Are you a mandolin picker?

[Randi Gormley]

another northerner who hasn't heard the term "picker" in regards to mandolin playing except from people on this forum or the bluegrassers i know. All the other people I play with don't use it, but of course, most of the people i play with don't play plucked instruments so there's that. I will say that if someone says to me that they're a picker, i just assume they play bluegrass.

[George R. Lane]

I am a plectrum abuser and damn proud of it.

[sblock]

FWIW, in Italian, they actually have two different words for "play"!

When you mean "to play" in the sense of making music on an instrument, you use suonare, as in "you play the mandolin" = "tu suoni il mandolino."

When you mean "to play" in the sense of having fun (i.e., amusement), you use giocare, as in "you play with the mandolin" = "tu giochi con il mandolino".

In English (and French and German), though, having fun with an instrument and making music with it are synonymously indicated by "play" (jouer; speilen). Seems more apt! Making music = fun!!

[HonketyHank]

I consider myself to be a "mando-leaner". Just like JFK: Ich bin ein mandoleaner.

I have always felt that the term "picker" carried a bit more respect than, say, "player". If you call someone a picker, it implies a bit of admiration for his/her technical ability. I am still working on getting my "player" badge, though.

[Tom Haywood]

I never call myself a picker, but I always feel quite honored to be labelled as one. I always thought the term related mainly to playing the guitar and banjo in pretty much any style and is handed out as a compliment about someone's skill level. There are pickin' parties that tend to be mostly guitar-based Americana style music. I've heard the term applied to a variety of instruments and players, including harmonica and trombone. "Pick a few notes on that trombone." Really. You don't see many trombones in bluegrass circles. I was very disappointed to turn on the TV to American Pickers and those folks weren't playing any instruments at all.

[OldSausage]

I've yet to meet a nose-flute picker.

[Peter Coronado]

From the song Nashville Cats:

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

A Texan friend I used to "pick" with sometimes referred to his GIT-tar as a GIT-fiddle. No idea why but it still makes me chuckle.

[OldSausage]

A Texan friend I used to "pick" with sometimes referred to his GIT-tar as a GIT-fiddle. No idea why but it still makes me chuckle.

A great number of gentlemen hereabouts also employ this humorous reference to what should more properly be called their box.

[LadysSolo]

I call myself a guitar player and a mandolin player, because I "play," don't take myself too seriously! LOL!!

[Louise NM]

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

So what is the collective noun for mandolinists? A ? of mandolinists? A plectrum? A bowl or stave? A chop?

[F-2 Dave]

So what is the collective noun for mandolinists? A ? of mandolinists? A plectrum? A bowl or stave? A chop?

I vote for a 'Mon' of mandolinists.

Also a picker here.

[jesserules]

I vote for a 'Mon' of mandolinists.

And of course a large group of mandolin players would be a "Big Mon" ...

[Bertram Henze]

In English (and French and German), though, having fun with an instrument and making music with it are synonymously indicated by "play" (jouer; speilen). Seems more apt! Making music = fun!!

Actually, it's "spielen", but I agree with the rest.
I play the OM, with the plec * or fingerpicks. Now should I say I'm an ompicker ** ? Or an omplonker?

(*) classical German players have an even more priggish sounding word for that: Plektron
(**) sounds like a name, doesn't it? Orville Ompicker from Oktaha, Oklahoma...

[Rob Beck]

"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.

It certainly is in very common usage over here, in fact until very recently I had never heard a 'plectrum' called a 'pick', and in the same way that 'plectrum' may sound affected to American ears, 'pick' and 'picker' grate a little on mine - couldn't tell you why though - must just be what we grow up hearing!

[Rush Burkhardt]

"Pick or get out!"

An exclamation often heard at our sessions when talking is perceived to have run its course!

OK, guys...Pick or get out!

[Frankdolin]

I think that's a great question David both musically and culturally. I think the average person would think the "picker" is a learned by ear backwoods porch player and a "musician" is a highly trained expert playing traditional music. That's why I dislike labels of any kind. They always bring a predisposed idea of people or ideas that are seldom if ever accurate. And I for one live by Steve Millers wonderful lines.

[MikeZito]

Back in the early 80's Joe Walsh wrote a song lyric about playing music . . . part of it said:

'I like to sit and pick with them good ol' boys . . . I can play that rock and roll'

So again, 'picking' for country/bluegrass . . . 'playing' for rock and roll.

[OldSausage]

So what is the collective noun for mandolinists? A ? of mandolinists? A plectrum? A bowl or stave? A chop?

It is a noodlement.

[Scott Rucker]

So what is the collective noun for mandolinists? A ? of mandolinists? A plectrum? A bowl or stave? A chop?

I don't know but I bet it's out of tune a little bit.

[NursingDaBlues]

So what is the collective noun for mandolinists? A ? of mandolinists? A plectrum? A bowl or stave? A chop?

A tuning of mandolins.

A deafening of banjos.

[Jeff Hildreth]

Until today, I have never heard the term "picker" applied to a mandolin player. I thought it might refer to someone who played with fingers rather than a plectrum. Intriguing, but not to be.

Though I only rarely play with fingers only I do not, and will not, consider myself a mandolin "picker".
I will continue to not use the term "picker" applied to playing mandolin.

For reference, I have little interest in Bluegrass. When I started to play (several times over 57 years) I started with Bluegrass and immediately abandoned same. My interest lies elsewhere. Again, just for reference.

BTW .. this also applies to "chop".

[soliver]

"Picker" is very common here in Georgia... again very southern, but I pretty much only frequent the BG scene. A lot of the guys at our local jam use "Picker" to refer to anyone playing an instrument plucked with a pick: Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin. I've never felt awkward about using any of the phrases: "I play the Mandolin,..." "I'm a Mandolin Player..." "I'm a Mandolinist..." and others have referred to me in my Jam circle as a "Mandolin picker" but thats not a phrase I use just out of personal preference.

I never heard the word Plectrum until I joined this forum a few years back. I think it was someone referring to the Traveling Pick Sampler as the "Spectrum of Plectrum."

A fun semantical discussion!

[NursingDaBlues]

So what is the collective noun for mandolinists? A ? of mandolinists? A plectrum? A bowl or stave? A chop?

Or a contrarian of mandolin players?

[OldSausage]

Until today, I have never heard the term "picker" applied to a mandolin player. I thought it might refer to someone who played with fingers rather than a plectrum. Intriguing, but not to be.

Though I only rarely play with fingers only I do not, and will not, consider myself a mandolin "picker".
I will continue to not use the term "picker" applied to playing mandolin.

For reference, I have little interest in Bluegrass. When I started to play (several times over 57 years) I started with Bluegrass and immediately abandoned same. My interest lies elsewhere. Again, just for reference.

BTW .. this also applies to "chop".

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

[Tom Wright]

I tried using a bow but went back to picking.