Palm blocking: follow the beat or the follow the rhythm?

Andy Henriksen · From: Michigan, USA

I'm a natural pick blocker it seems, but I keep trying to force my hand to incorporate more palm blocking. Here's a basic question, that I'm not sure I've heard addressed specifically (although I'm sure it has been):

If you are playing a pretty fast passage, let's say mostly 8th notes, and there's a quick couple 16th notes in there, do you double the "bounce speed" of your hand during those couple notes, or keep the hand moving more consistently with the underlying 8th notes?

Of course, this is a "generally speaking" sorta question...

Thanks!

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

If I understand your question, it seems you are asking if your "up and down" hand/wrist motion must match the speed of the notes... I am a terminal palm blocker, but there is NO way I could ever play my fastest stuff with every note corresponding to a single up and down movement.. I think after a lot of experience, that even the best palm blockers are using a combination of palm and pick blocking,, Palm blocking every note of every fast run would probably sound very choppy and stiff.. Its hard to say exactly how or why or when it happens in a players development, but I know that good steel players that palm block can do runs that are fast in the extreme, and there is no way its being done 100% by palm blocking in the conventional sense.. bob
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Andy Henriksen · From: Michigan, USA

That does help, Bob, thank you. As I watch videos of the best palm blockers, their RH movement is so efficient, it's not always obvious just how fast they're moving. I wasn't sure if they were palm blocking after EVERY note, even on faster stuff, which - as you indicate - seems impossible (but so does most stuff on this confounded instrument!)

I sort of burned out on the RH alpha course before getting all the way through it but the issue of how much to palm block isn't something that I recall Jeff talking about in the first 3/4 of the DVD.

I think if I can keep my palm blocking fairly straight, almost like tapping my foot (something I don't get to do any more due since switching to PSG), then I can somewhere with it (with pick blocking to fill in as needed, etc.)

John McClung · From: Olympia WA, USA

Andy, over my decades of playing I've evolved into a hybrid palm/pick/fingertip blocker. My hand just intuitively uses one of those 3 techniques to clean things up.

The fingertip blocking is the tip of my ring finger doing "back up" blocking in combo with palm blocking, and it also "shadows" my middle finger: both fingers sit on a string, the ring finger leans forward against the the higher string just played, essentially muting strings in a picking action moving from higher to lower strings.

This is quite similar to techniques used by Emmons and Paul Franklin, I stumbled on it and somehow made it work.

Playing pedal steel is a constant lab experiment!
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Jim Pitman · From: Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA

I tend to palm block big string grips and only pick block individual strings if in a very fast passage. Some times I'll palm block individual strings to get a staccato affect even in slower passages.
If you ask Buck Reid, who says he's exclusively a palm blocker, his secret is to keep his palm very close to the strings so that palm blocking can be accomplished quickly. He is blocking every note. He can play damn fast if you hadn't noticed BTW. So in his case, the block is following the timing of the notes perfectly, slightly delayed I suppose.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I see many players that "bounce" their hand to palm block (looks like they are dribbling a basketball) , and it is not a pleasing sound to me. Very choppy. I lay my palm on the strings and barely lift it when I pick a string(s), then repeat as I play. But, Like Bob and John, I use several techniques to block. Sometimes changing in the same passage. I use palm, pick, pulling the bar towards me so the middle finger of my left hand mutes the string just past the nose of the bar, and even tilt the bar up so the nose end only touches the string I am picking (this is as good as pick blocking for me if I am playing fast single note stuff).
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Andy Henriksen · From: Michigan, USA

Chris Sattler · From: Hunter Valley, Australia

John McClung, here is Paul Franklins description of exactly the way you too block.

"Avoid Hybrid

After much discussion and experimentation, Hal Rugg, Buddy Emmons and I agreed that Palm Blocking and Pick Blocking (Fingertip Blocking) are two separate techniques that canâ€™t easily be blended because they require two completely different right hand positions."

The way one holds the right hand is therefore a factor which decides whether you should be a pick blocker or a palm blocker. If one tries to be a pick blocker but doesn't realize that the hand needs to be held a certain way then perhaps one is doomed from the start.

What the hand positions? Look closely at PF and BE who are the champions of each.

I am not the expert here and I defer to those who are: https://paulfranklinmethod.com/tackling-blocking/

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

Andy Henriksen · From: Michigan, USA

Sonny Jenkins · From: Texas Masonic Retirement Center,,,Arlington Tx

I'm wondering (in support of John Mc),,,how much time does it take to "change hand positions",,,,milliseconds???? A "planned" event???,,,or more of an automatic move???

chuck lemasters · From: Jacksonburg, WV

Having watched Paul’s video with the close up view of his blocking technique, I don’t think my hybrid pick/palm blocking method is nearly as big a problem as is my lack of imagination in what I attempt to play. The phrases, the timing, the emphasis on certain notes within a line in that video just floor me.

Curt Trisko · From: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Chuck Lemasters:

Good for you! That's where the real gulf lies, isn't it? It's the breadth of Paul's musical vision at least as much as his seemingly flawless technique.

The same is true of all the very top players.
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Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

I would not force myself to palm block. It would be a waste of time if you already pick block.
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Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

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