Are you a mandolin picker?

[BrianWilliam]

"I play the mandolin" is what I usually say. I do like to pick

[sblock]

"Plectrum" is a Latinate noun still in common use in Ireland and the British Isles, but it is considered archaic on the west side of the Atlantic. Very few musicians still use it today in Canada or in the U.S., and a good many musicians here don't even understand the meaning of the word! In North America, we prefer to use the word "pick" instead. To American ears, "plectrum" sometimes comes across as affected.

As for using the words "picker" as a noun to describe a musician who plays a plucked instrument, or "pick" as a verb to describe its playing, both these terms pre-date the invention of bluegrass music (circa 1945), and were in widespread use in the U.S. throughout the entire 20th century. Yes, they are commonly used in bluegrass circles, but they are also commonly used in Oldtime/Traditional circles, Swing circles, Jazz circles, and many other genres (choro, manouche, blues, country etc.), especially folk music.

In our usage, "pick" as a verb is not restricted to plucking individual notes! Whenever you strum, hit double-stops, play chop chords, tremolo, etc., you are still considered to be "picking." Or "pickin'!" It's all good.

[Jon Hall]

A lot of old timers called themselves mand'lin players. They thought the middle syllable as rather "high toned".

[lflngpicker]

David, I have been around country music my whole life, even though I cut my teeth on the Beatles and Stones as a kid. My Dad was a country western singer/guitarist and we informally called ourselves "guitar pickers". I consider myself a picker-- but literally a finger picker and a flat picker. I am a picker-- of guitars and mandolins. It is a cultural term, I would agree, and it tends to be used in the context of country, bluegrass and folk music, as far as I can determine. It is a good term to discuss and develop mutual appreciation for its intended use. Like anything, semantic meaning and word use is personal and derived from one's regional, cultural, occupational and experiential influences.

[Jill McAuley]

I usually just say "I play ________.", except when it comes to the drums, where I would usually refer to myself as a "drummer".

[Mark Gunter]

I'm guessing that New Orleans is not part of that cultural zone.

Believe it or not, I was waiting for that

Of course I knew the OP of this thread is from Nawlins. I was born and reared in the Florida Parishes (Livingston Parish). But I did check locations and notice that most of the responders here who think "pickers" is a bluegrass thing are either northerners or dyed-in-the-wool bluegrass players. There's a tendency in this mandolin community to assume bluegrass is just the main thing, practically always.

To answer your original survey, I've never called myself a mandolin or guitar picker, I use terms like player or mangler, but others have often called me a picker, and I've heard the term all my life growing up in the south. Doesn't mean it's a strictly southern thing, but it's cultural, and I think sblock has it right, it predates modern music like bluegrass.

[Eric Platt]

I don't hear that term from my musical friends. However have heard it in bluegrass circles. I just don't play that style.

Also don't refer to myself as a player yet. Haven't been playing or performing long enough to consider myself one.

[MikeZito]

Living in New England, I personally only ever heard people referred to as 'pickers' if they were playing country or bluegrass music - otherwise, we simply said that they were 'players'.

As far as 'plectrum' goes, I never even heard the word plectrum until about 25 years ago, when I read a reference to Eddie Peabody as 'The King of the Plectrum Banjo' . . . I had to go and look up what it meant . . . .

[jesserules]

If we're collecting data points: I've heard "let's pick some tunes" for groups of various instruments; I have heard "I'm a [name of instrument] picker" only when the [name of instrument] is "guitar"; I have never heard a banjo player refer to themself as anything other than "a banjo player"; nor have I ever heard the term "mandolin picker", it's always "mandolin player" (or "mandolinist", but only in an academic or classical music context). Never heard "dobro picker", definitely never heard "fiddle picker" (even among fiddlers who play the occasional pizzicato, it's always "fiddler").

[mee]

I’m a picker.

