Players that used 3 finger picks

[jeff reynolds]

What steel players used or still uses a third finger pick ?

Did Buddy Emmons use three ?

[Ian Rae]

Me. The rather better-known Buddy Emmons sometimes used his third finger, but with no pick.

I use the third pick a lot - my finger is well developed from playing wind instruments.

[Bill McCloskey]

I do. Reece Anderson did. David Wright does as does Joe Wright. The Wright brothers. Most of the jazz guys do

[Greg Vincent]

From over on the Jernigan thread:
I like three fingerpicks for faking C6 on E9, where often there are strings you need to skip over in order to grab a desired four-note extended chord.

https://youtu.be/ItUgIZfTCSc?si=MIzAQvAZSKvWrqws

[Darvin Willhoite]

I didn't use any finger picks the first year or so that I played steel since I had played guitar first. It just made more sense to me to use three finger picks, it made the chromatic strings much easier to hit with a lot less hand movement. I occasionally do 4 string chords.

[Douglas Schuch]

I use to fingerpick 6-string guitar using thumb and three fingers, so thought that would make sense on pedal steel. It proved not so easy, in part because I am a pick-blocker - I need to not only pick the string, but often enough, return that finger to the sting to block it. I've ended up with a personal compromise that works for me: I play E9 with thumb and 2 fingers. But for C6, I put on an extra pick - I only use it for chords - chord/melody, comping/vamping, etc - but all single-note strings are played using the thumb, index, and middle. It's worked out pretty good so far.

[Ian Rae]

I started using four picks when I was working on BE's Basic C6 course. He did four- (and five-) note chords by picking the top two strings and raking the lower one(s) with the thumb. Trying to master that was going to slow me down too much, so I went for the fourth pick. I soon discovered, like Darvin, that it was handy for E9 too.
Also, on the uni with no 9th string, the familiar 6.8.10 grip becomes 6.8.9 - this is very comfortable as T.1.3

[David Farrell]

I played guitar for 30 years before I got a pedal steel. I would hold a flat pick with thumb & index, and use middle & ring to hybrid pick.

I use a thumb & 3 finger picks on my pedal steel. I don't often use my ring fingerpick. Mostly I do when grabbing 4 note chords.

[Chris Brooks]

I use 3 finger picks and a thumb pick on my SD 12 Carter. I studied classical guitar, which uses all 3 fingers.

And the 3rd (ring) finger is just as long as one's index finger, so why not get it into the act?

[manny escobar]

I pick quite a variety with my middle finger.

[Chris Brooks]

Yes, and you sometime hold that very finger up for display too, Manny!

[Harry Teachman]

[John Macy]

Mike Smith!!

[Joe Burke]

There's a great steel player here in Toronto that uses 3 fingers. Andrew Frost. He's on this forum.

[Jim Hollingsworth]

Rick Schmidt uses 3 finger picks on his fully loaded D12 ...... talk about options! He plays amazing jazz on both necks.

[Stephen Pride]

Joe Wright uses three picks and gives a bunch of exercises for three picks in his teaching. David Phillips in San Francisco also uses three picks.

[J D Sauser]

- M'Reece Anderson
- Tommy Morrell (back when playing PSG at least)
- Julian Tharp (I believe for certain styles).
- Bud Carter
- Joe Wright
- David Wright
- Sez Adamson (whom I only recently discovered: https://www.youtube.com/@SezAdamson ... listen to his take of "Round Midnight to hear the difference)

- a couple of lesser known players on this forum, including myself.


I was told 25 years ago it was a "Texas Thang" (in contrast to "Nashville" I guess). So, there must have been a lot more which were maybe not as well known as them A-Teamers up in Nashville.

I don't see much sense for a 3rd finger pick for playing E9th in a fairly traditional way. On C6th or Universal, it depends how far into Jazz (compared to Swing) Hard-, PostBop or also Bossa Nova and NeoSoul one wants to take it. There's a point where it becomes indispensable.
It however can become overwhelming in an ensemble when the arrangements don't specifically gives the steel player some dedicated space to "swing some cats by their tails" (a Marlon Brando request, asking for more "room" to act out, I am told ).

