Slow Palm Blocking Exercises

[John Bohannon]

I'm finding with my palmBlocking I have a hard time finding exercises that are slow enough yet I can still find my rhythm. Trying to improve accuracy as I can do it a bit faster speed but its not always perfect, which I'd like to get it closer to. Anyone have any practice techniques they'd like to share in this area?

[Frank Freniere]

And use a metronome: https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=357248

[Andrew Frost]

I've been working on this stuff alot lately too.
This particular exercise has been working well.
Obviously you can shorten the phrases to 2 beat loops or whatever suits you.

[Dave Magram]

I'm finding with my palmBlocking I have a hard time finding exercises that are slow enough yet I can still find my rhythm. Trying to improve accuracy as I can do it a bit faster speed but its not always perfect, which I'd like to get it closer to. Anyone have any practice techniques they'd like to share in this area?

Hi John,
I wrote up very detailed, step-by-step instructions for learning palm-blocking for some students several years ago. Several people on the SGF have asked me for a copy, and I heard that they found it helpful.

It is seven pages long(!); too long for posting I think.

If you'd like a copy, send me an email by clicking on the "EMAIL" button at the bottom of this page.


-Dave

[Franklin]

Hi John,
Always practice with a metronome. When tempos are extremely slow - we can block successfully - a successful block and movement coordination is what we want to memorize. To get the slower tempos in the pocket, set the metronome to 8th notes. That is where you play to every other click so that the metronome gives the 8th note feel as you pick the 1/4 notes...

Its also important to set our internal time early on in our playing years. All drummers feel different and as musicians we must adapt our pocket to each drummers snare and hi-hat feel. We must first master getting perfectly in synch with that...Rhythm tracks don't give us the option to vary a drummers snare falls...which side of the beat we can adapt ourselves to is important to learn - a metronome allows for this because with rhythm tracks we are only mastering a single drummers feel which the bass and guitars are matching - so we have no choice but to play exactly with their pocket.....With a metronome I practice laying back ever so slightly, then playing on top which is exactly with each click, or playing a riff slightly in front of the beat etc. Not hearing other instruments allows my internal clock to focus deeper on time so the memory stores the flexibility in time... Emmons was a master of that skill...As you explained stating your current struggle...Uneven timing causes players to repeat it exactly as it was memorized. Our mind will store everything exactly as practiced....

Always practice playing perfect no matter how slow a tempo. For practicing new info, tempos do not matter, perfection does. You can always speed up a perfectly played lick from the memory! What is nearly impossible to correct are the flaws in left and right hand technique and the emotional skills lacking to reach the listeners ears due to learning things too fast beyond our ability to play it perfect. Early on the first years should be about synchronizing the Blocking and the picking to the VP, while using the emotional skills, vibrato, pedal squeezes, picking dynamics, etc so we can connect to each string played... I became known as really fast player when I moved to Nashville because Mandrell's gig required it so at that point I went to Deemans den and Mike Smith and I started focusing in on composing our own ideas for playing fast...Prior to the Nashville move and through into today I always practice slowly to perfect everything.. so when a gigs songs require fast I can play clean and precise notes or on a day when it doesn't seem to synchronize I will pass the ball rather than to stumble. Everyone stumbles so don't be hard on yourself...Its hard to keep all the ducks in a row.

My 2 cents,

Paul

[Bill Terry]

Everyone stumbles so don't be hard on yourself...Its hard to keep all the ducks in a row.

Great post Paul, with so much good information, but that last line really resonates. Steel guitar is a difficult instrument.. and there are MANY ducks.

[John Bohannon]

thanks for everything here guys! Paul, thanks so much for your info here, I've actually been doing your full course - its fantastic, and I've been MUCH more comfortable pick blocking. But there are just some licks that need that percussive sound I'm finding so trying to at least become accurate enough to pull that sound off without mistake!

[John Bohannon]

and yes, I agree on the slow practicing. I often practice to a metronome and/or a drone in a certain key. I guess what didn't fully come across was, the only way I was kind of feeling the motion of palm blocking was playing at a slightly quicker tempo and then I would go back to slow to try and imitate that same feel and was having a hard time. not sure if its something I'm doing in the right hand or not, but absolutely looking to do this slow until I have it precise!

[Ian Rae]

There is a complementary way of thinking about blocking as unblocking.

Just as the damper on a piano string lifts when the key is struck, so if your rest position is with your hand on the strings, the action of picking frees the string, and blocking is what you have to do to get ready for the next note.

So instead of pick, then block - it's unblock, then pick. By thinking of it as this virtual piano, the blocking action becomes part of the next note rather than the previous one, and makes a melody more sustained and less "gappy".

I don't know whether my blocking is any cleaner than the next guy's, but I feel positive about it and it's not a source of worry.