Pick material--the choice of material and thickness of the pick has a huge effect on your tone. A medium Fender pick, played in a traditional fashion with the point, has a totally different tone than a 1.5mm Dunlop Tortex (synthetic tortoise shell) pick played on one of it's upper, beveled edges.

Explore the options of tone by trying different picks. You'll find a snappy, trebly attack from the thinner picks, and a warm, burnished tone from the thicker ones. Irish musicians tend toward the thin picks, as they like the quick snap for fast picked triplets. I DO NOT use thinner picks for Irish music, or any music for that matter. My favorite American acoustic musicians (Tony Rice, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Russ Barenberg) all use the rounded corners of their picks to get their individual, amazing sounds. Experiment with different picks until you find what you like best.

My belief is that thicker picks make acoustic instruments do what they NEED to do to project the best tone- RESONATE. The thin pick deflects off the string, and the string does not take the full energy of the pick attack. A thick pick delivers all the energy to the string, which vibrates fully, making the bridge and top resonate, creating the sound waves that bounce around in the box and pour out of the soundhole(s). With a thin pick, the string plays the pick as much as the pick plays the string!

It is my opinion the thicker picks allow you to maximize tone production and volume.

Also consider acoustics" bass frequencies travel further than highs. Thin picks do not bring out the low end of an instrument, but the brightness gives the player the illusion they are creating volume. Walk down a city street and wait for a car with "bass tubes" blasting hiphop (it won't take long!) and listen to the drive toward the hills. You hear that "thump" in the bass long after the shimmering audio detail :) in the upper freqencies is inaudible.

 
If you play electric, you may want a thinner pick to go with the lighter string gauges.I use the  1.5 Dunlop Tortex 500 Series Delrin on acoustic AND electric (regular .010 set). You may want to go lighter on electric- I used to use a Fender Extra Heavy but have grown to like the feel of the Dunlop on electric.

On the "Django Guitars" I use a custom made 3.5mm tortise shell pick. It is a school of tone production peculiar to the "Gypsy Jazz" idiom, and certainly brings out the best tone these guitars have to offer. Gypsy Jazz Guitar is a whole 'nother world of right hand technique. Downstrokes, rest strokes and all: Check out www.djangobooks.com and Michael Horowitz' "Gypsy Picking".

Pick angle--if you hit the strings with the pick at a flat, perpendicular angle, you'll be slapping the string. I like to get a loud,warm sound by picking at a slight angle, tipping my right thumbnail toward the floor.The idea is to draw the pick through the string, much like a fiddler draws the bow across the string.

The "window of travel"--visualize a window starting on the 5th string (A). The pick can reach back to the 6th string and up to the 4th string. If you stay within that window while attacking the A string, you'll achieve economy of motion. To continue this concept to the other strings: imagine the window on each string. To deliver the pick to the string, you must have mobility. You should have your elbow relaxed enough to drop your hand down to the 1st string, and back up to the 6th string. Any kind of anchoring of your hand will limit your mobility and ability to deliver the same stroke, with maximum effect, to each string.

Remember turntables? The early ones had a pivot point, and the needle would be at a much sharper angle on the last song of the LP than the 1st. Then, the "linear tracking tonearm" came along, that allowed the tonearm to move laterally, so the angle of the needle remained the same. Try to imaging your pick as the needle, and your "tonearm" moving to deliver the pick to each string at the same relative angle, without twisting to reach any string. It is really comfortable and easy when you get the hang of it!

 The pick motion comes totally from the wrist, and the elbow moves only to deliver the pick to the string. Gravity allows you to "fall" through the string with very little effort. Picking should not be like driving a nail!

Pick motions made solely by the thumb and finger produce tiny tone and volume, because there is no support behind it.

I touch just above the "karate-chop" edge of my hand on the bridge pins (acoustic guitar) or just below the saddle (mandolin, electric guitar) and let it move as I play. I can retain a sense of where I am, without impeding motion. Many great players play "freehand" with the right hand never touching the top. The universal tip is that you should be as loose and relaxed as possible, even at maximum volume.

BALLING YOUR HAND INTO A FIST will create tension and limit mobility and the ability to generate a rainbow of tone colors. You may get a lot of volume, but the tone is sure to be brash and nasty -and if that's what you are going for, then go for it!- but good technique should not make you a one trick pony.

The fingers that aren't holding the pick should feel 'numb' and relaxed,  they will curl about halfway to the palm. This allows gravity to work in your favor. Keep the 'novocained' feeling in your wrist joint as well. Tension is the enemy!

If you do make a fist, you have to expend more effort to make the pick stroke (try it!)

Mobility--To alter the tone quality of your sound, you'll want to move your hand from just above the bridge (most bright and trebly) toward the neck (increasingly warm and dark). There is a huge range of expression available in tone color, with the pick or with bare fingers (or nails, as in classical guitar). One of the great tone colorists on the guitar is Julian Bream. Listen to any of his recordings, especially his interpretations of Bach-- it's hard to believe it's all coming from one guitar played solo.

