News Why Brian May uses a coin to play the guitar
Since he first broke onto the scene in the 1970s, Queen guitarist Brian May has been one of the most cherished figures in rock music. He’s the anti-badger baiting champion of the people who also just so happens to be one of the greatest guitarists to have ever walked the earth, packing an unmistakable style to boot.
May is the ultimate humble rockstar and has committed himself to a range of just causes, meaning that his influence stretches far beyond the realm of music. He’s not an egotist in the slightest, and his stories are some of the most captivating out there, which is understandable, as he’s rubbed shoulders with a host of the all-time greats, not to mention the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
Musically, May is one of the most gifted guitarists in the great pantheon of rock. Technically proficient and innovative, May’s playing is some of the more cerebral out there, delivering stellar riff after riff. Ranking amongst his very finest moments are cuts such as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ or ‘Killer Queen’, reflecting that his work is also incredibly multifaceted, drawing on a number of styles.
May is so innovative in his approach to the six-string that there are a range of signature aspects that make up his sound. Notably, the most famous of these is his career-long preference for using a coin to play instead of a traditional pick or his fingers. This gives his sound that strange metallic edge that fans struggled to identify for a long time.
Speaking to Radio X in 2021, May revealed why he originally chose a coin over a pick, explaining that it was primarily to do with the sound it produces, as well as his hatred of how malleable picks are. “I use a coin to play guitar because it has a particular sound and feel,” he said.
“I found when I was learning that I was using soft picks to begin with, and I gradually liked them harder and harder because I liked to feel what was happening at the string in my fingers. Eventually, I thought, ‘well, I don’t want it to bend at all, I want it to be completely rigid.’”
May continued: “I just picked up a sixpence and it worked for me, it just fit in my hand nicely. It also has a bonus because if you turn it sideways, at an angle to the strings, you get those serrated edges [which provide] a sort of articulated sound … sort of like having consonants in your speech.”
