Do you really Hear the song?

Joe Drivdahl · From: Montana, USA

Ok, I've said some dumb things on this forum, but now I am moving into an area that might considered downright weird by some folks. But being reasonably confident of my mental soundness, I will proceed.

Lately while playing alone in my music room with my BIAB CDs, I have been getting the sense that someone is trying to help perfect my sound; that someone is in the room with me. I've even stopped playing to have a look around. Shocked

I can't really explain it because once it starts happening, if I think about it, it goes away. Its kind of like the floaters in your eyes that you can see as long as you don't look directly at them. Once you do, they zoom right out of sight.

At first, I thought the Session 400 I just bought from a fellow forumite might be haunted. There must be an old Steelman's ghost in there telling me to "play it pretty, with feeling" and giving me mental images to make me understand the feeling I should have about this song, like two people in love, or two people falling out of love, or whatever.

Ok... Drivdahl's gone off the deepend, right? Well wait. Don't call out the guys in white coats yet. It gets better. Last night it finally dawned on me whats going on. Its the song "talking" to me. The song is telling me how it wants to be played. It will even tell me what the next chord is if I pay attention. Not in words like A Minor, but just where to move the bar and what pedal or level to engage.

Now I know its all in my head, but I find it very interesting that my mind has chosen to manifest my knowledge of music in this way. I truely believe that if I can learn to listen to the song, in fact, become the instrument through which the song plays itself, I can become a great player.

I am just curious if this has ever happened to any of you great players?

Ok, call the boys from the funny farm now. I am ready for the rubber room.
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Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Well, I shouldn't answer because I'm not "great".

But...

It's hardto say what all influences us.

Rosicrucean Doctrine the way I read it years ago says that "etherical beings" or "ghosts" if you will, are all around us, and dive on the chance to manifest themselves through people.

I myself think it's true, though I never took a lot of time trying to identify any specifics.

The longer an instrument has been in existence, the more of them there are hovering around, "helping".

Don't think it's true?

Try playing a violin. It's WAY too easy.

Guitar? same thing.

PSGs have less, but there are definitely more as time goes by.

Music is something that's mostly "etherical".

We might note some of the tendencies, or cause/effects, just like with electricity, but we don't make the rules.

If it's working fer ya, I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth..

Wink

EJL

Carroll Hale · From: EastTexas, USA

well..........I aint one of them "great" players...hell, I aint even mediocre when it comes to any type of steel...(lap, psg, dobro, etc)..but, I do sometimes sit down and it seems like it just flows off my finger/bars/strings......somewhere in between "intonation places"...somewhere in bar slant positions that just happen...(no rhyme or reason)..yet it comes out sounding good...
who knows.......only the shadow.... Very Happy

Barry Blackwood · Posted 21 Feb 2008 9:02 am

Eric, etherical = ethereal?

Joe Drivdahl · From: Montana, USA

Hey guys,
I didn't mean you had to be a "great" player to reply. I was just kinda hoping that this discovery might be what makes those great players so great! Maybe I'd stumbled on to the "secret." But, hey I sure ain't great. I guess if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.

Eric,
I thought about that para-psychological kind of thing too, and maybe you're right. I didn't say this in the original post, but this first started when I got that 12 string Fessy (used). But then the guy helping me had a face. He was an old guy with a white beard, looked more like an old-time prospector than a steelman, but he was always telling me to "Play Swing, Play Swing."

When I sold the Fessy, he went with it. Hadn't hear anything from anyone until I bought this Session 400 (also used). Its got three beings in it. One guy and two women.

Don't know what it is but its way cool.

I do have to disagree with you about playing the fiddle though. That is the most frustrating, danged, miserably difficult instrument I ever wrapped fingers around.

Joe

Carroll Hale · From: EastTexas, USA

I own 2 fiddles.........when I play...wife leaves and says it sounds like 3 cats with tails tied together....all in a big toe sack.....not quite that bad, but not good..even if say so....oh well, got lots of room for improvement.... Laughing

Joe Drivdahl · From: Montana, USA

Carrol,
Good luck trying to improve on that damn thing. I played fiddle, well more like scraped on a fiddle for 6 years before I finally admitted defeat and moved on.

For me the steel is much easier to play.

Tamara James · Posted 21 Feb 2008 9:45 am **Re: Do you really Hear the song?**

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Barry.

Sorry. I tend to think in terms of "me".

EthERICal. And yes, its a word. Kind of like 'AmERICa'.

I see it everywhere...

Wink

EJL

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Joe.

It's been said by that "Crossing Over" guy that we all have the ability to ssee farther, but our lives and worldly din early on stop us from using this sight.

I myself invite entities from my past to come visit me, and I talk to them. My Dad, Grandmas, dear friends that have passed on.

I only imagine them.

If they are indeed "there" they must get a little dissapointment when I talk to them, at first thinking that I can really hear and see them. I dunno. Maybe they find ways to help me by changing minds of others that I deal with.

An old mentor of mine back in DC used to say "We're all psychic, but some people have a hard time dealing with it.".

I recently played a gig with a good guitar playing friend that I worry about sometimes.

