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I'm a casual jazz player (mostly finger-style nylon/electric) although I've been getting back into my rock roots (mostly Hendrix and some Clapton) since acquiring my Les Paul. My favorite nylon jazz player is Earl Klugh.That's what I wrote c. 2010. Over the past few years (starting in 2017), I've completely re-engineered how I hold the plectrum for speed soloing. I've adopted the style of George Benson for jazz soloing speed on my Les Paul Classic. The feel is incredibly relaxed and natural and the physics of it makes tremendous sense to me. Since then, I now realize that even Jimi Hendrix uses the same, or very similar, pick grip. I'd actually noticed it a long time ago but wrongly put it down to him merely having longer fingers, rather than being critical to his playing ability. Now I wonder how it's possible to play at speed any other way. It's painful to see various rock and jazz players doing strange thumb-twitches and other weird contortions.
This all came about quite accidentally when I discovered some Benson-like players on YouTube who took the time to explain how it works (for free, of course). For reasons I still don't understand, I've never been able to get that level of instruction from any of my real-life guitar teachers — whom I paid into the bargain!
I'm now able to play things that, for most of my life, I could only dream about. I finally understand what jazz guitar greats like, Larry Coryell, Pat Metheny, George Benson, and Wes Montgomery, are playing and how they are doing it. This is immensely gratifying. YouTube is the best guitar teacher I never had.
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