The Pick Punch – Make Your Own Guitar Picks

​I wanted something new and interactive this year to bring kids and their parents to the music room.  At the same time I was trying to figure out how and where to order guitar picks for my guitar classes.  I teach beginning guitar to two sections of middle school twice a week.  We’ve spent the last few months learning a LOT of chords and songs and for the most part have been strumming with our thumbs.  We have classical guitars with nylon strings and those generally aren’t supposed to be used with guitar picks BUT I wanted students to at least have a little experience with picks.  The trouble is that we don’t have any picks at school and they can be expensive if you’re buying enough for a class.  I know that middle schoolers could easily lose or take the guitar picks and I didn’t want to be constantly ordering guitar picks for replacements.  What was I to do!?

I did a little research and web-surfing and learned about the Pick Punch.  This fun little gadget makes guitar picks out of just about anything.  You can make picks from credit cards, gift cards, hotel key cards, ID cards, plastic materials or from sheets of popular materials like Delrin, Lexan and Ultem.  All you do is slide the card into the punch, press down, and you’re done!  It’s like a three hole punch in the shape of a guitar pick.  See the video below for hilarious details.

I got a pick punch on Amazon (here’s a link to the one I bought) and have been using it for weeks to punch picks out of just about everything.  I’ll be honest, if it fits in the extruder space, I’ve punched it.  I’ve punched old hotel room keys, a fellow teacher’s old ID badge, the remains of a gatorade cap, hard plastic packaging, thin cardboard, and lots of old gift cards.  Needless to say, I have plenty of picks to use with my guitar class.

What Material Can You Safely Punch?

You can absolutely get cool and colorful plastic to punch for a very reasonable price on the internet.  Just do a quick search on Google and you’ll find lots of great colorful options of plastic sheets to punch out.  I searched through Amazon and bought a couple packs.  These resources are made to be punched out and so they’re a great durability and the right size.  You have to be careful with what you choose on line.  Look for materials like Delrin, Lexan and Ultem.  Some other things you might find could look really cool but might be too brittle or conversely too hard.  You want something that’s the right strength and thin enough to fit into your punch.  At the end of this blog post I’ve got some examples of the colorful plastic that I purchased and some links to other things you might consider.

If you want to get gift cards and other materials to use for free?  Try out this easy trick!  On December 27th I emailed out to my whole school and told them about my guitar pick punch and how they could help.  I said that I was making guitar picks for my class and mentioned that if they had any gift cards left over from Christmas that I would take the used cards (with no credit left on them) to punch out for class.  I have had dozens of gift cards come in over the last few weeks and don’t think that I’ll ever run out of things to punch!  One teacher works part time for a restaurant and has been collecting all the used gift cards from other servers so that I have a near endless supply of used gift cards to use.

If I ever run low I think that I could put out a request for old gift cards/credit cards in our school’s weekly newsletter.  With over 750 kids, I can imagine that there are quite a few parents who would be willing to empty out their wallet and get rid of old gift cards or those unused “frequent shopper” cards.  The possibilities for free things to punch are endless.

After punching a pick for students I could then bring out a guitar and let the kid strum an easy chord with their brand new pick.  This would get kids who are already in my guitar class exited about sharing what they’ve learned with their parents.  If there are any students who haven’t had guitar experience, this would encourage those kiddos to join my class when they get to middle school.  You had better believe that parents are going to want to try out the pick too!  You might want to have a few guitar chord charts hand and several guitars tuned and at the ready.

“Pick Out” a Necklace or Bracelet – Fundraiser or Prize

I also realized just the other day that once you have your pick punched out you can slide it under your nearest three-hole punch and punch the plastic again.  This means you can add a little hole and make your pick into a fun little charm for a necklace or bracelet.  Just think about all the fun possibilities that could come from this!  Set up a table in the hallway at open house and you could have an easy fundraiser.  Maybe charge 25 cents per pick and 50 cents or $1 per length of cord/chain to make a necklace.  Show kids how you can layer in any number of picks on the necklace and BOOM!  Fundraiser done!

You could also use the picks (punched or unpunched) as rewards for good behavior.  There’s a second grade teacher in our building who gives out “Brag Tags” to her kids.  Basically a brag tag is a little piece of laminated cardstock that says something like “I can count to 100” or “I finished my holiday homework packet.”  Her kids wear little necklaces all over the school with these fun little tags and are so proud to show off when they’ve earned a new one.  I was thinking that if a student did an especially great job in music I could punch them out a pick/musical brag tag to add to their necklace!  If you don’t have quite that much time you could punch out the picks ahead of time and just let the kid “pick out” the one that they wanted.

Here are several resources that might be helpful to you if you decide to use the Pick Punch in your classroom.  I’ve included links for the punch itself as well as colorful plastic all the right size and designed for a pick punch.  I’ve also included links for found leather cord and metal “dogtag” style chains in case you want to offer these to kids for necklaces or bracelets for fundraising or otherwise.  Click the images below to follow links to the resources.

As you can see from my post above, there are tons of things you can use the Pick Punch for.  Use it to easily create picks for your class, create a quick little fundraiser, or just use it as a fun way to get people in your room and talking about music class.  I’d love to hear if you use this idea and how you make it work for you!  Share your experiences or ideas in the comments below!