The Steel Guitar Forum

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Great Job Doug !

Eddie "PYS".

Thanks Eddie!

WOW! Super clean pick blocking. Great stuff as always Doug. It was great to see how you work the bar on this.

Any chance you could do a video of the same exercise but ONLY show close-ups of your picking hand? It would be a great benefit to we NEWBIES who get daunted by pick blocking with some speed.

Thanks Stephen, with pick blocking... the thumb and finger(s) alternate, when one picks the other drops down (at the same moment) on the string that it just picked to kill the sound. Back and forth, thumb and finger, each on it's own string. It's like this... place your right hand on a table with your thumb and first finger pressed down on the table. Tap your thumb on the table and raise your finger at the same instant. Then tap your finger on the table and raise your thumb at the same instant. Keep repeating that, back and forth so one of them is always down on the table. Same thing on the strings of your steel guitar
For example, if you pick strings 5 & 4 with thumb and finger... start by picking string 5 with the thumb. Then pick string 4 with the finger and at the same moment drop the thumb back onto string 5 to kill the sound. Then pick string 5 with the thumb again and at the same moment drop the finger back onto string 5 to kill the sound, etc... back and forth, thumb and finger, so only one note is heard at a time. Never two notes ringing together. The fingers and thumb are "blockers" as well as "pickers".

Nice!! I checked out a few of your other videos while I was there. Super-clean and very tasty! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Bob, I'm glad you like it.

Thanks for the explanation Doug about pick blocking...I had known that. I just thought close-up video might "crystallize" the concept for folks. Something done slowly, then half-speed, and finally full speed. Just a thought.

Hello Doug,

Could you make a video about your rigth hand please ?

Thanks, have a great day

Eddie.

Yes, I just updated the video. I added a section showing the right hand (pick blocking), playing the three exercises, plus some other pick blocking noodling. The audio is a little different in this section because I'm playing the guitar through the computer speakers, not through a real amp.

---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WG7qSLYOtU

Doug,your right hand vid is darn nifty in helpin' learnin' proper pick blockin'
watch how the thumb always returns & ready for the next note too guys
" that's the way you do it ( you play yer guitar on the mtv....) "

Thank you Doug

To day I made one video too

http://www.youtube.com/papayellowsteel

Cheers,

Eddie

...the thumb always returns & ready for the next note

yes, the thumb and finger(s) keep returning to the strings to silence them.

Eddie, I like your new song. The chorus section reminds me of "Bei Mir Bist du Shein"

Thanks Doug for re-doing the video showing the fingers picking the strings. It makes it a lot clearer for someone like myself to actually see what is happening.
Mel

Doug, perfect!!! Thanks so much for the splendid video tutorial. A picture with sound truly is worth a thousand words.

Much appreciated and many thanks!!

Thanks guys, the video shows how pick blocking works, my interpretation of it anyway. Rather than trying to explain every finger motion in detail, which finger blocks which string, which picks, etc. I thought it would be better to just show what the technique looks like and each player will come up with his own variation that comes natural to his fingers.

Pick blocking is convenient when picking two string patterns, but it gets complicated in some three string patterns. Often a finger or the thumb must be used as a "blocker" on a string that it did not pick. So it has to move to that string and mute it, even though it did not pick that string. It's very difficult to explain in text or in tablature, so the video is helpful in that regard.

Bump! It's been a couple of years so I thought I'd bump this up for any new members who might be interested.

It's a fairly advanced "hammer-ons and pull-offs" exercise. The second part of the video shows close-ups of my right hand, picking blocking. Enjoy

Thanks for sharing, I first picked my steel up in the last year, this is some good stuff!

Doug:

When is "Even Yet More Songs For Lap Steel" coming out?

John, I've got something new in the works, but it will be quite a while before it's ready.

Jon, I'm glad you like the hammer-on exercises. Enjoy your lap steel!

^^^^ bump ^^^^

It's been a while, so I thought I'd bump this up for anyone who's interested in this sort of thing. Enjoy

you betcha! Thank you Sir