Holding the plectrum with my thumb and 2 fingers.

My 2 cents,

Hi, I used to hold the pick with two fingers and a thumb and I found strumming easier with that method (or I should say holding the pick was easier). A friend suggested I use the index and thumb and my picking improved more quickly. My strumming suffered for a while, but now it feels natural. I am glad that I switched.

Good luck

The only time you'll suffer is when you want to hybrid pick i.e. plucking a note with your pick and remaining fingers at the same time.

Most (but not all) good guitarists hold a pick with thumb and index.

Besides hybrid picking, the thumb/index grip presents the pick fairly parallel to the strings in a very relaxed manner. Doing that with thumb and two fingers means adding a slight tension to the wrist/pinky side of the hand - try it both ways and you'll see what I mean.

That tension may hurt on fast passages.

On the other hand, most guitarists don't play fast all the time, and when they do they usually don't play fast for a really long time, so you may be able to compensate.

So holding with 2 fingers and the thumb could be the reason my shoulder gets all tensed up when doing repepitive downstrokes?

Hijacking the thread here, but since we're somewhat on topic...

When I play songs with rapid downstrokes (specifically Pearl Jam's Lukin) the muscle in my forearm gets really tense and starts to hurt. What's causing this?

Check out this essay although it talks about the left hand and arm it applies to the right as well. Lots of other interesting reads on the site as well though I've never read his full book.
http://www.guitarprinciples.com/GettingBetter/essay3.htm

Dlo571: You have to relax! If you relax when you play, you might first be a little bit slower, but gradually you will be as fast as before and then faster and faster!

jonsi obviously went to the link and summed it up :P But you gotta read it and feel it for yourself....it's going to be hard to change...and it's hard to play slowly...I know, but it will be an interesting experiment for ya.

Now if I could just stop using my damned pinky to anchor my right hand most of the time....even Dave Mustaine admits he's trying to stop that, after all this time! heh

Some bad habits are hard to break man! :?

redwarp

I don't think all the practice has gone to waste. The advice to use whatever works for you is ok. If you are used to playing with thumb and two fingers, who can tell you it is wrong?

Having said that, I can't imagine trying to play that way. I hold the pick with thumb and index and as mentioned in this thread, allows for hybrid picking techniques. Two fingers on the pick would deprive me of a lot of that.

You will be learning new styles and techniques for the rest of your guitar-playing life. This will just be one more. I have never taken a poll to know what "most people" do but I can say I have never seen anyone using a pick with anything but thumb and index and no guitar tuition books advise anything different.

Since it is almost the same motion when you use 2 fingers or 1, if you started practicing with 1 finger I would be surprised if it took you more then a n hour or two to be back where you were before

I used to use the thumb and 2 finger hold all the time, because it was comfortable to me. One day looked down and reliesed I hold it with the index and thumb now. I didn't even notice that I changed my grip.

I think, I changed my grip, when I started using picks with the grippy things on them.