RIght Hand Advice, Starting Over

[Chris Cook]

Getting a new guitar next week, haven't played steel in about 10 years.

When I stopped, my right hand was a bit of a mess: I was self-taught for about 18 months, then I watched a Jeff Neuman video and tried to throw everything out and start from scratch.. but never "clicked" with Mr Neuman's right-hand "pyramid" shape.

Watching a few videos on YouTube, I'm discovering lots of different hand shapes (see images below) from Jeff Neuman, Joe Wright and Aaron from Steel Pickin' just to name a few:

right-hand.jpg

In the image above, Aaron and Joe wright have a more "flat" hand that Mr Neuman warns against vehemently, but that hand shape is probably more similar to my original right-hand technique.

If you were STARTING OVER from SCRATCH and willing to put in 30-40 minutes a day of just right hand pickin' with the metronome, what technique would you focus on?

Is there one instructional video or YouTube channel that's the "gold standard" for getting a clean right hand technique? I don't want to play fast, but I don't want to play slow all the time either.

[Bill McCloskey]

Jeff Newman. Worth the effort.

[William Carlyle]

Definitely agree with Bill. Jeff Newman!!

[Chris Cook]

Jeff Newman. Worth the effort.

Definitely agree with Bill. Jeff Newman!!

Interesting and thanks.

Is the "Right Hand Alpha" video what I'm looking for? The way to go?

[Thornton Lewis]

What dictates your hand shape is blocking. Jeff Newman palm blocks so his hand shape facilitates dropping the back of his right hand onto the strings to block. Joe Wright pick blocks. His hand shapes facilitates moving his fingers from one string to another to pick and block as needed. There are other forms of blocking using the left hand that everybody uses, but palm vs pick really dictates your hand shape and, frankly, your style to a degree.
Listen to two technical masters, Buddy Cage and Joe Wright. These guys can play as fast and clean as you will ever need to, but executing similar things they sound different because of their blocking. Buddy sounds percussive, Joe more flowing. That's a taste question.
Paul Franklin says "Just do it all" and unquestionably if you play wide chords with multiple string skips you will need some form of palm block. We are not Paul and I think if you are looking at significant right hand practice and are not trying to reproduce the sound of 50s to 60s steel, pick blocking is the way to go.
I'm no great steel player. I use four picks, which makes avoiding palm blocking easier. Look around though and you will be hard pressed to find a professional steel player (especially under the age of 50) who palm blocks most of the time. There's a reason for that.
People have recommended "No speed limit." I will recommend "The Wright Hand." It's ridiculously detailed, just figure out how the technique works and do whatever exercises make what you want to play sound better. It's free on the web.
Need I say metronome and drone? Dizzy Gillespie said " Nothing swings like a metronome." I say execution without articulation leads to devastation.

[Bill McCloskey]

I’ve studied both Jeff Newman and Joe Wright’s methods. There is nothing in Newman’s method that prevents pick blocking. I do both and I also wear 4 picks. While Joe Wright’s method is great for Joe and his hands, he spent a lot of time doing figure isolation moves that are difficult to master. I don’t think it is for most people. Jeff Newman’s method allows for both pick and palm blocking.

[Bobby D. Jones]

Just think about the times you have shook hands with people, No 2 hands are the same.

Finger diameter , Length of fingers, width and thickness of palm area have an effect of hand position.
Some people's hands will not form into some of the positions, Some instructors teach.
Some can palm block, Some have to pick block or use parts of fingers and thumb to block.
Some players even have to use thumb on right hand or slide bar back and use middle finger to block/mute certain strings.

You have to work with your hands, And figure out how you can best block/mute strings.
Hand size and shape also affects what diameter and length bar a player can use and have complete control of.

[Dave Magram]

Hi Chris,

Thornton has explained a most important point--which blocking method a player uses determines his/her hand shape.

Many years ago, I took one of Jeff Newman's one-day workshops. It was very helpful, but I never could use Jeff's recommended hand-shape to palm-block. Fortunately, there are several other valid hand-shapes for palm-blocking: Lloyd Green, Tom Brumley, Jay Dee Maness, Hal Rugg, Buddy Emmons, and others--all of whom palm-block (although Buddy uses a unique "hybrid" blocking technique)--and all employ slightly different hand shapes. After trying several of them, I found one that worked for me.

