Going Pick-less

Bill McCloskey · Posted 4 Feb 2006 11:52 am

As I practice my pick blocking, I've been upset with the pick noise when I dampen the string. So I tried playing without picks and really liked both the sound and the feel of having my fingers right on the strings.

Is anyone else going pickless?

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Last video I saw of Bobbe Seymour he was playing with no picks. There have been several threads about this in the recent past, maybe searching on "without picks" might find some. Seems to me quite a few players do it without picks.... hey, that sounds funny.....

Mark Vinbury · From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA

I see Bobbe Seymour with only a thumb pick in the SuperSlide DVD.
I'm still trying to get up to speed with picks on and keep tossing them in frustration.I have a lot better accuracy and less extraneous noise sans picks.

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

I played with a church band for about three and a half months last year where the music director wanted a steel but did not to hear a steel. ?????????????

The solution was no picks. It is with the picks that the sharp snapping of the strings appear and gives you the steel guitar sound. It took about two weeks to get to the point where I could get a good clear tone out the notes. (a few built up calluses helped of course) Then he hit me with doing harmonics without picks. –Back to the drawing board-

I now know how to play without picks and how to get nice clear harmonics without relying on the finger picks.

Playing without picks is a great learning experience but it does pay off.

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(I am not right all of the time but I sure like to think I am!)

George Rout · From: St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

I'm teaching a chap Dobro and he doesn't use picks, and gets along okay. It's not my preference, but he's very comfortable with it.

I had another student a few years back who also didn't use picks.

Geo

Tom Baylis · From: Portland, Oregon

Interestingly, while practicing blocking & damping, I find it preferable to go 'au natural' too. I use a thumb pick only, and prefer bare fingers for the rest. As a beginner, this may be a lazy or dangerous habit, but I've always preferred that approach to fingerpicking on standar/spanish guitar too. I just like the way it feels and sounds...

Bill McCloskey · Posted 4 Feb 2006 2:42 pm

I'm not sure it's the lazy way out, and I did a search on picking with no picks and most of the threads were by people encouraging someone who has trouble with picks to keep at it and learn to use them. I don't have that problem. I've been playing with picks for decades.

But there is something extremely mellow about playing jazz on a 12 string superslide without picks. I like it. I'd love to hear from people who used to play with picks and then dropped them for good reasons, not because they couldn't learn to use them.

Also, I'm not imaginging I would ever play a dobro or other acoustic lap steel guitar without picks. But for an electric instrument, where I can can crank up the sound to whatever volume I want, going without seems like a nice alternative: one that I can develop a nice unique style on.

[This message was edited by Bill McCloskey on 04 February 2006 at 02:44 PM.]

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

I like the tone of playing with bare fingers better than with picks, on regular guitar and steel.... but find it limiting. There are things I can do better with bare fingers that I can't do with picks, and vice-versa.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 04 February 2006 at 02:58 PM.]

Rick Collins · From: Claremont , CA USA

Any steel guitar sounds better played with picks. For timbre versatility try:

Plastic thumb pick
Metal index finger pick
Plastic middle finger pick

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

I have gotten used to picks and for some tunes they work out, but I like the feel of the strings under my fingers. I still use a thumbpick, but the fingerpicks are too noisy and the attack is too sharp and unpleasant to me.

Jeff Au Hoy · From: Honolulu, Hawai'i

Please pardon my ignorance, but I'm not familiar with pick blocking technique. Am I correct to assume that it achieves the same as palm muting/damping? Are there advantages to using the picking fingers to block as opposed to the palm? (I'm guessing perhaps speed, as the fingers are less cumbersome than the palm)

Bill Leff · From: Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Here's a video of Rob Anderlik demonstrating pick blocking:
http://www.robanderlik.com/Clips/pick%20blocking%20examples.wmv

Jeff Au Hoy · From: Honolulu, Hawai'i

Cool, thanks Bill! After watching, I think pick blocking also affords much less "dead air" between notes than palm muting.