I added a 3rd pick at age 55. It was a "3 month process". I must admit that the 1st month was NOT encouraging at all and the 2nd month was me just being the usual stubborn me plowing thru. It's sometimes towards the END of the 3rd month that I started to see a glimpse of dawn on the horizon. I wore them EVERY day, relentlessly. So, if one can learn THAT instrument, one CAN add that 3rd pick. It's awkward beyond description at first, but for certain musical styles very rewarding.
I tried Joe Wright's approach, but that I failed. So, like most I've known using 3 picks (+thumb) I use the 3rd pick only very rarely for single note lines... it's a CHORD thing. Being able to select 4 notes out of 12 strings very discriminately. It allows for sounds similar to what one hears from Bossa Nova guitar and also Jazz piano players.

... J-D.

[Andrew Frost]

[Susan Alcorn (deceased)]

For what it's worth. I also use three finger picks. It's nice to be able to play four-voice chords without having to strum.

[Christopher Woitach]

Freckle on the underbelly of the steel guitar universe here, I play 12 string Bb6 with 3 fingerpicks. I play a lot of 4 note chords with non adjacent strings, and also use my 3rd finger in certain situations for single notes.

I play 98% jazz, and Maurice Anderson was my teacher.

[Susan Alcorn (deceased)]

When I first got together with Maurice, I was playing with two fingerpicks. He said, put a fingerpick on your third finger and just let it be, you don't have to use it right away. I remember that it was awkward at first, but I soon got used to it. The extra pick changed my approach to the C6th tuning, and and I found it useful for E9th as well.

[Terry Wood]

I've used three finger picks since 1980. I picked up on that because of my friends Reece Anderson and Speedy West.

I sure miss those guys! They were two of the Greatest!

[Dave Mudgett]

Count me in on three finger picks. I like them for 4-note chords, wide grips, and especially for arpeggiation. Especially 4-finger forward/backward rolls.

For a very long time, I've played guitar hybrid = flat pick plus middle and ring fingers. I started out doing that with finger picks on middle/ring because my nails are not particularly strong - I have long, relatively thin fingers, and the nails follow suit. Eventually, I found no finger picks useful too, depending on the situation. But I still often use finger picks for guitar.

I started hanging out at Bobbe Seymour's store in the 80s, long before I started playing steel. Often with guitar in tow, he encouraged me to pick up steel. In fact, I'd say it was Bobbe that convinced me I oughta try steel. I eventually did, and I started the usual way with thumb pick and two finger picks, as I also did on banjo.

When I showed up at Bobbe's Midtown Ct store and sat down at a steel, he noticed I wasn't using the pick on my ring finger. He wondered why I'd use ring finger for guitar, but not for steel. I sorta shrugged and said, "Does anybody actually do that?", LOL. Anyway, I pulled a pick out of the medicine bottle I always have in my pocket, and it made total sense immediately. So I now do that 99% of the time. I think pushing myself to use that ring finger on steel also helped with my hybrid guitar picking. It all connects, to me anyway.

I guess, like anything else, there are advantages and disadvantages to picks on 4 fingers. I suppose it can hamper certain types of blocking and pulling off harmonics. My take is that it's easy enough to take the ring finger pick off, but I don't do that often.

It is fairly well documented that the ring finger for most people has physiological disadvantages in terms of strength and ability to act independently of the other fingers. I think that can be overcome to some extent with a lot of concentrated practice. Plenty of guitar players, especially classical players, focus very hard on total independence of the right-hand fingers. When I would watch a guy like Danny Gatton and the absolute dominance of his right-hand technique, it gave me hope that better independence was possible. I sure wish someone had pushed me in that general direction MUCH earlier.

[J D Sauser]

Oh yes, Bobbe Seymore, whom Dave mentions here, is one I totally forgot.
There’s even a youTUBE video (below), where he urges wearing playing C6th with 3+T but as he often did, without picks:
https://youtu.be/Zrd7XRUZiNw

Btw., come to think of it, hasn’t Junior Knight used 3+T some times too?

I didn’t know that Speedy West used 3+T, and he was my hero.


Not jest a Texas Thang after all, huh?… JD.

[Andrew Frost]

I suppose it can hamper certain types of blocking and pulling off harmonics.

You could have a point here Dave. But as a 3 finger player, I don't feel that using the curled pinky for chimes is any different than how most players use their ring finger. Same for blocking.. Its just a slightly different feel. Even with 3 fingerpicks, there is still one fleshy digit between the picks and the strings.

Winnie Winston describes seeing a player "with picks on all fingers" in the pedal steel book. I've often wondered who that was, and thought that must have been a lot of metal to deal with on one hand...

Thanks for kind words Joey Burke. Its always a work in progress..