The Steel Guitar Forum

The third pick works so well for me, I started using a couple on my left hand.

I'm one of the oddballs that don't use any picks. Comes from too many years of playing classical guitar. Got the nails just the right length. The only downfall is if I break a nail, then it takes a week or so for it to grow back out.

YOUR THUMB holds the "secret".....

Two finger picks for the top strings and the thumb sweep and/or skip a string or two....for the fuller chords. Many occasions arise for the fore and back picking with the thumb pick.......

Personally, I use eight finger picks and three thumbs picks. I have no blue thumb picks.

<SMALL>A Nashville record producer told me last month that he is looking for "new blood steel players."</SMALL>

If the current NCS music is any indication, those Nashville Producers don't know much (and don't care much) about the steel guitar.

Flat pick plus one finger pick. Most flexible, I'm not that complicated yet, steel is supplemental to my regular guitar.

True Story: Back when I was a full-time road warrior, I only used two finger picks w/thumb. One morning, in a bleak motel room,
I got up, bleary-eyed, stuck my hand in my shaving kit and sliced off the tip of my first finger. Had to work, so I quickly fitted a pick to go on my ring finger. After about two weeks of using it this way, it almost felt natural. My first finger recovered and I've used all three ever since. Moral: you never know what you can do untill you have to!
W.C.

To D. Hinson: That's probably why so many are looking for new sounds. Also many of the producers are lawyers. I think the panic button has been pressed. Maybe the lawyers would do better in medical malpractice. HJ

I use a thumb pick and two finger picks. I don't put a finger pick on my ring finger because I've always used my thumb, index, and middle fingers to pick. Brett Day, Emmons S-10

About 20 years back when I was dating my wife we watched a young fellow in a band on the north side of Richmond, va. at a Red Barn dinner club. He was picking a Bossan d10 using a flat guitar pick and two finger picks....I remember one of the songs was "Orange Blossem Special" and he was flat out super speed picking...back & forth with that flat guitar pick on the speed licks..sounded like Doug Jernigan in passing gear...and smooth on slow licks....I tryed it for a while but to no advail.

If it works, go for it! - however, there's no substitute (as far as I know) for a 5-finger sweep starting with the thumb and ending with the small finger and then back again. Until I came up with my 5-finger technique over 20 years ago, I'd never heard a steel guitar play an arpeggio; with this method an arpeggio can be executed as easily as done on the harp or piano. Speed playing can be faster than Django Reinhardt's, not to mention the innovations in chord expansion--using closed voicings or big spread piano voicings. - HJ