Technique question – right hand

[Pete Martin]

Very interested in answers from you pros.

What do you all do with a right hand finger that isn’t being used when picking? Say I want to play my index finger on string 2, what do the thumb and middle do? Suspend in the air? Rest against a string they would normally play (I assume T string 3 and M string 1)? What about if I use the Index on 2 and middle on 1 at the same time, what should the thumb do?

I’m in my third month playing. As I have been a musician most of my life (now 68), finding notes is easy. Don’t have the best bar control, but that side is WAY ahead of the right hand. Haven’t finger picked since a couple years of bluegrass banjo in college. The palm blocking is coming along pretty well though, practiced a LOT of that. Haven't tried any pick blocking.

If I play very slowly, my right hand is OK, but anything faster and the form is coming apart a bit. I think I am going to cut back the tune playing and drastically increase the basic right hand practice, especially the form of the right hand and slower tempos. I am playing western swing and transcribing and learning Leon, Eddie Rivers, Boggs, Herbie and I think their right hands are to complicated for me right now, so back to more basic things. I am doing a lot of Joe Wrights exercises, but I think I need to cut them back to more basic things, then add them in 1 at a time until my right hand gets more solid.

In addition to answering the questions above, any advice is very appreciated!

Thanks,
Pete

[Mike Neer]

Pete, your fingers move as a unit, so as you are picking, each of your digits remains in formation and ready to pick the next note while suspended above the strings. With pick blocking, though, one or several of your fingers will fall on the previously picked note to stop it before moving on to pick another.

Here is a good exercise to demonstrate. After the thumb picks its note, it falls back onto the string it just picked while the index picks the next note, and then the thumb moves up to stop that note as well, followed by the middle finger picking its note, after which you slide the bar off of that string towards you (bar blocking). As the bar moves off the string, your right hand moves in sync with it to begin the pattern again. Try it and don’t stop until you get all the notes cleanly.


—————2—————————————-
———1——————2—————————
—T——————1——————2—————
——————T——————1—————-2-
———————————T——————1—
————————————————T——-

In some ways, it’s like piano where the fingers are suspended above the keys so as to enable a good strike of the keys. Picking technique is something that will continue to evolve as long as you are playing to meet the needs of the music you are playing. If you are playing Western Swing, there will be a lot of twin guitar lines played with the guitar that require you to have solid picking chops. I am working on posting up some videos to talk about this on my YouTube channel over the next week.

[Pete Martin]

Thanks Mike, subscribed to your channel, looking forward to that.

I'd also like to know, how hard do you attack the strings with your right hand? Do pick forcefully, lightly and turn the amp up, or somewhere in between? I am asking this for your main sound and of course expect dynamics to go down and up from there. Being almost exclusively an acoustic mandolin, guitar and fiddle player, I don't have a good grasp of electric tone.

Thanks!

Pete

[Mike Neer]

Medium touch will do it, Pete. I came from playing acoustic music on a resonator, where I picked quite forcefully to get the best tone and cut through the bass and guitar, but my background was really in electric guitar. That said, once I moved from resonator to electric steel, it really was quite an adjustment for me and I had to dial it back a lot. Try setting your amp a little louder than it really needs to be and try to control dynamics with your hands. That is a great practice. If you are too loud, you might be picking too hard, so dial back with the force.

The things I am interested in are having a light enough touch not to get my picking fingers bogged down while simultaneously getting a good strong tone. I work hard at it and think I mostly succeed, but it is something that can't be taken for granted. I think about saxophone players--most of the guys who played really loud with great tone didn't have quite as fast chops, while some of the guys who blew lighter could play fast with a less full tone. There were exceptions of course, like John Coltrane.

[Pete Martin]

Thanks Mike, that helps a lot. And I REALLY like your tone.

While I was never fortunate enough to see him in person, I bet Sonny Stitt had a huge sound in a room. Barry Harris told his online class I was in that Stitt’s sound just surrounded you. Barry played piano on a number of his records.

[Ian Rae]

Pete, all the above advice is good, but there's one thing that can be overlooked - keeping your wrist straight! Having played brass instruments for fifty years before I ever took up pedal steel, I am trained to allow the tendons that work the fingers free passage through the wrist. That way you avoid the dreaded carpal tunnel surgery when you get to a certain age

[Pete Martin]

Thanks for the reminder Ian, always important!

[Steve Lipsey]

Advice for beginners from Dave Grafe that I've found very useful:
"Pick it like you mean it!"