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There are many schools of thought on fingerstyle guitar. The world of classical guitar has it's own set of practices and dogmas, all worth considering for the sake of expression. Contemporary acoustic steel string players often borrow concepts of hand position from classical guitar- and at least as often, disregard them. Open mindedness lets you explore the possibilities.

My own experience with fingerstyle guitar began with Travis/Atkins style picking, like many of us. The alternating bass style is found in a lot of styles, from Hawaiian slack-key to country blues. I studied classical guitar as an "outpatient" at Boston Conservatory in the late 70's. The concepts of right hand fingerstyle techniques I found applicable to all styles:

Position-if you look down at your right hand and see an upside down "V" shape between your thumb and index finger, you'll have good mobility and independence.

Angle of attack-the way your finger plucks the string affects the tone. Drawing your finger slightly sideways across the string yields a different sound than plucking straight up.

Swinging from the knuckle-a tip learned from the excellent video "Effortless Classical Guitar" by William Kanengiser (Hot Licks, P.O.Box 337, Pound Ridge NY 10576). Let your fingers swing "like a door on it's hinges" from the big knuckle out toward your palm. You can feel the power of the attack much more than working from the 2nd knuckle, like I used to.

Classical--The majority of players use their fingernails and a combination of flesh and fingers. The followers of Tarrega relied on bare flesh without nails, a practice which fell out of favor in the twentieth century, except for lutenists.

Thumbpick and bare fingers--often used on electric guitar, the thumbpick can easily overpower the bare fingers on an acoustic guitar. Bare fingers can be flicked forward, to get an attack with the entire fingernail.

Thumbpick and fingerpicks--Some players love the projection gained from the use of fingerpicks , others dislike the sound and feel. The tone depends on the material (metal or plastic) and gauge. Try them all- you may use them occasionally to achieve a specific sound.

Whether you subscribe to the classical ideal of keeping the thumb on the back of the neck, never looping around the fingerboard, or go for the blues/rock big vibrato where you have to let that thumb wrap up and over the fingerboard, there are some common things to watch out for:

Arch and Separation-Keep your left hand fingers separated, so they aren't bunched together. GET SOME DAYLIGHT BETWEEN THE FINGERS. Fingers touching each other create friction and limit mobility. Open up that left hand so you can see the "duck web" between the fingers.

Don't let your fingers come in flat to the fingerboard- arch those mid-finger knuckles.

A good basic rule on guitar is to assign each finger to a fret, for example on guitar your 1st finger at the 2nd fret, 2nd finger 3rd fret, 3rd finger 4th fret, 5th fret. Let the fingers be independent. 

On mandolin, it is usually one finger every 2 frets: 1st finger 2nd fret, 2nd finger 4th fret, 3rd finger 6th fret, 4th finger 7th fret.

Now, here's The Biggie:

One of the most important tips I can offer:

I can empathize the difficulty of breaking the "flying fingers" habit, because I had it for a long time myself. If you've "hit the wall" in terms of being able to build speed, this one's for you.

Play (on any string) the notes listed in the "arch" paragraph above. Play the sequence as written. If, by the end, all 4 fingers aren't down on the string, you are wasting energy by lifting the fingers. When you play the 1st note, leave the 1st finger down. Play the 2nd, leave both the 1st and 2nd fingers down. Play the 3rd, leave the 1st 2 down. Play the 4th by adding your 4th finger, leaving the other three fingers in place.

OK-The was four movements for four notes. If you lift each finger with each new note, it takes 7 movements for 4 notes- about half as effective. The act of lifting those fingers slows you down a lot! Lifting does nothing to help you at all, and in fact destroys legato (the smooth connection of notes).

Apply this knowledge to tunes that you play already, and see if it doesn't help. It will require a LOT of diligent practice to break the ingrained habit. welcome to thew club: I played flying fingers for 13 years and graduated from Berklee before I learned it was hampering my technique. 

I practiced in front of a mirror, watching my fingers, with a metronome set SLOWLY, for HOURS a day, for MONTHS. At night, my band would play gigs, and the new techniques I had been painstakingly practicing would go to hell, since I couldn't do them at the tempos we played. Eventually, I could practice with the metronome, slowly creeping up the speed, and finally I could do it "on the gig" and never had to look back- the muscle memory of the bad habits were erased, and the new muscle memory was in place.

A very hard won battle, but one of the most important things I ever did for my playing.

Be sure that each note is held by your left hand until the instant of the next pick attack (keeping your left hand fingers down while ascending helps this, big time).

Apply these ideas to your existing repertoire.

Regardless of musical style, we are all concerned with "sounding good". Basic musicianship requires a sense of balance between tone, timing, dynamics and soul. The first three are easy to come by!

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Using a metronome (or drum machine) is a great way to develop a solid sense of timing. I often set the metronome to click on beats 2 and 4 instead of the usual 1 and 3 (or 1234). It can be hard to "find the beat" if your perception becomes locked on 1 and 3. If that's the case, try counting 1234 1234 123 1234 1234. The bar of 3 turns the beat around. In any event, with the accents on the backbeat (2 and 4), the metronome will be acting as a mandolin player "chopping", or a snare drum backbeat. I find it easier to "swing" this way.

