The Steel Guitar Forum

I have ~4 weeks ETA for my PSG. I play 6-string but never really used finger picks.

Question: Should I switch over to finger picks now and work on mechanics for 4 weeks on 6-string? To me, the only possible downside would be possibly learning bad habits and having to unlearn them later. I practiced about an hour today and it seemed a bit uncomfortable but not as awkward as I expected. It would give me something to work on for now.

What do you think?

Fantastic idea, it won't do you any harm, learn some banjo rolls, also take an acoustic guitar and raise the strings, tune it to G and work on some Dobro. I think this actually how you should learn, dobro/lap first then step into a pedal 10, sort of like starting on a moped instead of buying a 2 litre harley right off the bat, that seems to be the world we are in today though, which is why classified are always full of almost new harley's and pedal steels.

Larry Bressington wrote:Fantastic idea, it won't do you any harm, learn some banjo rolls, also take an acoustic guitar and raise the strings, tune it to G and work on some Dobro. I think this actually how you should learn, dobro/lap first then step into a pedal 10, sort of like starting on a moped instead of buying a 2 litre harley right off the bat, that seems to be the world we are in today though, which is why classified are always full of almost new harley's and pedal steels.

Larry, the dobro is a great idea. I'll tune an acoustic to an open G, lay it down and work on slide and picking.

Thanks,
Rick

https://www.steelguitarshopper.com/micr ... rsion-nut/

This is the string raiser. There's vids on youtube about fitting the fingerpicks and thumbpicks bands and shaping the blades curvature (which is important) so spend some time on that.

+1 for practicing with finger picks

Even the simple act of wearing them will help toughen your fingers up and get you used to the feeling. You could start your ankle stretches too

Gene Tani wrote:https://www.steelguitarshopper.com/micr ... rsion-nut/

This is the string raiser. There's vids on youtube about fitting the fingerpicks and thumbpicks bands and shaping the blades curvature (which is important) so spend some time on that.

Thanks, Gene. I've watched a few of those and they were very helpful. I don't think that I would have gotten a good fit without a little help.

Andrew Goulet wrote:Even the simple act of wearing them will help toughen your fingers up and get you used to the feeling. You could start your ankle stretches too

Are the ankle stretches for pedal motion?

Yeah, you'll be rolling your ankle to the left and right to activate pedals. For example, a common move is to have both A and B pedals down, then roll your ankle to let up on one of those pedals while keeping the other down. It can be uncomfortable for some, and is a skill to be perfected by all, I think. Pedal height, shoe choice, and pedal arrangement (Emmons vs. Day) will allow you to make it as comfortable and natural as it can be.

Prior to arrival of your pedal steel, I agree on practicing on a Dobro style guitar.

That will help you practice putting proper pressure on the bar, and 'string attack' with your picks

Ron Funk wrote:Prior to arrival of your pedal steel, I agree on practicing on a Dobro style guitar.

That will help you practice putting proper pressure on the bar, and 'string attack' with your picks

I retuned an acoustic to open G and started working with it. I'm waiting on a tone bar to use in place of my 6-string slides.

Thanks

Welcome to our journeys!

The Permutations from the Paul Franklin Method would be a great place to start working on picking without having a PSG. I don't know if the PDF is available to non-students, but essentially what they are are 4 adjacent strings, played in every possible order. This makes for 24 different picking patterns (Paul uses strings 8, 7, 6, and 5, but they can be played on any string group, and could be done on a lap steel (or raised nut lap guitar).

You can figure out the 24 perms with a bit of critical thinking. Here are six of them: 8765, 8756, 8675, 8657, 8576, 8567. Now figure out the ones that start with string 7, then 6 then 5.

The trick is to pick cleanly, and work on blocking, so that notes don't ring into each other.

And further, you can take a single perm, and play it once as written, then once starting on the 2nd note, then starting on the 3rd, then 4th: 8765, 7658, 6587, 5876, and then back to 8765 and continue. While those are technically 4 different permutations, they are all part of the same group/cycle. If you think of the permutations as cyclical, there are really only 6 of them total. Anyway, it's pretty easy with that example, but the less linear perms really tie your brain in a knot (in a good way!).

And practice slowly and with a metronome as much as possible.