Practicing with no amp to build picking power ?

John Lockney · From: New Market, Maryland, USA

A light went on when I read this old thread:
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/003977.html

Thanks for the insight B0b.

What do you think of the idea that practicing without an amp is a good way to develop powerful picking ?

[This message was edited by John Lockney on 04 March 2006 at 04:37 AM.]

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

well I dunno' about picking power but I do this every now and then just to hear what the natural tone/sustain is of the guitar and strings, and to learn if I am actually helping or hurting the cause.

remember, the Steel has no idea and does not care if your are plugged in..the tone starts right there, no amp necessary..

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TPrior
TPrior Steel Guitar Homesite

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Powerful picking? It takes a certain degree of force to generate good, clean notes. But beyond that, it's mostly wasted effort (unless you're trying to emulate someone). It's not power that makes a great player, but the nuances of his playing...a lot of which you just can't hear without an amp.

Gary Shepherd · From: Fox, Oklahoma, USA

Maybe better muscle control. Try some difficult pick blocking exercises until you can play them flawlessly. That'll get 'er done.

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Gary Shepherd

Carter D-10

www.16tracks.com

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

A lot of people pick too softly because they have these powerful amps right next to their ears. I've taken to using a very small amp on a rug on the floor when I practice. It's enough to hear the effect of the volume pedal and any real mistakes, but not loud enough to scare the begeezes out of me if I twitch.

Gene Jones · From: Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)

I have always learned new material for a show or a job by playing it without an amp.

As a result, it always sounded "so good" to me when I finally played it live with an amp!

www.genejones.com

[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 04 March 2006 at 09:45 AM.]

Al Marcus · From: Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)

Gene-you too, eh? I used to practice with no amp on my Gibson Electra-Harp with the full birdseye maple cabinet all the way to the floor, so it reverberated quite well all by itself.

I had to , to keep peace in the family, in my living room corner where it was setup.I picked pretty hard, of course....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I think good pick blocking requires a strong, hard twitching kind of motion, and anything you can do that will strengthen your right hand up to the point where it causes some insensitivity is probably good. If you pick softly, the proportion of the sound that comes through as a click or scrape will be higher than if you pick harder. I play unamped in the wee hours sometimes too, but more for the abovementioned tonal reasons than for strength. Strength training of some sort is bound to help your stamina too, though I think that anytime you're doing something to help your steel playing that takes time away from your steel playing is nonsensical. I keep a hand exerciser in my car, not in my practice room.

[This message was edited by David Mason on 06 March 2006 at 03:59 AM.]

James Shelton · From: Austin, TX USA

I think it's much harder to learn to play soft than hard. If you spend much time watching the great players in history you will note that a BIG part of thier tone comes from a lite touch. As a teacher I spend I good deal of my time trying to get people NOT to pick Hard. It's tough to be fluid when you'r musculs are tight. I can't think of any way to "work-out" musculs and relax at the same time.
Having said all that...I do think finger stringth is a good idea as long as you also strech and keep them lose. And if you play Dobro it's a must. But on steel I don't think it will make you any faster,cleaner,or any less dependent on an amp.

Charles Turpin · From: Mexico, Missouri, USA

I have always used a soft touch on the slow ballads and i have also learned to fast pick at a soft touch. But one time in St Louis at the steel convention. I seen Bruce Bouton there doing a photo shoot. He was playing some of that fast blue grass stuff on a Emmons guitar back then. The way he was picking and moving the bar and slamming them knee levers and pedals i thought he was going to tear that guitar to bits. But it never hurt it a bit when the shoot was over. But i never played them great big hundred of thousands people crowd all we ever played was local shows and bars back then. So we were told quite often to keep the volume down. So I have always adopted to soft playing. Maybe that is why i can't realy play like a stick of dynamite on my fast songs. Guess i need to develope something else Thanks for the help, on this subject, I was about to ask about the softness and how hard to pick the strings.

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John Lockney · From: New Market, Maryland, USA

In Danny Boy I found that in the string 4,5,6 chord grips where you let the chord ring and bring-in the half-pedal, I was running out of sustain too soon. Part of it may be vibrato and proper volume-pedal technique but, I also think I need to dig-in a bit more with the picks.

Practicing a couple of times through with no amp helped me pick all three notes more evenly and with more force. (and it didn't cost anything)

Don McClellan · From: California/Thailand

I know some of you have heard the MP3s I've posted here and on "No Peddlers". All the recordings I've done were made without using a volume pedal. I use it when I play out but not in the studio and never when I practice. I like the even volume. It really makes you concentrate and it helps your right hand technique. Don

David Doggett · Posted 8 Mar 2006 7:41 pm

The tone that mesmerizes me is the JB and BE tone that sounds like steady fairly hard picking that really brings out the rich overtones, and sustains forever, combined with a golden foot on the volume pedal for steady sustain and exquisite expression. It maximizes the signal and overtones, while minimizing the bar noise at the ends of long notes, when the bar is zipped to the next position. To me that is the elusive technique of the masters that gives them that recognizable tone on any instrument. I don’t see how you can learn that foot-pick coordination without using the volume pedal. The harder I pick, the better my tone is. But of course, if you overdo it, it slows you down – and man do the wrong notes stand out. But somehow that seems more of a problem for me than for them.

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