Use of term "flatpicking" in Isaiah Sharkey video

I love Isaiah Sharkey’s playing but in this video he seems to be saying that “flatpicking” refers to the striking the strings with the flat side of the pick rather than with edge picking. Is this common? I always just thought of flatpicking as any kind of playing using a pick rather than a thumbpick, etc.rather than a descriptor how the pick was actually being applied to the strings.

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Sounds like he’s talking about using low-degree edge picking, i.e. flatter against the string. The more common usage of the term as you are pointing out is probably as the counterpart to “fingerpicking”. That’s how bluegrass players use it.

The terms aren’t standardized, and even the term “edge picking” itself is something we coined to point out the difference between edge picking and pickslanting. If you hear someone saying “edge picking”, there’s a good chance that came from us.

Just don’t say “edging”. I’ve actually heard various YouTube instructor types say this. And that’s… well, yeah don’t say that!

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LOL, Thanks Troy! Maybe we can co-opt the term edge lord? :joy:

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Ha! That will be our next “how to” for the YouTubeses.

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