Different styles of music use different placements of notes in relation to the beat. For example, the laid-back feeling of a "Kind Of Blue"-era Miles Davis solo , phrased a hair behind the beat, contrasts with the feeling of a bluegrass solo, which rides up ahead of the beat like a hood ornament. Practice phrasing notes behind, right on top, and a little ahead of the beat. This can really make or break the "feel" of a performance.

SEE MY RHYTHM TUNEUP DVD FOR MORE INSTRUCTION IN TIMING AND GROOVE!

This is harder and less obvious than it sounds--set that metronome for a slower than usual speed and relax, play through the piece with the best tone that you can imagine. Prioritize tone over speed and the speed will come. Good tone comes from good playing habits (technique).

Notice how "groove" is relative to the tempo. Getting a good 'in the pocket' feeling at a slow tempo is very gratifying.

Pull out the difficult sections and play them slowly. Rethink the fingerings, analyze what your fingers are doing. Any problem can be solved if approached calmly and intelligently. It is very satisfying to sit down for a practice session unable to execute a passage, and to work on it slowly and methodically until it becomes easier.

"Loop" the difficult passages (playing them over and over IN TIME) slowly and gradually increase speed.  

The Amazing Tuck Andress has lots more thoughts on technique here.

Unless you have an isolated practice space to `crank it up', it can be hard to `get your sound' at a low volume. Practicing at low volume with a clean tone is a good way to keep your playing honest-distortion pedals are great for what they do, but in excess they can hide bad playing. A fuzz box is no substitute for a good amp sound.

Anyway, the interaction between your touch and the amp is something you can't practice without the amp being set at performance volume (he patiently explained as the police broke down the door). Another tip is that sounds really change in context--a great solo guitar tone can really change when surrounded by bass and drums. That great tone you got on your own will probably require some tweaking in a band context.

Don't overlook how your right hand position and pick choice can affect your tone-it can do much more for you than a multi-FX box.

See my Electric Guitar and Amps page for more opinions.

My attitude is that music comes first, conceptually, before instruments and gear--but they are a very close second. Some folks are very picky about their instruments and amps, with good reason--they deliver your voice (but they aren't your voice). Experiment with different string gauges and pick types, they are the most affordable changes you can make. Electric guitarists are big gearheads for obvious reasons...but acoustic players are no slouches in the Instrument Acquistion Contest either!

Don't let the equipment quest sidetrack you from sharpening your musicianship. There is usually something better/faster/louder/more vintage/more cutting edge to be had. Despite what the marketeers (and shiny magazines) lead you to believe, the universal quest for tone really begins and ends with your hands, delivering messages from your mind and soul.

 
A nice old Tele and Fender Vibrolux Reverb is a good way to get those messages across, though. I use my J.R. Zeidler guitars and mandolins, I have a Rob Aylward Django style guitar. I'm very happy with my old Fender amps and '92 Matchless SC-30 amplifier. I also play some Fender and Epiphone guitars and steels, a Regal dobro, and a couple of pedal steels (Zeidler, Zum Hybrid D-10). More stuff on electrics here.

Strings? I like D'adarrio mando (J74) and electric guitar strings (.010), John Pearse acoustic guitar strings (medium gauge). Jagwire steel guitar strings.

Everybody wants it. Don't try to beat the reaper before acquiring (earning- you can't buy it!) good tone--work on good tone and timing at a slow speed and work your way up the rungs. Keep your hands in sync, remember the tips about each hands. Relax.

It is a great feeling of accomplishment to be able to play along with a favorite recording, at speed, emulating all the subtleties of a musician's style. However, you can get even more mileage from a piece by isolating your favorite passages and tearing them apart--trying the part in different keys--looking at the note choices and hearing how they interact with the chords. Try applying the ideas to different situations. Try making up variations on the idea, little phrases that change each time you play. This is a good way to get some improvising vocabulary together.

The best way to memorize is to play the piece a lot, without worrying about remembering it. A casual attitude will allow the sounds to enter your subconscious. If you do need to memorize, do it in small bits. Be sure you have the first few seconds under your fingers before speeding onward. The more you can hear the piece "in your head", the easier you'll remember it.

Many students suffer from this syndrome: The beginning 1/3 of a piece is great, the 2nd third starts to sag, and the last 3rd is a train wreck. Can you guess which section got the most practice? It's natural to go back and replay from the top when a mistake is made later in the piece. A more effective strategy is needed to get everything sounding equally good:

Try practicing a piece the way many films are shot- from the middle. Start in the middle, practice to the end. Go back to the beginning later. Isolate the ending and just play that for awhile. Always isolate the "demon snippets" and give them the attention they demand.

Once all sections are under control, THEN play from start to finish. Don't be satisfied until you can play it without mistakes 5 times.

Don't forget to have fun!