The Steel Guitar Forum

This is undoubtedly something that all decent players do* without even thinking about it, but as I've never seen it specifically taught in the books I've read, I thought I'd put it out there to see who does it regularly and consciously or intuitively. When doing 8, 6 & 5 string grips on E9 (especially when sliding the bar), I've developed the now-conscious habit of blocking the 7th string with my thumbpick, not only to keep the string from ringing out undesirably but also to reduce string scraping noise (which it does very effectively on bar moves). I've become consciously aware that I've been doing this subconsciously for a long time, but have only recently become aware of it enough to start specifically practising it.

Just curious if it's something that everyone knows and does so often that it's second nature. I also block the 7 & 9 strings similarly when using 10-8-6 grips as well, but that's not as common as the 7th string mute. I figure that I'm just reinventing the wheel as usual, but it does seem like a technique that's worth calling attention to. It's certainly cleaned up a lot of my playing now that I'm doing it more mindfully....

* - as Donny points out below, I'm obviously extremely foolish to assume that "all decent players do" something that evidently hardly any players do at all, so I clearly chose my words wrong. I had just assumed (thereby making the requisite you-know-what out of you and me) that, if I had thought of it and it worked, that other, better players (and that would be any other players at all) must know about it and do it already. Clearly I was wrong, and my stupidity and inexperience has been shown in all of its glory. I'll refrain from posting stupid things like this again.

Here's a couple thoughts.....I've never blocked lower strings like you describe. Now, I haven't seen you play, but maybe you need to pick a bit harder. That would keep the unpicked strings from causing so much noise compared to the picked strings.

Also, if you're vibrato consists of only sliding the bar back and forth, try rolling it more. This will help reduce the scraping sounds.

Thanks, Mike - I do roll the bar rather than "scrape" it for vibrato, but for fast moves from one fret to another, there's no avoiding it. I also do pick fairly forcefully now. Blocking the 7th just makes all of those moves much cleaner. I don't see any downside, and though I admittedly have many limitations, that technique isn't about compensating for something I can't do; it's about opening up that grip to much more versatility.

The plain strings lend themselves to large fret moves without much noise, but it requires a little work to be able to use the wound strings with the same amount of movement because of the wound string scraping issue, so many of my lower string muting techniques are geared toward making the lower voicings as usable and versatile as the higher voicings, which helps me to open up the usable range of the steel....

I think in general, you will, over the years instinctively add blocks to your personal tricks. I know that I have blocks that I never think about that I probably developed long ago. I don't even think you develop some of them consciously. I have one block where I use my little finger to block a ringing string above the bar. More of a correction move. Have no clue where it came from.

This is undoubtedly something that all decent players do without even thinking about it, but as I've never seen it specifically taught in the books I've read, I thought I'd put it out there to see who does it regularly and consciously or intuitively. When doing 8, 6 & 5 string grips on E9 (especially when sliding the bar), I've developed the now-conscious habit of blocking the 7th string with my thumbpick...

Well, I'm probably the exception, but I don't know any player who does that...and I've watched a lot of players in my 50+ years of playing. If it works for you, that's fine. But I really think it's a stretch to say that all decent players do it.

How long have you been playing?

I started playing Hawaiian pedal steel at 7 years old but quit around 14. That was in the mid 1960s. I played guitar as a finger picker from my early 20s. A few years ago I returned to pedal steel and found that though I knew little about modern pedal steel and how it worked, I had retained much of the special skills used by PSG players. Picking, blocks, bar handling, foot coordination and timing. It was like sitting down with an old friend.

I actually interrupted play on many occasions to observe some of my own reticent habits. Little finger blocks, bar lifts, and pick blocks were and are still almost automatic for me. With the exception of bar lifts, I was never, to my knowledge, actually taught blocking. I developed it as a function of playing the instrument. I'm probably unique since I left the instrument for so long after learning at such a young age.

If I use a pick to block 7, I use the index

my thumbpick automatically falls back to one or another of the bottom four strings.
also my lefthand thumb is always available to mute those strings. not much thought involved.

Chris, I have noticed that I also use the left-hand thumb to block the lowest strings as you describe. Same reason, really - to clean up the scraping of the wound strings when doing longish bar moves.

Donny, I've been playing just over five years. I'll never say that I'm any good, but I'm no longer exactly a "newbie" or total novice. But I am largely self-taught and intuitive, using the best materials available to me. My intention with the post was to see if it was an obvious "duh, everyone does that" thing or if it was a relatively unusual move. Sounds like it's more of the latter, but I really didn't expect my experience to get questioned as much as it seems to be based on just describing a blocking technique I use. (No offense - it is a valid question, and I'll always be the first to admit that I'll always be a strict amateur.). But the blocking works for me, and helps clean up my playing in a way that I don't see a downside to - I mean, I don't use it when in the heat of fast picking, but for more "emotional" slower moves, I like using as much of the instrument as possible, and blocking the unused wound strings really helps give me nice clean chordal moves.

Lane, I could easily see using a fingerpick rather than the thumbpick - I guess it's just one of those individual quirks. Again, it seems you and I think along similar outside-the-box lines.

Well, I guess I got my answer! Careful what you ask for....

And John, thanks for the insights - in some ways, I can relate, because I have played a lot of different stringed instruments including lap steel, all of which have led to me developing somewhat unique approaches from one instrument to another, and that's undoubtedly coloured my steel "technique," such as it is....

I have spent quite a bit of time and I'm coming up empty in my searches.
If I am remembering this right --- no guarantees! --- does anyone remember the discussion where Lloyd Green describes how Johnny Paycheck (is this right?) complains about the droning 7th string, resulting in Lloyd's muting the string to eliminate the sympathetic vibration?
I may have some facts wrong but I'm not making this up, am I?

Funny but it was a couple of faux Lloyd licks (and a couple of Rusty Young licks too) that first caught my conscious attention to me doing that blocking trick! That feels a tiny bit better to think that maybe the great Lloyd faced that issue too....

b0b, I believe you can close this one up if you want....