• I include many screenshots of and links to YouTube videos of these and other steel players that include close-ups of their right hand, in the Blocking Guide I describe below--so you can find one that works for you.

Many years later, I heard Paul Franklin take a blistering solo (~190 bpm) on "Pick It Apart", and I learned to do "fingertip blocking". Now, I just use a combination of the two interchangeably so I don't even think about which one I am doing.

If you are interested, I can send you a 22-page Blocking Guide on both palm-blocking and “pick-blocking” that I put together several years ago for a student. Over the years, several players on the SGF have asked me to send them a copy, and have reported that it was very helpful.

The reason why it is 22 pages long is that it consists of a series of detailed but simple step-by-step exercises to "de-construct" the challenging palm-blocking technique. Palm-blocking may look very easy, but is difficult to learn for many newer players.
• I have recently added an explanation of how Paul Franklin does “pick-blocking” (which he calls “fingertip blocking”)
• It has many screenshots of, and links to YouTube videos of many top PSG players.
• It also has some tips that you may find useful, such as how to shape your fingerpicks, etc.

I do not charge anything for the Blocking Guide; all I ask is that you let me know if you find it helpful or not, and make any suggestions to improve it.

• It's my way of giving back to this great SG Forum that bOb started and managed so well--from which I have learned so much over the years.

If you want a copy, please send me a Private Message with your email address.

- Dave

[Tucker Jackson]

Trying to position my hand per Jeff Newman's advice ruined my picking. I was foolish enough to try to make it work for a decade. Yes, I could palm block great -- which is the whole point of him having the largest crease in the hand over the highest string being picked, i.e., extremely far forward.

But what's the point of positioning your hand in the ideal palm-blocking position if you then can't pick well in the first place? The result: I could block strings that I had maybe missed picking entirely.

The greatest advance ever made in my evoloution as a player was the day I ditched all that and just put my hand in the most comfortable position. Bam! I became a better player in one day. Now, my posture is more similar to Paul Franklin's. I might have looked to him as a mentor... but he wasn't teaching when I started. It was basically Newman and Joe Wright, but Newman was legendary. So, his advice had to be right... right?

Bottom line: give it all a try. There are pros and cons to different postures. And then do what is most natural and comfortable for your hand. In the end, you are the expert on you.

[Chris Cook]

Trying to position my hand per Jeff Newman's advice ruined my picking. I was foolish enough to try to make it work for a decade. Yes, I could palm block great -- which is the whole point of him having the largest crease in the hand over the highest string being picked, i.e., extremely far forward.

But what's the point of positioning your hand in the ideal palm-blocking position if you then can't pick well in the first place? The result: I could block strings that I had maybe missed picking entirely.

Sadly, this mirrors my experience. I was making decent sounds, and had acceptable speed, but trying to rigidly stick to Jeff Newman's hand shape pretty much derailed me from steel entirely. (Eventually sold my steel, now getting back into it 10 years later).

I think I'll take as much as I CAN from Newman's approach, but try to be flexible in understanding my own hand shape, etc.

[Chris Cook]

If you want a copy, please send me a Private Message with your email address.

PM sent, thank you very much Dave.

[Chris Templeton]

Jeff Newman's right hand technique:
Place the hand karate chop style on the strings and curl them over, pretending you have an egg in the hand, for his picking position.
I think of Wally Murphy & Doug Jernigan playing flat hand most of the time.
I prefer the tone Newman style.
The thing about pick blocking that I have not liked is the rattle of the metal picks muting/blocking the strings, which can be masked by picking the next note.
Excellent for speed with minimal finger movement.

[Fred Treece]

Tone is in the attack and hand/finger placement along the length of the string. Blocking and muting is multiple choice, not doctrine. Tone should not be compromised by blocking technique, and blocking technique should not be compromised by physical discomfort and tension. Playing pedal steel is an unnatural act, but it shouldn’t hurt.

