Dave Magram’s Blocking Guide

[Marty Broussard]

Fellow Forumites,
Below are excerps from an email I sent to Dave Magram after receiving his Blocking Guide. I realize that more resources are becoming available everyday, but Dave’s document immediately filled in some blanks for me, all in a single compilation, and it’s my hope that anyone who is learning or wants to improve their picking technique will obtain a copy. Surely, his guide will help a player get onto a path that is good for them.
Mostly, I hope this post helps someone to avoid all of the struggles and disappointments I’ve experienced over a period of five decades. Maybe this post will help someone gain success in a reasonable timeframe. It’s 21 pages covering several topics like right hand shapes, picks, pick shaping and slippage, thumb picks, several video links featuring world-class steel-guitarists, etc..

Some points:
* …the most comprehensive information/insights that I have ever experienced.  There are some things that I had discovered, but your guide filled in some crucial “blanks” that have frustrated me for 50 years...IMHO no one should be without it.
* For me, THE single most significant topic in your guide is “The Big Secret” of Palm-Blocking wherein you describe it as one motion!!  Even Jeff didn’t explain that—that I can remember. I was trying to rotate my hand to block too…SMH
* I’ve been struggling to get Jeff’s right hand technique to work but can’t do it.  After reading your Guide I think I my right hand naturally looks/functions more like Paul’s or Joe’s.(who would have thought!!) I’ll be watching the vids you provided.
* Thank you for the Fred Kelly Speed Thumb Pick info!!... and the comprehensive info regarding the finger pick brands, shaping, and the use of nose pads!! 
* Thank you so much for the information/links [to about 25 YouTube videos of master players that show their picking techniques] you’ve provided on pages 17 thru 21!!  I’ve been trying to study these things for decades and couldn’t get it done.  Now, it’s all in checklist format for me to begin my next journey.  
* I want to be sure you know that the ENTIRE guide is phenomenal.  The bullets above are derived from the things that hit some critical nerves for me, so don’t think I’m discounting any other material.  It’s ALL important and VALUABLE.   I wish I’d had this 50! years ago"

Again, I hope this post encourages someone to contact Dave for a copy of his guide, and in doing so, gets onto a productive and satisfying path on their playing journey. The more we know the better questions we can ask of our instructors, and Dave’s guide is full of knowledge that can be absorbed as a spring board.

All the best,
Marty Broussard

[Colin Boutilier]

I'm hoping to sit down with his guide this weekend and see how it looks/feels for a pickless player like myself.

[Dave Magram]

Wow!! What a nice review!!
Marty, thank you very much for your kind words about my Blocking Guide!!
They mean a lot coming from you; I've heard you play with Tracy Byrd, and you sound GREAT!!

*****************************************************************************
ABOUT MY BLOCKING GUIDE
In my Blocking Guide:
● I analyze, to the best of my ability, the four major hand shapes and various palm-blocking techniques used by master players such as Emmons, Green, Brumley, etc.,
● I include a thorough explanation of how Paul Franklin does his "fingertip blocking" (his term for what many players call "pick-blocking")--mostly in Paul's own words.
● Included are numerous screenshots and many YouTube videos of master players so you can study their hand shapes and blocking techniques like I did.
● Included are a series of step-by-step exercises to learn effective palm-blocking and/or "fingertip blocking", regardless which variation of blocking you prefer.
● Also included are what I hope are helpful tips on ergonomics, how to shape your fingerpicks for maximum picking effectiveness and comfort, etc.

Most importantly, my guide is descriptive, not prescriptive--I do not evangelize one technique over another, or preach about how I personally do blocking.
● As I state in the Guide, "All of these variations on blocking work very well for these master players—just find the one that works best for you!!"

I have learned so much over the years from bOb Lee's Steel Guitar Forum--the best online music forum I have seen--this is my way of giving back a little something.

And if you are a pretty good player or instructor and don't feel that you need to learn anything from my Blocking Guide--but may have some suggestions to help me improve it, I'd be happy to send you a copy for your review and candid comments.

TO GET A COPY OF MY BLOCKING GUIDE
If you want a copy of my Blocking Guide, please send me your email address via PM (Private Message); because the SGF email does not allow me to send attachments such as a Word document or PDF.

The Blocking Guide is free of charge…
All I ask is for you to please provide some feedback if it is helpful or not, and any suggestions you may have to improve it.

*********************************************************************************
To those Forumites who I have sent my Blocking Guide to (over 67 so far)...
May I ask you for a big favor?

Please support the Steel Guitar Forum with a donation…
Think about this--If there had not been a Steel Guitar Forum to connect steel guitar players around the world, this Blocking Guide would not be available to you.
• Because the Steel Guitar Forum relies on sales at the SGF store and donations to stay in business, I am going to suggest to everyone I am sending this Blocking Guide to, that they donate to the Steel Guitar Forum by clicking on the “Click Here to Send a Donation” button at the top right of the SGF web-page.

