A question or two about practise.

[Paul Brennan]

I just realised I forgot to mention that you really need to practise with an amp to develop your volume pedal technique. Particularly the trick of backing off the volume slightly to hide the pick attack and then instantly returning to the "base" volume. Paul Franklin is a master at this. Please don't confuse this with the bad habit of pumping the volume pedal the way guitar players work their volume control when they think they're simulating pedal steel (while we try not to snigger at them!). What I'm talking about is a very subtle use of the volume pedal to hide the pick attack while retaining an overall steady and smooth volume level. You can pick much harder and therefore get a more solid tone from the strings. Any comments from y'all? Perhaps this needs a new thread. It's a much neglected area of technique.

[Donny Johnston]

Paul is absolutely correct here the volume pedal techni techn, the way you use it is where the smoothness comes from.

[Paul Brennan]

Not just smoothness. A good volume pedal technique is very important in getting that "thick" sound that the really good players have. The trick is to back off the volume to hide the pick attack (which gives a sharp spike in treble that thins out your sound). Then very quickly bring the volume back up. I remember sitting directly in front of Tom Brumley in Newbury in the early nineties trying to figure out how he got his trademark "solid" sound. I could see he was picking very hard but everything was very smooth because he had total mastery of the volume pedal. Tom was very kind to explain this to me after the show.

Jeff Newman used to describe the volume pedal as the gas pedal. Indeed it is but it can also be thought of as a clutch pedal.

[henry]

cheers for that Crowbear.
still struggling but will perservere..!

(what does the D mean in the tab? )

Henry

i take it you mean " D " on string 2 Henry ?
if so, that's the D lever which lowers string 2 Eb to D & for some down to C#
very common, extremely useful & used that one is mate
the D lever also lowers string 9 D to C# for some if not many

[henry]

oh yeah of course!

i was thinking it was like the classical style thing where some letters indicate particular fingers!

cheers