We were talking about a moderately talented hard time drummer. I gotta admit I never cared for him but I said the best I could think of about him. My friend got kind of excited and said. "Yeah. I know what people thought about __. In fact I can tell what EVERYBODY thinks."

I wanted to, and maybe I will, tell him that of course, a lot of us do just that. Problem is, what they are "thinking" isn't actually what they will do or what theire "considered opinion" is. You have to learn to discern the difference, or your life can become a nightmare of the worst things that people around you are imagining.

I think JD, the thing to do is use whatEVER inpiration you get to create the good things music can be.

I don't think it's an "off base" subject, and I'd like to read more input on it my durn self.

Tuning into "the things" that happen when I play music, and especially when I'm learning something NEW has really saved me from otherwise gruesome spiritual things, I'm sure.

Smile

EJL

Dave Boothroyd · From: Staffordshire Moorlands

The idea of a haunted steel comes very close to the strong feeling I have against buying new guitars:- namely that they don't know any songs, whereas an old, well-played one knows lots of them.
Rationally, it probably comes down to the fact that an old instrument has a tone that reminds you subconsciously of many old songs that had similar sounding guitars on them, so the sound suggests a repertoire.
Cheers

Dave

Joe Drivdahl · From: Montana, USA

I didn't realize "Eric" was involved in the construction of so many words. Thats kind of cool.

Back to the subject at hand... I thought I had this all figured out. I thought it was the song talking to me, but now I am beginning to question that. Maybe my amp really is haunted, or at least has become a dwelling for some sort of spiritual energy that is somehow capable of communicating with me. I say this because its definitely different "voices" from the old prospector who inhabited the Fessy and wanted everything (including the Tennessee Waltz) to be played in a swing style. These folks (there are three of them) are more into feeling.

The really cool part is that with practice I believe that I and my steel can become the conduit through which the song, or the spirits, or whatever it is, can blossom, or unfold, or emerge, rather than me simply playing the song on my steel.

I have played six string guitar for almost 35 years and this has never happened to me until I took up the steel.

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

..
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(I am not right all of the time but I sure like to think I am!)

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

Do,do do do,Do do,do,do,Do,do,do,do,It's twilight time.or it sounds like that when I try to play the fiddle,DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC !

Barry Blackwood · Posted 21 Feb 2008 3:08 pm

Whew, Eric! That's a lotta bandwidth! Whoa!

Jack Dougherty · From: Spring Hill, Florida, USA

Joe.....

I have relatives in Montana......It's the water!!!
Your amp is not haunted. Your in the "ZONE"
Happens often to me. But you are alone when it happens. Like golfers or tennis. This is not a team event. Going in the zone while playing with a band can only lead to a bad result. So enjoy the moments.

David Hartley · Posted 21 Feb 2008 3:27 pm Hi

Can someone tell me what DYKBC means? DH

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

David Hartley · Posted 21 Feb 2008 3:33 pm Hi

So whats the tale

mr.davidhartley@btinternet.com

DH

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

Joe, you are not going nuts, nor are you stepping into the 5th dimension.
I get the feeling that what you describe is an important milestone in your steel playing.
You have now learned the steel well enough to not have to think chords or notes at all. It has become a totally automatic thing. You are able to disconnect from the music itself and concentrate on the heart and soul of what you are hearing. Your soul directs you, subconsciously, to play the notes this way or that.
You have become one with your steel. The two of you are one smooth-working unit.
I would love to hear a tune from you.

Joe Drivdahl · From: Montana, USA

Bent,
You have no idea how much I'd like to believe that, but I am not a very good player yet. I mean, I guess I'm proficient enough with what little I do know, but that ain't much.

But hopefully someday, what you say will be true and I will truly be one with the steel. That would be awsome.

Thanks

Joe

Bo Legg · Posted 21 Feb 2008 4:45 pm

Joe Drivdahl...

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

sorry joe....it was probably some of my talented steel picker friends.....sometimes our astral traveling turns into a joy riding fiasco!!

Bert Berthold · From: Peralta, New Mexico, USA

Joe,I beleive Bent is on to a big part of what you are experiencing.I knew a steel player some time back that understood more music theory,could play rings around me,but I had people say they would rather listen to my less technically correct playing than his.He played mechanically, wide open or shut off that was the only variation.There was no feeling.I believe the steel guitar is all feeling.I don't beleive length of time playing has anything to do with that.I think some people reach that point of understanding and some don't,and never will.when you can play automatically and concentrate on how to play and not what,be thankful.IMHO Press on

Scott Henderson · From: Camdenton, Missouri, USA

Joe I am right with ya! Music for all it's technical mumbo jumbo is low o my lists of priorities in making good music. You have to hear it. Music is not on a peice of paper it's in your heart, imagination, emotion. And yes the song will tell you what it needs if you will only listen to it. When you find several musicians that can all do that you find magic. It's what I constantly strive for. I grow very tired of all the posts here about the proper way to play something. Play it with your heart. You're ot going crazy. YOU ARE GETTING IT! Go with it and learn the "art" of music instead of the process of music. I thik as steel players we over complicate this. After all "it's only 12 notes"
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