I have always had a problem with keeping the middle finger pick on. It often
goes flying, and when it does, it's guaranteed to be right in the middle of the
dobro break if I'm onstage somewhere.
I tried various substances, like the nonslip cream that bowlers use. Fiddle
resin seemed to work best, and I've used that a lot.
But nothing worked all the time. At best, resin just alleviated the problem
somewhat. So I decided to study my own right hand and see what the problem
really was. I discovered that what usually causes the pick to come off is doing
a roll, especially near the palmrest. I found that when I do a roll, the index
finger and the middle finger are working very close to each other, and what
happens is that the index finger moves forward as the middle finger comes back.
The leading edge of the index fingerpick catches the back edge of the middle
fingerpick and actually pushes it off the finger.
After I saw that, I realized that no amount of adhesive would really solve the
problem. The problem was not lack of adhesion, but overwhelming force being
applied in the wrong area.
Since I didn't think I could train myself to pick with my fingers spread apart,
I rounded off the two pick edges that were coming into contact, using some
carborundum paper and finishing up with 000 steel wool. The offending edges are
now heavily rounded and highly polished.
That modification cut way down on pick loss, and did far more good than any kind
of adhesive I tried. So my advice is this: instead of applying the sticky
sledgehammer of ever more tacky adhesives, first try to analyze the mechanical
motion that's causing the pick loss in the first place, and see what you can do
to fix it. Your problem might not be rolls, but if you analayze it, you might be
able to fix it.
And I'm wondering now, if I'd had more lessons when I was starting out, if the
instructor would have made me keep my fingers spread farther apart.
Ken Brown
Austin, Texas
Projectile picks our specialty.
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Keeping picks on
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