A pick slide or pick scrape is a guitar technique most often performed in the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

music genres. The technique is executed by holding the edge of the pick against any of the three or four wound strings and moving it along the string. As the pick moves across the string, the edge of the pick catches the string's windings in rapid succession causing the string to vibrate and produce a

note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...

. This rapid rattling of the pick's edge against the windings also gives the resulting note a grinding or grating quality. The pitch of a pick slide rises as the pick moves closer to the bridge, and lowers as the pick moves up to the

neck The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...

. Since pick slides usually start near the bridge and end over the higher frets, these slides have a characteristic of gradually lowering the pitch. A pick slide causes little – if any – damage to the strings, pickups or guitar, but it does ruin the edge of the pick; thinner picks made of more durable materials are the best choice for the technique.

External links

Pick scratch theory
Guitar performance techniques {{guitar-stub