Bar grip

[Nathan Burns]

Hi guys,

I've been playing for a few years and consider myself fairly intermediate. I've worked lots on right hand technique and have gotten fairly decent at my palm blocking. This weekend I got together with a pedal steel friend of mine who has many more years under his belt then I and when we got to talking about rich vibrato (which I feel I need work on) he mentioned the way I grip my bar was incorrect according to Jeff Newman and others.

My first instrument is dobro so I'm used to a stevens bar and being able to really get a good grip for hammer ons and pull offs. The bullet style bar has been a bit of a challenge just getting a hold of it. I tend to tuck it right under my index finger and sort of prop the back in just touching my palm, index finger laid out so I have pressure on it and gives me at least some grip when I go to pick it up.

Watching some of the greats now (Jerry Bird, Buck Reid, Lloyd Green) it looks like they barely touch the bar with the tips of their fingers! It's hard for me to wrap my head around how they pick it up easily?

Anyhow, I'm attaching three picks. One is with the bar tucked right under my flat index finger and back against my palm (how I've done it mostly to now) (second pic), another is that finger tip method I see the pros doing but I can't understand how you have any control with (first pic), and the last is with my index finger bent at second knuckle (third pic), but again, when I do this I sort of end up tucking it back against my palm.

My question is how important is this to vibrato? Is the finger tip method the way to go even if it means more time going back to break old habits for me? If the finger tip method is not the be all and end all can you show me some pros that have a different style and still get that rich vibrato

Thanks!

[Paul Sutherland]

There are players that bend the index finger at the first joint, and some say they do a bit of string muting with the finger tip. But they don't do that off the end of the bar. Rather, they hold the bar fairly normally, and the index finger is bent down to the side of the bar toward the string. It's well back of the tip of the bar. Your second picture has the finger bent over the end of the bar, which requires you to move the bar back into your palm. I don't know of any pro player that does that. That looks like a very poor hand position to control vibrato.

Pictures 1 and 3 look relatively fine to me. I play with the index finger bent like in picture 3, but not quite that much.

[John Spaulding]

Hi Nathan-

You might want to consider using a longer bar. Here's a clip from The Paul Franklin Method where Paul shares his thoughts on choosing a bar and how to hold it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsZGuFl ... e=youtu.be

[Paul Sutherland]

I agree with John. It looks like that bar is a bit small for the size of your hands. I should have mentioned that before.

[Nathan Burns]

Thank you for the response. Yeah I have some pretty large hands and considered trying a twelve string bar as the one I'm using seemed pretty small. It's a ten string, 7/8'' BJS. I will watch the Franklin video when I get home from work.

[Bob Hoffnar]

I'm not sure you have a problem with hand position. It looks pretty normal to me. The main thing is to not be using any unnecessary muscle tension to grip or push down on the bar. Feel free to get in touch and we can do a quick skype thing to see if there are any real problems.

[Jim Bob Sedgwick]

I learned years ago....put the pressure between your thumb and middle finger to pick up the bar. Also put small amount of pressure when you slide the bar. When you reach
the desired position, relax your hand. This allows your forearm muscles to rest, thereby relieving tension. Practice this for a few weeks and it will become second nature and you don't have to think about it.

[Skip Ellis]

Another thing, for vibrato, don't move the bar back and forth - ROLL it. At least that's the way I was taught by someone in my early days and I think it sounds a lot nicer. After you learn to control the bar, you get where you just naturally roll it with your index finger. Works for me YMMV.