The British Steelies Society

Following HonkyTonkDans introduction thread made me remember how hard I found it to use picks when I first started playing pedal steel and wondered if folks here would like to offer advice from their experience on how to get through this initial difficult period of learning.

For me I found that switching back to using my nails every now and then, at least let me produce something that sounded reasonably musical and helped me to not get sick of the whole thing, at the same time persevering using picks usually for picking exercises or scales etc, eventually getting the hang of it.

At first picks can feel like shovels strapped to your fingers, right enuff when I bought my first couple, the guy I bought them from did say to me - Here's two shovels, take your pick.

Totally agree - first using picks feels very very strange! I found the Joe Wright tutorials on Sierra Steels website really helpful for practising with picks; getting a clean sound and more importantly learning proper pick blocking. Something I am still working on, I should add! But it certainly feels more natural now using picks than it did 2 years ago. I keep myself motivated with the prospect that in 30-40 years I could end up being a reasonable player

Anything that can help getting over that "I don't like picks" syndrome is great by me. Yes I know that so-and-so plays without, but very few players can really get the attack and tone right without them. It's not just my opinion

simon_f3 wrote:Totally agree - first using picks feels very very strange! I found the Joe Wright tutorials on Sierra Steels website really helpful for practising with picks; getting a clean sound and more importantly learning proper pick blocking. Something I am still working on, I should add! But it certainly feels more natural now using picks than it did 2 years ago. I keep myself motivated with the prospect that in 30-40 years I could end up being a reasonable player

Totally, I have a Joe Wright picking exercises book and it helped immensely in not only learning to play with picks but also with bar positioning. I know what you mean re pick blocking, I'm beginning to get the hang of it on slower passages anyway, still struggling to not get that metallic click but from what I can gather even more experienced players still have the occasional "click"

Tony Russell Davis wrote:Anything that can help getting over that "I don't like picks" syndrome is great by me. Yes I know that so-and-so plays without, but very few players can really get the attack and tone right without them. It's not just my opinion

Completely agree, the main reason I persevered with picks and would encourage other beginners to keep at it no matter how hopeless a task it can seem at times. In the end it is worth all the initial grief to get that classic pedal steel tone

Jif wrote: still struggling to not get that metallic click

Yes, Geoff, I struggle with that, too. In fact sometimes it sounds like I'm washing the cutlery in a stainless steel sink.

And, I totally agree with yourself and Simon, Joe Wright is a great place to start. (I hope he's recovering from his health problems)

Has anyone had any success with these Alaska finger picks. They feel closer to a real fingernail and allow the use of the finger pad for "pick blocking" so there's less risk of the click sound.
They can be trimmed and files to length with nail clippers / file, and although they may not last as long as the nickel silver alternative, they feel more natural to me.

https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/accesso ... &utm_term=

Hi Stevie, yeah I tried these when I first started using picks, I think I initially got them for use on my Weissenborn acoustic lap steel but also tried them on pedal steel.

They didn't really do it for me, but by that time I had got used to using the metal picks so I stuck with the metal picks. I also kinda like the zing you get using metal on metal, however different strokes for different folks. Just have to work a bit harder to quieten down the click, but tbh it's probably only other steel players who would notice it!

Whatever works for you is the common rule of thumb for steel playing imho

Geoff, maybe these are the pick for you. Only around £70 for the pair with your own design on each in silver.

Uncle Roy wrote:Geoff, maybe these are the pick for you. Only around £70 for the pair with your own design on each in silver.

Right up my street Roy

However, you're forgetting that I'm from Scotland, the highest we'll go up here is 70p a pair fae ra Barras

I actually settled a while back on Old 97 banjo picks hand made with love by a very nice woman, Aunt Judy, in the US.