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There's nothing too special here. You've decided to pluck the string and started your picking motion. The most important thing is the position of your right hand, how you are holding the pick, and how you are carrying out the motion (finger/thumb, wrist, and/or elbow joints). This will determine the velocity, location, and angle of the pick when it contacts the string. While these things can and sometimes require alteration in the middle of a picking stroke, most of the time it is too late to change anything once you've made contact. Any change that occurs is due to the string's resistance to being displaced or just the subtle changes in angle that are a result of the pick being moved by a close or distant fulcrum (finger joints vs. wrist vs. elbow).

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''Contact'' is when the pick first touches the string. If the approach was lengthy with a high velocity, there will be a slight audible thud on contact. It will be noisy rather than musical. This can be desirable or undesirable depending on context - it adds more noise and volume to the initial attack portion of the note, making it sound more raucous. On the other hand if the approach was basically non-existent, there will be no thud, and the note will sound cleaner.

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''Displacement'' is the pick pushing the string away from its natural resting position. The sting naturally resists displacement, with more and more force required to displace it further and further. The pick's material and thickness will determine how far the pick is able to do so. Also in play is your grip strength on the pick - the string puts torque against the pick relative to where you are gripping it. Ultimately, either the pick or your fingers will give in allowing the pick to become angled in relation to the guitar's face, so that the string begins to slide down its edge and off the tip. This is called the release. (Of course the string will break before becoming severely displaced, if using some incredibly extreme picking method.)

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While the ''release'' is nothing too interesting - just the string finally freeing itself of the force of the pick and attempting to return to its at-rest state, the transition from displacement to release is more interesting. Depending on the amount of displacement as well as the angles, shape, and material of the pick, as the string slides down the edge (or face) of the pick, it will make noise. Most of the time this will sound scratchy, although some smoother materials may be quieter than others. This energy does transfer into the string, which will resonate on each side of the pick. Thus, pick location on the string matters to this sound, and it is why pick slides have their characteristic sound.

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As the string attempts to return to rest, its elastic properties cause it to overshoot the at-rest location, bouncing back and forth and producing the desired frequency (and its overtones). This is ''resonance''. Usually, all the previous parts of the picking mechanism can be thought of as noisy, while this is considered musical. However, depending on the amount of displacement, the thickness of the strings, and the guitar's setup, when the string attempts to resonate, it may slap against frets or otherwise create noise.

Also, the location where the string was picked also determines how the string will resonate - the balance of its fundamental frequency vs. its overtones, as well as its amplitude over time - its characteristic attack vs. sustain vs. decay signature.

== Pick Angle Incident to the String ==