Picking Exercises to get used to picks for pick-less pickers?

[Fred Treece]

When did your picking with picks catch up to your picking without picks?

Pretty quickly, once I found and got fit with the right picks. Plodded along with baby steps and non-musical Joe Wright exercises for a few weeks, and one day it just seemed like suddenly picks or no picks didn’t matter. Now, fingerpicks are my default on steel (hundreds of great steel guitar masters can’t be wrong, etc.). I like the tone, accuracy, and dynamic consistency better. Plus, it might be quite a challenge on the bare fingers to do an entire 3-hour gig.

For standard 6-string guitar, I’m die-hard thumb pick and bare fingers.

[AJ Jacobson]

Hi, I’m Jack from the Netherlands. I started playing pedal steel some three years ago. I bought a second hand Stage One by Zum and started learning. I played these years with Dunlop picks 0.18 “ and they always hurt even though I tried to adjust them. Now I started using D’addario Franklin picks and they fit much better and play different due to the longer picking part. So I got to get used to playing with them but the first impression is not negative.

[Dave Magram]

Hi Chris,

I agree with the other posters about the importance of shaping one's fingerpicks properly for optimal picking effectiveness and comfort.

• After all, your fingerpicks, like a violinist's bow, are your only contact points with the strings!

As you may know, violinists often spend a thousand dollars or more on their fiddle bows, and spend many hours learning optimal bowing technique, so spending $25 on a pair of good fingerpicks and spending 20 or 30 minutes shaping them properly seems to me to be a real bargain.

I did a bit of research on how Paul Franklin and Buddy Emmons shaped their fingerpicks, and posted it at: viewtopic.php?t=298186&start=25

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As you may know, there are three distinctive blocking techniques for playing pedal steel: palm-blocking, "pick-blocking" (what Paul Franklin calls "fingertip blocking"), or Buddy Emmons' "hybrid" picking technique-- and how you block the strings has a lot to do with how you shape your picks and the exercises you need to do, because a different right-hand "posture" is required for each of those picking/blocking techniques.

If you're interested in more information on these different blocking techniques and some picking exercises, several years ago, I put together a 20-page guide to help a student learn palm-blocking and "pick-blocking".

• It includes a number of step-by-step blocking exercises, along with quite a bit of detail on choosing and shaping fingerpicks for optimal picking effectiveness, and making them more comfortable to wear.

If you send me your email address in a Private Message, I will send you a copy of the guide at no charge.

- Dave