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The same principle applies to picking double-stops or triads: The nose-end should be placed on the outer-most string.
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With practice, all three will happen together automatically.
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Put simply, you LOOK at the string you want to play, you POINT the bar’s nose at that string, and then you’ll be able to PICK that string more accurately. This allows you not only to apply a bit more pressure on the single string you’re picking, but also to better focus your attention on the correct string, and to better coordinate your right hand to attack that string more accurately – because we’re never looking at what our right hand is doing, of course. The idea would be that when playing single notes, you want to align the nose-end of the bar right on that string. This may be particularly helpful for newer players. One specific part of bar control that I was never shown, but only developed subconsciously over years of practice and playing, is moving the bar nose vertically across the strings. Much could be said about the advantages and disadvantages of different bar diameters, for example, as well as about various bar types. However, I don’t know if Jeff ever went beyond the simplest basics in that discussion. The late Jeff Newman, a genius at steel guitar pedagogy, taught a beautifully simplified, effective method for holding and controlling a bar that I suspect probably is still be available in some form from Jeffran Music. I can appreciate how challenging it must be for you, after a while, to come up with fresh new tips and ideas, so let me suggest a topic which, broken down, I think could be the subject of several newsletters: bars and bar control. This is Bob Hempker and we got a great email from Bill Fall.