How much to donate to the SGF?
In the mid-1990’s, when I wanted to learn how to pick-block, Paul Franklin’s audiotape course was temporarily not available, so I purchased a pick-blocking videotape for $50 from a different instructor, and a pick-blocking booklet from a third instructor for $25—neither of which I found very helpful.
• So, that was $75 (about $150 in 2025 dollars) of mine “down the drain”.

On the other hand, based on the feedback I have received so far, many Forumites are getting quite a bit of value from my Blocking Guide.

So, considering the “value for money” aspect, please be generous in your donation to the SGF.
• Of course, I get no money from your SGF donations—I just want to keep this great music forum (that Bobby Lee started) going!
• However, I would greatly appreciate it if, when you are donating to the SGF, you mention my Blocking Guide in the box marked “Add a note to your donation.”
• So, please give generously to the Steel Guitar Forum.
Will you do that, please?

Thanks.

- Dave

p.s. I thought I should clarify that when Tracy mentioned the use of "nose pads" in his review, he was referring to "eyeglass nose pads" used to cushion the inside of fingerpicks--not some sort of blocking device attached to one's nose.

[Gordon Faaborg]

…………

[Dave Magram]

Hi Dave, I would very much like to hear your thoughts on blocking as I am just a country hillbilly here in northern Montana and rarely see another steeler.My email address is xxx@yahoo.com, thank you so very much, Gordon

Hi Gordon,

I will send you a copy, I have copied your email address from your post.

However, I'd suggest you immediately edit your post and remove your email address, because there are some bad actors on the Web that send out little Web-bots to "scrape" up personal information like email addresses and phone numbers and either spam you, scam you, sell your personal info, or worse--like hijacking your email or phone number.

That is why I ask SGF folks to send me their email address in a PM (Private Message) instead of posting it in public view where some bad actor can scrape it up.

- Dave

[Markus Mayerhofer]

I've tried several approaches, and pick blocking appears to be
the most relyful approach in most but not in all cases.
So i guess a good blend with different weightings on this or that approach may be a possible answer....
Therefore, i'm really curious about this comprehension and would be grateful for a copy.
Thanks!

[Mark Hariman]

Hi Dave, I sent you a PM a couple of days ago with my email address; could you kindly send me a copy of your Blocking Guide please, thank you!

[Gil James]

I'd like to thank Dave for his generosity to this forum with this eye opening guide . I only wish that I could have started my steel journey with this teaching. Clean blocking has been THE hardest thing for me to get down. I need to unlearn alot of bad habits that I've acquired over the years, trying to figure it out on my own. This guide makes sense! Has helped me not only on the pedal steel, but really helped me clean up my dobro picking. Well worth the time and effort to read and study this.

[Bruce Coffman]

Simply priceless — but absolutely worth a donation to SGF.

Learn it. Live it. Know it.

[Lee Rider]

pm sent

[Dave Magram]

Thank you for your kind words, Bruce and Gil.

Mark and Markus, I sent you the latest revision earlier today.
Please let me know if you did not receive it.

- Dave

[Larry Dering]

Dave, thanks for the blocking guide. I just received it today and have to take some time to read and absorb the content. At a glance it appears very clear and thorough. Definitely worth the effort and a donation to the forum. I appreciate the time it took to put this together and make it available to forum members.

[Bruce Coffman]

FWIW — in my haste to make a donation per your email I forgot to “comment” it as being for your Blocking Guide.

Dopey me… money is in there anyway!

[Dave Meis]

Got it, and a big thank you! Looking forward to digging in!

[Dale Rottacker]

I can't improve on anything that Marty said, but will say this ... I've only read a very few paragraphs as my "intent" tends to outpace my "implementation" of things and I certainly intend to read all of the paragraphs that Dave so generously provided. BUT, with that overly long wordy intro to my impressions, those few paragraphs that I DID read were already enlightening.

The way I always interpreted how Jeff explained blocking was an exaggeration of what I imagine Jeff intended teach. So trying to do what I was interpreting Jeff to be saying, I looked like I was having a seizure. My bad, NOT Jeff's. Sometimes it really is the student . But in the little I've read the way Dave is explaining it, to me is the way even I grasp.

So thank you Dave for the few enlightening paragraphs I have read, and I intend to be more enlightened as I delve deeper. You seem to have a gift of painting word pictures that even I can understand.

[Lee Rider]

Got mine, great resource! Forum donation on the way!

Thanks again Dave!

Lee Rider

[Don R Brown]

I'm very happy with mine. It's not something I can blow through non-stop, there's enough food for thought and analysis there that it will take a while. That's not a knock - he is very clear there are more ways than one to do things and it's not "one size fits all".

Thanks Dave, you have made a nice contribution to those of us climbing the ladder.