Hybrid Picking - A Picking Method

Hybrid picking, is not just used for country guitar with banjo rolls or chicken pickin' like Albert Lee for example, but is used in all styles of music in various ways. It is both fingerpicking and straight picking, where a player who uses a combination of a pick and fingers to play the strings on the guitar as opposed to using a pick or just using the fingers. The pick for example can be held with the thumb and index finger and then the middle, ring and possibly even the picking finger can be used to pick the other strings.

More commonly, with hybrid picking, you would use the pick with the middle and or ring fingers. For example, the pick may be used to alternate between the middle finger on a single string moving from string to string through a scale. Or the pick, middle and ring fingers may be used where the pick plays the 3rd string and the middle finger the 2nd string and the ring finger the first string. There are many various as to how you may apply this method to scales and chords.

You will probably find that it is a good idea to have some proficiency with hybrid picking because it isn't that difficult to at least acquire a working skill with it and it can expand your playing horizons.