[Ranald]

I say, I play mandolin, in part because I don't yet feel competent enough to declare myself a "mandolin player." To me, it's like the difference between saying "I paint" and "I'm an artist." That's a personal matter though, I wouldn't expect everyone to feel the same way.
I've heard of guitar pickers and banjo pickers, but not mandolin pickers, for most of my 65 years, but we're exposed to a great deal of American media up here, e.g., Hee-Haw with its "Pickin' and Grinnin'"segment. Still, if I heard that someone was a guitar picker, I'd assume that he was at the bluegrass/country end of the spectrum. A Texan living locally sometimes refers to my playing as picking.
I use mandolinist occasionally in writing, just for variety, but not in speech. If I heard that someone was a mandolinist, I'd figure they played classical, European music, or perhaps jazz.
Finally, I don't think I'd heard the word plectrum until I came to Mandolin Cafe. As someone suggested above, it would sound high-falutin' in my folk and blues circles, though perhaps not in other regions or genres.

[Trav'linmando]

I’m a picker.

I am too. Or at least I try to be one however poorly. Growing up my grandfather used the term. And today in my circle of friends jams are referred to as pickin parties.

[Denny Gies]

I am a picker who likes to go pickin' with fellow pickers who like to pick at the drop of a pick.

[sblock]

You can pick your friends, and you can pick your mandolin, but can you pick your friend's mandolin?!

[THart]

I think my mandolins picked me but I do like to bang around on them.

[Timbofood]

Okay, enough of this, go make some music!

[gspiess]

I am a hack bordering on nood'ler. I call it a manlin so people assume I'm much better than I really am.

[mandocrucian]

I suppose there are verb equivalents to collective animal nouns (pride of lions, murder of crows, gaggle of geese, etc.) for various instruments' sounds.

Plink the mandolin
Plunk/Plonk the mandola/OM
Saw the fiddle
Bow the violin
Blow the trumpet, sax, horn
Slide the trombone
Blart the tuba
Bleat the pipes
Toot the flute
Beat the drums
Walk the bass
etc.

[OldSausage]

Yes, I am a mandolin picker, and if someone asks that's how I describe myself. I guess I use it more when speaking to other musicians, and if it's some non-musician I might just say I play the mandolin, in case they think I am a selector of mandolins.

[Steve Ostrander]

I'm more of a hacker.

[Paul Hird]

When I send out my group text for the weekly jam circle at my house, I usually ask if anyone is around for "Pickin at Paul's" tonight. I like the sound of it! That being said, I am applying that term to several different families of instruments, sometimes including a harmonica and an occasional Kazoo. Do I need to rephrase my invitation?

[Scott Rucker]

I use the term interchangeably with "player" and get together with friends to "pick" or to "play". I never say I'm a "mandolinist" but wouldn't be offended by it either. My YouTube channel is "pickstrumfrail" because I though it might encompass all the types of playing I might put on there when I first signed up; flatpick guitar, fingerstyle guitar, mandolin playing, and clawhammer banjo playing. Looking back, I sort of regret that moniker.

[T.D.Nydn]

I play bluegrass,but I've rarely if ever use the term,,I tell people "I play the mandolin"....

[MikeZito]

I am just reminded of a story that Bill Bolick once told me:

Bill and his brother Earl (The Blue Sky Boys) were in the green room at the National Barn Dance, when Jethro Burns walked in the room. Jethro looked at the two of them and said; 'Which one of you boys plays the mandolin?' Bill just looked at Jethro and said; 'I don't know that I play the mandolin, I just kind of pick it it a little . . .'

If two of the all-time greats can use the term 'play', I am good with that!

This story reminded me that (with Bill, and even in my circle of musicians) people refer to 'picking at an instrument' when they want to say that they can't properly play, but are learning/trying, etc.

[pops1]

I can't believe no one has said it yet, " I pick my nose more often than anything"

We just say "play some tunes". Often someone asks what instrument I am playing and I say a mandolin. We play a lot of tunes and sing a few songs, works for us.