
It's a lot of fun experimenting with this. The volume gain is tremendous, as is clarity, and things like tremolos become comparatively easy. I still prefer using fingers/nails overall, but I want to learn flatpicking and add these techniques to my toolbox. I'm particularly curious about hybrid picking where a pick plus two fingers are used, but this is probably fairly advanced.
The question is: How does one go about learning it? Are there any ukulele specific resources at all, old or new? There are some videos, books, and DVDs for flatpicking on the acoustic guitar (chiefly bluegrass), but a steel string guitar is a different beast, so this may not be an ideal approach, though some of it can probably be adapted to the ukulele. Was there a time when classical guitars were played with picks?
Here's a ukulele flatpicking performance by Tim Allan:
It's a lot of fun experimenting with this. The volume gain is tremendous, as is clarity, and things like tremolos become comparatively easy. I still prefer using fingers/nails overall, but I want to learn flatpicking and add these techniques to my toolbox. I'm particularly curious about hybrid picking where a pick plus two fingers are used, but this is probably fairly advanced.
The question is: How does one go about learning it? Are there any ukulele specific resources at all, old or new? There are some videos, books, and DVDs for flatpicking on the acoustic guitar (chiefly bluegrass), but a steel string guitar is a different beast, so this may not be an ideal approach, though some of it can probably be adapted to the ukulele. Was there a time when classical guitars were played with picks?
Here's a ukulele flatpicking performance by Tim Allan:
Last edited: