Let me register a mild protest against the prevailing anti-fingerpicks school of thought. I've been playing for almost forty years, and I know that my own playing benefits from much greater precision, as well as much more dynamic range, when I use my picks. Not everyone will want to invest the time to accustom themselves to the use of these "unnatural" appendages, but some of those who see, hear, and appreciate skillful picking-with-picks will always set out to emulate and learn thsi method.

I do also play without picks fairly regularly, if for no other reason than to keep my volume down when playing at home late at night ("practicing"). When working up a new piece or new arrangement, I find it useful to work both with and without picks as a way to try as many different approaches as possible. Once I've firmed up the way I want to play a given number, however, I'll always use my picks to perform it.

I should note that I'm talking about picking the acoustic steel-string guitar. On the rare occasions when I fool around with an electric guitar, I find that bare hands work quite well and fingerpicks don't help at all.

I have no argument with anyone who prefers to play in a different manner than I do ~ different strokes for different folks, absolutely. However, I do resent the implication that only flesh and nails can produce sensitive, subtle, expressive playing. It's downright ignorant to assume that picks can only be used in a crude, heavy-handed manner. On the contrary, I know that I can play much more delicately and quickly (and audibly so) with picks than without.

It took a while to learn, of course, and I don't necessarily recommend that every beginner take up fingerpicking ~ with or without fingerpicks, for that matter. I've already invested plenty of time and effort in the path I adopted long ago, but it's not for everyone, I suppose...

One good reason NOT to learn to use fingerpicks: because it's apparently a dying art, it's getting harder and harder to find decent picks! I suppose they'll always be available in Nashville, because pedal steel players doing session work can't function without 'em. But elsewhere, years after the end of the folk music "boom" or "scare" or whatever, not too many of us are still fingerpicking, and we no longer seem to constitute a viable market demographic...

My pair of metal fingerpicks is virtually permanent; they're impossible to wear out, and they've been custom-fitted to my fingertips over the years, so I'm very careful to keep track of them. I lost a pair once, and had to start breaking in and shaping a new pair, so I'm now using my second pair of fingerpicks since 1969. The plastic thumbpick is another story ~ they wear out and break periodically and have to be replaced. As the years go by, fewer and fewer music stores seem to keep good basic thumbpicks in stock. Too often, the only thumbpicks available at a store are weird toy-like novelty items, obviously purchased by a buyer who has never actually played with a thumbpick. (I prefer Nationals, but have found equivalent decent picks under other brand names.)