Take your "PICK"

The choice of the right guitar pick can enhance the quality of your tone and improve articulation and clarity in chords, solos, riffs and single note melodies. Many students make their choice of picks on which ever is the most easy and convenient to use: which usually is a thin pick. A thin pick is generally the worst for tone reproduction, dynamics, and musicality. My advice for my students is to move to thicker pick as soon as possible to help grow their tone alongside their technique.

A good example from a different discipline is that of the microwave oven. I know of no chef who would use a microwave oven to cook fine food because the end result would be culinarily unsatisfying and universally frowned upon by his peers. A chef could use a microwave for certain uncritical and minor cooking events but would ultimately keep his or her's keen eye on the making of quality food using instruments that enhance flavour as opposed to 'zapping' the soul out of the food.

Now, the general modern household on the other hand uses the microwave oven for quick and convenient heating and cooking of "food" and "food-like" substances but... it's usually means convenience over quality and a quick fix as opposed to a satisfying event. Let's exit that mind-space for the sake of our guitar playing as an art as well as the longevity of our pursuit of beauty and goodness in music.

Back to guitar picks...

So, if we hear (and we can) that tone, clarity, and dynamics are all better when we change from a thin pick to a medium or heavy pick, we should plan to inch towards that goal in even the early stages of our guitar playing. By doing this we will soon realize that it's all about developing the touch within our hands and fingers that will help add that professional tone we are missing.

So, if we wouldn't hit a real nail with a toy hammer then we
shouldn't hit a real string with a toy (thin) pick.

Keep your tone the best it can be with a 'medium' to 'heavy'

pick and enjoy the pure gourmet tone.