Why Do you play Steel ?

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 6 Nov 2007 11:45 pm

I play steel because I love it and because I love the way it looks and sounds in country music.

Brett

Dean Salisbury · Post by **Dean Salisbury** » 7 Nov 2007 1:11 am

Becaue my mother bought this steel guitar in 1954 and just gave it to me a week or so ago. She never learned hot to play so now at 60, I'm giving it an attempt!

Dean from SI ny

Billy Wilson · Post by **Billy Wilson** » 7 Nov 2007 1:21 am

I get the Ghost

Joe Rouse · Post by **Joe Rouse** » 7 Nov 2007 1:45 am

I've been exposed to the steel guitar since I was 10 yrs. old. Never took it serious, switched to rhythm guitar and sang a little bit, to be popular with the ladies. Didn't work. Always liked the sound of a psg and now have a Carter Starter and have been taking lessons from Denny Mathes here in San Antonio for 7 months and love it. I don't feel I've done myself justice if I can't practice an hour a day. Sometimes 2 hours if I'm lucky but sometimes 15 minutes at a setting 4 or 5 times a day.
I've taken on challenges before but nothing as challenging as the psg or more satifying. I can get uptight and have a lot on my mind and set down to my "OTHER WOMAN" and in 10 minutes I've calmed down and ready to take on more of lifes challenges. Best thing that has happened to me or for me in years, except for my wife, kids, grandkids dogs etc...Thought I should add them for my own good.

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 7 Nov 2007 6:26 am

Brett Day wrote:I play steel because I love it and because I love the way it looks and sounds in country music.

Brett

You said it Brett.
..the way it looks. What other instrument can be more intriguing. The looks is something else. From the first time I saw a Fender 400, the mystery of the pedals and the stuff underneath. It looks like no other instrument.Eye candy for sure.

...sounds. So unique and stands out in the crowd. Unmistakable sound, because no other instrument comes close. Unique also in its make-up. What other instrument can produce 7 or 8 new chords without you picking the strings again? NONE. They are so totally unique. And we, the players, are all a part of this uniqueness

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 7 Nov 2007 7:51 am

I play the steel guitar because if I didn't I'd have to play the b***o.

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 7 Nov 2007 8:37 am

Jim Cohen wrote: You mean it's optional?
.

That's why Jimbeaux is a pro... he said essentially what I said but with fewer words, and in the form of a question like on Jeopardy.

Roual Ranes · Post by **Roual Ranes** » 7 Nov 2007 4:41 pm

First it was fame to get the girl, then found out that you had to have the money also so it was fame and money..........got the girl then it was for money to keep the girl......lost the fame then the money then the girl......now it is OCD....chasing those sounds I hear in my head.......

Jerry L Miller · Post by **Jerry L Miller** » 7 Nov 2007 5:30 pm

Jerry Bryd and hank was the start but when Webb Pierce sang slowly and Bud pushed those pedals i fell totaly in love with pedal steel, then to top it off there was the big E. L. G. and Mooney and a lot of others. but it was a long time before i hid away enough money to buy one.
the sound of a steel sends chivers through me!!!!!!!!!!!
jerry

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 7 Nov 2007 5:44 pm

Bill Dobkins wrote:
Alan F. Brookes wrote:...it's the wild parties, the adoring masses, the exorbitant, extravagant pay, the wild sexual image, the stretched limos, the champagne, the reserved penthouses and presidential suites at all the best hotels, the prestige, the fame, the riches. How could I live without all that ?
Alan, I'm coming to live with you.

Just bring plenty of whiskey when you do...

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 7 Nov 2007 5:49 pm

Why breathe?

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 7 Nov 2007 6:08 pm

Why indeed!

Bill Dobkins · Post by **Bill Dobkins** » 7 Nov 2007 7:28 pm

I just thought of another great reason...
I get to set down to play. After years of a guitar hanging around my neck, It feels good to get to set down and play.

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 7 Nov 2007 7:42 pm

I play the steel because if I didn't play the steel all the people in Iraq and South Africa and all the starving children in China wouldn't get to hear me play the steel, and so that is why I play the steel.

(I'm practicing for the Mr.Teenage America contest.)

Carlos Polidura · Post by **Carlos Polidura** » 7 Nov 2007 8:26 pm

Me?...Well, I guess adiction.............
to steel guitar that is.
Man... the sound and things one can do on a steel guitar that no other musical instrument can do.
carlos

Bill Dobkins · Post by **Bill Dobkins** » 7 Nov 2007 9:39 pm

Mike Perlowin wrote:
(I'm practicing for the Mr.Teenage America contest.)

Mike, you had better shave you legs. $:\$

Michael Strauss · Post by **Michael Strauss** » 7 Nov 2007 9:52 pm

I don’t play yet, this learning stage is a b*tch! But sound of a steel, the range, the versatility, what an amazing instrument.

Dave Robbins · Post by **Dave Robbins** » 7 Nov 2007 10:09 pm

"I thought it would make me a "rock star!!!!!"

(just kiddin' of course!)

Dave

Louis Vallee · Post by **Louis Vallee** » 7 Nov 2007 11:43 pm

That is the heaviest guitar I could find and without steel guitar, I should sell my truck...

Jim Walker · Post by **Jim Walker** » 7 Nov 2007 11:55 pm

I've always laid the blame on John Hughey! He almost made me cry at a Vince Gill Concert long time ago.

Tim Harr · Post by **Tim Harr** » 8 Nov 2007 5:38 am

I have played the Guitar for 30yrs and Pedal Steel for about 17yrs...

To this day, Pedal Steel continues to offer a musical challenge to me...in a positive way.

Meaning, I always discover something new or improve my skills with each visit behind the instrument.

Now I am at the point where I can completely express myself musically with a Pedal Steel and that feels good.

For years, I was only interested in "hot licks" and learning the "cliche' licks" on the Pedal Steel.

It took a while to get past that and just play music - what I am thinking musically without any limitations.

Now, I feel very comfortable taking a PSG into any musical environment/genre.

That is why I play because - - it is my musical instrument "voice" of choice.

I can't imagine my life without a Pedal Steel in it.

Bill Dobkins · Post by **Bill Dobkins** » 8 Nov 2007 6:20 am

Tim Harr wrote: .

I can't imagine my life without a Pedal Steel in it.

Ditto Tim.

Allan Thompson · Post by **Allan Thompson** » 8 Nov 2007 7:35 am

Because I can do it sitting down !!!!

Walter Killam · Post by **Walter Killam** » 8 Nov 2007 7:55 am

oh, because I don't have enough challenges in my life!

David Ziegler · Post by **David Ziegler** » 8 Nov 2007 8:20 am

Joy,euphoric joy, and therapy. It has saved my sanity over the last 3 years(assuming of course that any steel player is sane to start with)!

The Steel Guitar Forum

Why Do you play Steel ?

I'm trying to learn the steel!

Sounds

Because it's there?