Playing nylon string guitar with a pick?

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Kurt

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I recently saw Pat Metheny who played a number of solo acoustic songs to open his show. On a song or two, he played his nylon string with a pick (as well as a number of songs with no pick). I think he chose the pick on these tunes because it fit in with a slightly more aggressive attack.

Who else here plays with nylon strings and pick? Do you vary it with hybrid picking and fingerpicking? I would actually like to pick up a nylon string guitar because it would fit well with some of my compositions so I'm thinking about how best to fit it in.
 

Telarkaster

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I don't even play electric with a pick!

Go ahead, but I suggest using a very light pick otherwise you'll go through a set of strings every time you play...
 

Charlie Bernstein

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I began playing on a nylon, using a pick. Now I don't play nylon strings OR use picks. Skin on steel - my favorite sound!
 

tiktok

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John McLaughlin uses a pick on his nylon string guitars. And so do I, when I'm not fingerpicking.
 

Oster

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George Harrison also used a pick on his Ramirez on 'And I Love Her'.

You're really cheating yourself if you don't learn some fingerstyle with nylon though. It sounds so nice.
 

sidneystreet

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In the past, I rarely used a pick with my classical guitar. But lately, I have been working on Gypsy Picking (Django Reinhardt kinds of stuff), and so I am wood-shedding pick-style on my old Yamaha nylon G-231.

I've been having a blast, and have even started working on some classical pieces pick-style. William Leavitt's Classical Studies for Pick-Style Guitar is a cool book filled with suitable selections from the classical guitar repertoire. It's also great for sightreading practice, as it is notation only.
 

mikespe

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I am looking to getting this nylon string guitar from Rondo to play some simple Latin/Spanish/Gypsy music I am toying with. It has a solid mahogany top and I have heard good reviews of the Valencia guitars over all. The other one I was looking at is about $50 more and is a Cedar top but it has electronics as well...however I don't know if I really need the electronics.

What I was getting at in a round-about way is that I was wondering the same thing about using a pick with nylon strings...basically nylon-on-nylon since many picks are made from nylon. I wonder what the tone would be like?
 

ac15

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I use nylon string for all of my vocal/guitar solo gigs. If I anticipate needing to flatpick during a tune, I put on my trusty Herco thumbpick at the beginning of the tune so I can switch to flatpicking at any time. I use the Herco for all of my electric playing as well. Far better than hybrid picking because with hybrid picking you're rendering your first finger useless. Never understood why people do that.
 
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