The Steel Guitar Forum

How do you do that fast sharp staccato picking a la Lloyd Greene? I've been fooling with a combo palm/pick blocking thing, but I'm missing something. Sorry if this has already come up recently - a pointer to a past thread also appreciated.

I'm pretty sure Lloyd is a palm blocker. Therein is some of the secret. Pick blocking and staccato don't go well together. It's mostly in the RIGHT hand palm blocking technique. There are a million variations between no mute and full mute. Learn the steps of the process: palm mutes; palm comes slightly off strings (depending on how much mute you want); pick; palm mutes.

Good luck.

------------------
<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Larry Bell on 20 January 2003 at 06:41 AM.]</p></FONT>

Thanks Larry- you said left hand, you do mean "pick" hand? (Not a bar lift like a dobro chop) that's what I thought-slightly more pressure than a palm harmonic? and a year of practice...

Learn palm blocking in a year? Good luck! It took me 5 to get the basics down.

duuuuh
<font size=1>brainFART</font>

SORRY -- of course I meant RIGHT hand -- I corrected the original post

BUT, while we're on the subject,
I think too many players work too hard blocking. Blocking involves BOTH HANDS. For example, you should avoid covering more strings than necessary with the bar and play with the nose of the bar, especially for single notes. Some patterns pickblock naturally -- USE THAT. Some patterns don't have to be blocked at all -- USE THAT.
To get blocking down to the point you don't have to think about it takes most players more than a year.

------------------
<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro

Larry
I Found palm blocking quite difficult to start with, and then when pick blocking became the issue I found myself trying to do something I'd been doing all along, I realised (particurly with little fast runs) I had always pick blocked.
Cheers
Dave.

This actually goes to the subject of technical creativity, something that is a lot rarer I think than musical creativity (which is still pretty hard to find!). Lloyd has a percussive bite in his blocking. Buddy Cage is also a pre-eminent palm blocker that knew how to create a rhythmic "squish" in his licks. Like everything else, while many players get the basics down, only a few players know how to make it something unique and special to them.