I'm having a heck of a time with string muting after moving from Dobro to lap steel. I'm using a bullet bar on the lap, which I really enjoy for the ease of slanting, but obviously it doesn't like getting lifted as much as a Stevens bar does. It's hard breaking the bar lifting habit.

I'm really working on my right hand blocking/muting, but I don't feel that I'm getting anywhere. I cut off notes to soon mostly, but I'm just not getting the "feel."

The following may help:

Instead of picking, THEN blocking; start with you palm blocking the strings to begin with. And as you pick lift your palm just slghtly before you pick; so that by the time the attack of the pick is excecuted, the strings are unblocked. Then immediately block them again. In other words instead of picking and blocking, try blocking and picking.

With a little practice, and patience your brain will begin to be programmed for the rythym of this action and after a while, it will become subconscious.

Another good approach, is to play records, Tapes or CD's or even the radio and simply play along for long periods of time. As you do this, blocking tends to develop and in some cases it comes without one realizing why.

May Jesus bless you in you quests,

What finally got me going was to think or it as "killing" the strings and then "picking" the strings. But you have to do it quickly so you "kill-pick" and then you just "kick"! That being said, you are still on your own when it comes to making major changes during the "ki" part of the "kick".

[TAB]

E-------5-----------5------------7----------7------------5--------5--------|
C-------------5------------------------7----------------------5-------------|
A----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G-------5-----------5------------7----------7------------5--------5-------|
E-------------5-------------------------7----------------------5------------|
C----------------------------------------------------------------------------|

[/TAB

Play these two note chords very slowly and let them ring for their full duration. Start off as half notes, move to quarter notes and eigth notes as your blocking feels more natural but at first - go exceedingly slowly and even exaggerate the block. Do this excercise constantly -even while watching TV. You eventually develop subconscious muscle memory and it all comes togther.

Carl's advice is right on the money. Bob Brozman thinks of his hand as a spring that's constantly blocking the strings until it's lifted to pick a note. The spring then immediately clamps back down. John Ely suggested I think of "a karate chop to the strings". Whatever works! Remember too that palm blocking is just one of the available methods along with pick blocking, Hawaiian tilt position blocking, ring finger under blocking (Larry Behm has a video devoted to this), left hand thumb blocking and if you're desparate (or inebriated) there's even nose blocking! and of course, there are many passages that sound just fine without ANY blocking.

[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 27 January 2003 at 04:54 PM.]

E-------5-----|
C-------------|
A-------------|
G-------5-----|
E-------------|
C-------------| 

To this single C note:

E-------8-----|
C-------------|
A-------------|
G-------------|
E-------------|
C-------------| 

In this style of blocking, you slide the F chord up and the block happens somewhere between the glide up from the 5th fret and the tilt of the bar up to catch only the single note at the 8th fret. If you do it right, it fools the listener's ear so that they're unaware that blocking ever happened. It makes for a very smooth continuity of sound. A Western Swing or jazz player might block the F chord to sound very stacatto and then hit the C note dead on or with only a very quick grace note from above or below.

[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 27 January 2003 at 05:36 PM.]