Jesse Pearson · From: San Diego , CA

I stopped using finger picks a long time ago, but I think the steel sounds a lot better tone/harmonics wise with picks. I play guitar and hate having to put the thumb and finger picks on. I can play great with the thumb and finger picks, but they are a hassel trying to switch from guitar to steel and back again. If I was just playing steel all night I would use the thumb and finger picks, harmonics just sing with em on. It's kind of a struggle to get good harmonics with no picks, but you can get close.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 4 Feb 2006 6:07 pm

The entire technique I'm developing is based on pick blocking. I started doing palm blocking but have moved completely to pick blockiing. The sound is similar to what you hear on the video Bill provided, except I'm doing it on a lap steel. I found the techniques found in Joe Wright's My Approach to be great to practice pick blocking.

basilh · From: United Kingdom

Having never had tuition on the Steel Guitar, I fell into the habit of pick blocking when I first started to play, and that in conjunction with lifting the bar is the way I damp the strings. I don't think I would like the tone of "Naked" fingers and it would limit my dynamic and tonal capabilities.

Roy Thomson · From: Wolfville, Nova Scotia,Canada

I use both palm and pick blocking. Both have their place and advantages.
For example pick blocking offers the advantage of being able to choose which string{s} you wish to sustain,, ie if you play strings 2 and 3 and you wish to stop 3 you can do that with the thumb while string 2 keeps ringing. Not possible with the palm.

I play some songs with no picks but I can't really attack anything. Soft music only.
The picks offer bite and volume,,,for me anyway.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 5 Feb 2006 8:05 am

Sort of related to this discussion is an interesting interview with Leo Kottke where he discusses giving up finger picks in order to correct tendonitis: http://www.solidairrecords.com/AMR_interviews/kottke2.html

So far I'm finding that I really sound terrible without picks when I first sit down to the steel, but after running some of the exercises in Joe Wright's book for about 5 minutes, I get the feel right and it starts to sound good. I'm going to keep experimenting.

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

Without a doubt, the technique used to pick the strings with picks then with bare fingers are as different as day and night.

One can become very lazy with their picks but still get a nice clear tone from the strings. Going pickless however, if you get lazy with your finger work when picking, you will hear it instantly.

Even if you usually don't play without picks, practising without picks lets you know if your picking fingers are being inconsistent with the pressure exerted on each string .

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(I am not right all of the time but I sure like to think I am!)

[This message was edited by Les Anderson on 05 February 2006 at 09:55 AM.]

Kris Oka · From: San Francisco, CA, USA

Bill, when you refer to playing pickless, are you hitting the strings with the bare finger tips or your finger nails. I could never get use to metal finger picks so I play with my "extended" finger nails that re-enforced with acrylic. I do use a thumb pick though, I have to try pick blocking with the thumb pick. I often heard that you can also use the ring finger to finger block. Just a newbie still learning. Kris

Bill McCloskey · Posted 5 Feb 2006 2:36 pm

Well, I'm a nail biter so I'm not talking about nails, but I'm think I'll try growing them out, especially the thumb.

Travis Bernhardt · From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Going pickless is much easier and more natural for me than playing with picks, but sometimes picks are better. Playing in a group I find I need picks to get sufficient volume if it's an acoustic thing or to get clarity and to cut through if its electric. Also, picks allow a couple of different technique options that I like. Playing electric steel by myself I love going without picks.

I think, too, that if I were to develop the proper callouses I could go a long way to making up for the shortcomings of going pickless. Or there's always the fake fingernail route...

-Travis

Kris Oka · From: San Francisco, CA, USA

Just read Bobbe Seymour's newletter dated Feb. 6 2006. In his 45 years as a professional steel player, he has gone finger pickless over the last 7 years. He is able to play equally well with and without the use of finger picks. Using his fingernails, he avoids the metal "clank" of the pick hitting the strings. Fingernails give him more control over the tone and more speed. Pick blocking is also quieter without picks. Thumb picks are essential unless your nail grows out of the side of your thumb. Check out his newsletter for details.

George Rout · From: St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

I'm glad I'm not the only nail-bitin' kid on the Forum!!!

Again, I think picks or no picks is a personal preference along with what sound you're trying to accomplish. Geo

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