The Steel Guitar Forum

I am interested knowing how many have switched to pick blocking after palm blocking for years.
I have tried pick blocking after years of palm blocking and it just will not come to me no matter how many hours I spend trying. I have worked with PFs course on pick blocking for hours & hours and it just will not work for me my fingers just will not make the movements required.
Will the pick blocking simply kick in some day or should I give up.
I think I am one who could not pick block no matter how much time I spend with it.
Are there others like me out there or am I just a freak of nature

I do mostly palm blocking but find myself doing a lot of pick blocking. It's like anything else, practice practice practice and eventually it will come to you.

I attended a Jeff Newman/Paul Frnklin pick blocking semminar in Kansas City (probely 83 or 84). I learned (at least saw) Paul's technique. And with a "hands on" semminar it probably helped me more, however during one of the exercises we had to do Jeff did comment that I would make a good candidate for pick blocking.

My Franklin guitar probably is the reason.

Yes, it will come. The most common problem most people have developing the technique is not picking hard enough, and not picking quick enough. The technique requires a certain amount of pick force and speed, so forget that "gentle touch" you've been working on so many years.

"Pull 'em out by the roots!"

I use to palm block "only" and now after about 4 years of practice practice practice I mostly pick block. Like Donny said it's hard to do it soft. For a while after i started learning pick blocking i could'nt do either very well,now i feel very relaxed pick blocking, even though i still palm block, but very little
Take your time, and it will fall inplace for you if that is realy what you want to do. I practiced an average of 2 hours a day just going 123 321 (T12 21T) and was determined i was going to do it, and i did.

Guess I'm the odd duck here,

I do very little palm blocking--only when necessary. The pick blocking comes far more naturally to me. For what it's worth, I also make a lot of use of my left thumb.

I wish I could palm block better.

Dan

Just as an aside: If you use a digital or analog delay unit and like a lot 0f depth (read lots of echo), you will find that pick blocking will cause the note to repeat, repeat, repeat. If you palm block you usually will only get one soft repeat and it sounds more like the tailing off of a reverb unit. I am not knocking either method as I use both types of blocking. I just thought this might help some of you folks. As has been said before, practice until you are tired, then go practice some more and pick blocking will start occurring naturally. There's no reason not to use all types of blocking as the end result is the same. Shutting off the sound.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Jim Bob Sedgwick on 30 March 2006 at 09:50 PM.]</p></FONT>

I use both, but I learned late,
so no decades long habits to break,
I learned them in parallel..

I think, but others may likely disagree,
that to get early comfortability with pick/finger blocking,
you can ALSO try to practice it without picks and no palm.

Then use picks and no palm.
Then combine the two, finger and palm blocking,

and then of course top finger and thumb blocking on the left hand added to the right hand techniques..

It is all about entraining muscle memory
to the added return movement of fingers to strings.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 30 March 2006 at 09:56 PM.]</p></FONT>

I don't know if I'm doing it right or not but I use both pick blocking and palm blocking. I also raise the bar a tiny bit with my left hand and use those fingers to block with at times. It's not something I'm really trying to do rather it just kind of happens as need be.

Rick

www.bobbygarrett.com

back in the 70's i use to palm block, but when i moved to nashville in the early 90's and playing for a living i meet several players. when i found out that paul franklin and bruce bouton and others used mostly pick blocking i jump right on it and force my self to learn pick blocking. i'am glad i did its fast and clean and i probably pick block 95% of the time.


Carter D-10, two Evans FET500, fender custom dobro

I've been pick blocking since I started playing. It just seemed so much more intuitive. You do sacrifice some of your tone, however. Not to say that Pick blockers can't have great tone, they just have to work at it. Like speed and Palm blockers. The two styles are made for seperate ways of playing.