So, get your default playing position figured out - Posture, seat height, belly button at 15th fret, arms and legs bent at 90° or something close - before you even think about picking exercises.

[J D Sauser]

As an engineer, I tend to "orthodoxies" on pretty much everything I get into. I had to learn to "pour a little water into my wine" here and there.
I think that there's nothing wrong with starting with Jeff Newman's Right Hand Alpha. It was a ground breaking course.
While some of our heroes have shown some awkward looking picking hands, I think that starting with something that is in "average" right and leads to a RELAXED hand is the place to start with.
I started blocking with my bar hand as a teen. Only when I first met pedal steel players did I realize I had to relearn from scratch.... and I went full blown "orthodox" on palm blocking.
Later as this forum arose, the word got around that a certain Paul Franklin was "pick-blocking"... and many of us thought, that's how he did it all. In his online video course he actually demonstrates that he not only pick-blocks, but pinky blocks, to a certain extent may even palm block and also may use the fingers behind the bar to block some. In other words... do it ALL. And I think that is pretty much the discipline... gotta do it all, but with a RELAXED hand and a hand we can move across the strings without "getting lost", so we have the same string attack on all 10 or 12 or "what-hav'ya" number of strings.
We may also want to discuss correct seating height. Keyboard players are very picky about that and I feel that with our instrument, that is even more important... our elbows should be horizontal.
And did I ever mention posture? Maurice wold call attention to my posture every 30min!

... J-D.

[Dale Rottacker]

Trying to position my hand per Jeff Newman's advice ruined my picking. I was foolish enough to try to make it work for a decade. Yes, I could palm block great -- which is the whole point of him having the largest crease in the hand over the highest string being picked, i.e., extremely far forward.

But what's the point of positioning your hand in the ideal palm-blocking position if you then can't pick well in the first place? The result: I could block strings that I had maybe missed picking entirely.

Sadly, this mirrors my experience. I was making decent sounds, and had acceptable speed, but trying to rigidly stick to Jeff Newman's hand shape pretty much derailed me from steel entirely. (Eventually sold my steel, now getting back into it 10 years later).

I think I'll take as much as I CAN from Newman's approach, but try to be flexible in understanding my own hand shape, etc.

Add me to this club. Jeff was so dogmatic about his approach that even if you were able to accomplish things in a different manner it was STILL Wrong. Because he was "The Guy" I nearly gave up the whole shoot'n match.

Apparently Jernigan, Jay Dee and Zane King weren't able to play using Jeffs method either, but somehow seemed to do okay for themselves, and pretty hard to find fault in what they've accomplished.

If my middle finger had been longer I may have been better able to get into Jeffs position. To me Emmon's had the most beautiful right hand shape of anyone, I just wasn't blessed with his hand ... skill or mind now that I think about it.

[J D Sauser]

I always found Buddy Emmons’s pinky under the strings position akward. BE being “The King”, I -like I suspect many- tried it, to no awail.
I think no one’s hands are equal, good posture, elbows horizontal and a position which is relaxed and so that all strings can be played with the same picking technique and angle, starting with a bsic but then adapted position like Jeff or Maurice showed, while conciously always watching out for korky bad habits sneaking up, is the way to develop a good hand.

As a teen, I got into Wester Riding (horses). All my ancestors were heavily invested in Classic riding culture. Once they saw me getting ON a horse facing forward, while in classical one faces to the rear and swings 180 dehrees, they were HORRIFIED! “WRONG!”
Apparently there are indeed many ways to skin a cat!


… JD

[Keith Parker]

I have tried Newman's technique. My fingers a long and skinny and that puts me out of place with the "crease". I physically can't get my fingers and wrist curved enough. I started looking at Joe Wright's technique and again-I think it's his technique that he developed with his physique.

[Michael Whitmire]

My advice is to do what works for you. Learn to pick block and palm block, but investigate multiple people’s technique and combine them together to what’s comfortable and works for you.

Lloyd Green, Sonny Garish, Paul Franklin, Jeff Newman, Travis Toy, and many many more great steel players all have different styles in the right hand. No two make the same hand shapes while they’re playing. Notice they all use a combination of blocking with the picks and palm though!