Are you a mandolin picker?

[Hendrik Ahrend]

„Country girls don‘t perspire, city girls don’t sweat...“ (F & B Bryant)
Anyhow, a flat picker is nothing I want my daughter to go out with.

[Bill Cameron]

Hey, it’s a better label than “pork chop abuser”.

I go by “player” but I don’t mind “picker”, which I think is more an implied compliment than “strummer” when applied to guitar or mandolin players. Pickers. Ists. Whatever.

[Mark Gunter]

Lifelong picker aspiring to become a plectrumist ... yeah, that's it.

[Jeff Hildreth]

"A "plectrum" is a pick, so a picker plays with a pick. I never met anyone who played with their plectrum."

Cute, but no sale.

The elemental word "picker" is not universally accepted as a term for a mandolinist.
A plectrum is a pick , so therefore a mandolinist plays with a pick. . I have met many mandolinists who play with a plectrum. I have gathered, you are a "picker", therefore you may play with your plectrum, or pick, all you like.

[FLATROCK HILL]

Until today, I have never heard the term "picker" applied to a mandolin player.

[Mike Snyder]

I often hear it as a degree of accomplishment, used to differentiate between a “picker” and some person with a mandolin.

[jesserules]

I often hear it as a degree of accomplishment, used to differentiate between a “picker” and some person with a mandolin.

Yeah, I've actually even heard that about a piano player - "He's a picker all right!"

But that is not the same as referring to oneself as a "mandolin picker" - something that I, like others in this thread, have never heard anybody do.

[Bertram Henze]

I wonder if harp players refer to what they do as fingerpicking

[Mark Gunter]

I thought that harps, like chickens, are to be properly plucked.

[Bertram Henze]

I thought that harps, like chickens, are to be properly plucked.

Ah, but without a plucktrum, right?

[catmandu2]

I wonder if harp players refer to what they do as fingerpicking

Words are always interesting - especially when put to use in describing ourselves.

I don't think I've ever heard a harper or harpist say "harp player," although perhaps one playing the other "blues harp" may say "picking tunes"... nor among, say, flamenco guitarists using "fingerpicking" - whose technique employs more hand/fingers than any other stringed instruments im aware of. It's a fun thing to say if you're playing upon an instrument with no such normal associations or connotations: I've picked a few tunes on my boxes

Then there's what's often called the "Chinese harp" - guzheng and the derivative Asian long zithers.. Dr H mentions the traditions of "the 1,000 ways to touch the guzheng." This is symbolic of the 'open-ness' and latitude of expression such an instrument affords -

It could be seen as continuum - from which we derive what we need to suit our style: at one end, "pickin" - connotation being the "plain-speaking/aint no mouse music" culture of our folk idioms; and at the other, the "1,000 ways"... as it were.

[UsuallyPickin]

I pick therefore I am …….. Yup.. R/

[catmandu2]

Yam picking? That's rootsy...tuberular even.

*btw, no enmity toward yams of any kind - heck I was a banjer picker!

[LostVenture]

I had not heard the term before, but I like "mandolinist".
Since I'm really more of a guitarist, it seems to make sense.

[V70416]

I don't mean to brag;but,as an undistinguished member of the Georgia redneck society I know a mannalin picker when I hear one.

One that I just heard for the first time today is OldSausage. He's a tone-puller too. Powerful good. I will be enjoying Mandoliniana
for a good while. Thanks for the videos and tabs,sir!

[LastMohican]

It would probably be one of the proudest moments in my life if any accomplished BG'r referred to me as a "picker". Trust me, with the way I play now, there's no danger of that happening any time soon!

[soliver]

Yam picking? That's rootsy...tuberular even.

Wifey is a gardener... but we don't grow yams... but I suppose she's a veggie picker... and a weed plucker. No plectrum required... its done solely with the fingers.

[T.D.Nydn]

I do sometimes use the word "flatpicking",,,but I'm also a +5 redneck.. (?)...

[Russ Donahue]

"Well, there's thirteen hundred and fifty two
Guitar pickers in Nashville
And they can pick more notes than the number of ants
On a Tennessee ant hill
Yeah, there's thirteen hundred and fifty two
Guitar cases in Nashville
And any one that unpacks 'is guitar could play
Twice as better than I will"

Nashville Cats - The Lovin' Spoonful

[Dagger Gordon]

"I play the mandolin" is what I usually say.

Same here.

[Mandolin Cafe]

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.

And then there's the dreaded title "tater-bug picker."

[dang]

Long time picker here, see signature line

[DavidKOS]

And then there's the dreaded title "tater-bug picker."

Hey, that's where I am.....playing bowlbacks and almost-the-same-design flatback mandolins.

[brunello97]

As much as I love the Spoonful's original. of their own tune, I do enjoy Del's version.

Mick

[Bob Visentin]

I remember a Muppet show where the band members introduce themselves. Zoot said, "Sax is my axe." Then Sgt. Floyd Pepper said, "I blow bass."