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Thread: Are you a mandolin picker?

  1. #1
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Are you a mandolin picker?

    I've heard mandolinists on this forum refer to themselves as "mandolin pickers" or some similar phrase.

    Do you refer to yourself this way?

    I'm curious because I have never said that I am a "picker" in relation to playing any instrument.

    Is it a cultural thing? Is it something more common with BG-roots-Americana players than Italian and jazz players?

    Thanks in advance.

    I tried to set up a poll, but couldn't find the 'Yes, post a poll with this thread' checkbox.

  2. #2
    Mangler of Tunes OneChordTrick's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    More of an abuser than a picker or player

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  4. #3
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I do think it's a more idiomatic expression from bluegrass music. I don't use it myself but I don't have any negativity about people who do.
    Steve

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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I don't use it either, but was setting in with some folks and went to play a lead and they called me a 'picker'. I guess it means i'm not just a strummer???
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  8. #5
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I think it is very common for bluegrass players to use that term but I can't recall the players of any other genre using it. Even in old time I have not heard it but the pre-dominant instrument is fiddle and you never pick that. I can't imagine the players of ITM, Italian, choro or any other genre using that either.
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  10. #6
    Joe B mandopops's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I do think "Picker" is more of a Bluegrass thing. When I'm hanging around in Bluegrass circles, I'll hear someone's a "picker", let's "pick" etc... When I'm playing with people from other genres, I don't hear it at all. I didn't get into Bluegrass until much later in my Music experience, so I don't tend to say it, even in Bluegrass situations.
    That said, I Never have referred to a pick as a plectrum. Subverting the thread, (Sorry, David) who says plectrum instead of pick?
    Joe B

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    Registered User Drew Egerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    The term "mandolinist" just seems to professional and somewhat smug to me. But I'm a bluegrass guy primarily so...
    Also the fact that if I am very lucky, I may eventually make enough money playing gigs throughout my entire life to cover the cost of one instrument, there's no need to sound too professional.
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I am more of a mandolin comedian . . . people laugh when they hear me play . . . .

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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    'Cause I'm a picker
    I'm a grinner
    I'm a lover
    And I'm a sinner
    Playin' my music in the sun

    ~Steve Miller Band "The Joker"

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    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I agree, it’s a BG thing. I dont refer to myself as a picker in general but, I do get together “to pick” with people. It is kind of an interesting question to be honest. How we refer to ourselves as musicians can vary by genre I suppose, I generally just say I play the mandolin.
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I used the term picking (as opposed to chopping) in a recent thread and someone told me the left hand was important too!
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    If you ask a picker to see his plectrum you might not get invited back to pick with those pickers

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    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I've mainly heard it from Bluegrass and Country musicians. It's a cultural and regional thing, sometimes appropriated for marketing purposes so an artist sounds authentic. Like the album title "Chet Atkins - Guitar Picker." The music on that album is pretty sophisticated, but that title probably helped sell it to a wider audience who thought of him as a Country musician.

    On mandolin, I call myself a "mandolin player." "Mandolin picker" sounds waaay too Bluegrass or Country for what I play. "Mandolinist" doesn't hit my ears quite right either; it sounds like I play in a mandolin orchestra. I would use it if I played Classical or Italian, but I don't.

    For similar reasons, I would never call myself a "flautist" on Irish flute. Sounds too Classical, and maybe a little pretentious, like I know what I'm doing. I'm a "flute player," and not a very good one.

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  26. #14
    Registered User Charlie Bernstein's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    It's not just used among bluegrass players. It's probably an Amerianism for someone who plays roots music or rock using a pick to pluck strings on a fretted instrument. We often call guitar players guit-pickers.

    Classical and jazz players aren't called pickers, in the same way that classical violin music isn't called fiddle music.

    I don't consider myself a musician (I'm not a pro and don't have formal music education), so I'm more comfortable calling myself a picker or a player.

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    Registered User Mando Mort's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I have used the term "Picker" when I'm talking to other Bluegrass players. But, when someone asks me what instrument(s) I play, I simply say I play mandolin, guitar, bass and piano. So, mostly, I say "player", but it does come down to genre for me. "Picker" just seems right when I'm talking Bluegrass and "Player" feels right otherwise.

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  30. #16

    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    Being from Arkansas (which may or may not be considered "The South", depending on who you ask), I can tell ya that "[mandolin, banjo, guitar, etc.] picker" and "pick" as a verb are quite common among musicians of various styles here. I don't think anyone thinks "[instrument] picker" is more correct than "[instrument] player", but I will say that "mandolinist" is rarely used, at least no one I know locally who plays mandolin would refer to themselves that way. So I suppose it's regional/cultural.

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  32. #17
    Registered User misterstormalong's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I was finger-picking a guitar years ago with no plectrum in sight. I thought mandolin players were supposed to be known as lutenists, but I've never described myself as such.
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  34. #18
    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    People claiming that this is a "bluegrass thing" seem to be people who are either (1) are probably not southerners, (2) are probably bluegrassers. If you play bluegrass, you hear bluegrass people use it, and you think bluegrass is so unique that you assume it's a bluegrass thing. If you are a southerner, chances are you have heard all manner of folk musicians use that term. Not everyone does, but it is definitely not strictly a bluegrass thing.

    I've heard people playing folk, old-time, country, swing, rock and bluegrass use the term all my life. Yes, Steve Miller is a 'picker', from Dallas, Texas. Around West Texas, pickers get together to have a pickin', whether they're playing country or bluegrass. Since bluegrass is so "break oriented', it is only natural that they think of themselves as pickers, at least in my neck of the woods (Louisiana/Texas).
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  36. #19
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    Quote Originally Posted by mandopops View Post
    That said, I Never have referred to a pick as a plectrum. Subverting the thread, (Sorry, David) who says plectrum instead of pick?
    Joe B
    Only in a technical context, as in "plectrum instruments".

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    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Gunter View Post
    If you are a southerner, chances are you have heard all manner of folk musicians use that term. Not everyone does, but it is definitely not strictly a bluegrass thing.
    True, it's also a Country Music thing.

    (ducking and running)

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  39. #21
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Gunter View Post
    If you are a southerner, chances are you have heard all manner of folk musicians use that term.
    ........
    I've heard people playing folk, old-time, country, swing, rock and bluegrass use the term all my life.

    ..... only natural that they think of themselves as pickers, at least in my neck of the woods (Louisiana/Texas).
    I'm guessing that New Orleans is not part of that cultural zone.

    But it's close enough that I recall exactly what you say - all sorts of American musical styles as mentioned had "pickers", and now that I think about it, many of them played/picked the GIT tar, not the gui TAR. (accent on the caps). Like my uncle from Meridian.

    Thank all of you for your responses.

    Or is that "Thanks, y'all."

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  41. #22
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    Quote Originally Posted by foldedpath View Post
    True, it's also a Country Music thing.

    (ducking and running)
    Hank Williams in "Jambalaya"?

    pick guitar....

  42. #23
    Registered User Bob Visentin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I'm a plectrumer.

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  44. #24

    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    I think because the mandolin is primarily a melody instrument...yes, I know we play rhythm and can strum open chords, etc...but it's mainly used for pickin' melodies.
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    Registered User Laurence Firth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Are you a mandolin picker?

    Bluegrass banjo players refer to themselves as "pinking the five". And my folk music playing friends get together for picking parties. Better than calling them jams.
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