Beginner's Corner

Lee Gustafson · Post by **Lee Gustafson** » 13 May 2008 3:28 pm

I check daily to see what new material is available from Mickey Adams and Greg Cutshaw. They are so generous with their knowledge. Another Youtube contributor that nobody has mentioned is sbenzian. He has 22 videos. I worked on Cold Cold Heart Lessons 1,2&3. I like the way he teaches. Check him out.

bob Ousby · Post by **bob Ousby** » 13 May 2008 5:49 pm

Hi Ben...Looks like the GFI is the winner. And down the road, you can turn it around for what you paid when you upgrade. Just have 'em send it Fed Ex!!! By the way, there's a D-10 pedal steel for sale on craigslist Portland called a Wheller Ped All. Maybe some of our veterans can offer insight on what this is.

Ben Cartwright · Post by **Ben Cartwright** » 13 May 2008 7:15 pm

Yea, I've been eye-ing that Wheeler, but can't find any information about it a all anywhere.

Rick Hulett · Post by **Rick Hulett** » 13 May 2008 7:36 pm

From a search I did when I first saw that ad.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ht=wheeler

Ben Cartwright · Post by **Ben Cartwright** » 14 May 2008 8:17 am

Wow.

Well, that's certainly more information that I knew before.

Thanks a lot.

Lee Gustafson · Post by **Lee Gustafson** » 14 May 2008 12:14 pm

While searching for your first steel, don't overlook the Simmons Econo Steel. I bought mine last October and it is a quality instrument. Bob Simmons is a great guy. He will walk you through your purchase, he'll even play you steel over the phone. I paid $895 plus shipping. It's built well, holds its tuning and works and sounds great. If you search the forum under Instruments and type in Bob Simmons in the Author search, you will see photos of a similar steel to mine. He offered it up for sale on Jan. 21, 2008. Give him a call. You won't be sorry.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 17 May 2008 1:04 pm

bump so the thread remains on the first page and don't get "hard to find"

The linked videos have led to a whole new world of material I didn't know about.

Thanks to all you folks that have posted that PSG stuff (A special thanks to Bobbe). I've died & gone to heaven...

To actually get to see Big E doing his thing on Ray Price's "Don't you ever get tired of hurtin' me"... That's (Priceless is the wrong word here 'cause he's in the video too, but you get what I mean))

bob Ousby · Post by **bob Ousby** » 18 May 2008 7:27 am

I've been admiring the pics of the new owners, especially Don Campbell's over in the Steel Players section. As far as learning tools, I recently got a Hal Leonard publication: Pedal Steel Guitar Method (E9) by Johnie Helms. It has a CD with it. You can score this on half.com for as little as $8. It is basic beginners stuff. What helps me to learn is to have several different manuals/cd's/dvd/s on hand. I'll focus on one for awhile, then switch over to another. Another thing that really helps is to have a plan. Sometimes I've been guilty of sitting down at the psg and saying: "Now, what do I want to do today?". I feel having a 3 day plan is worthwhile. I'll kind of map out what I want to do over the next 3 days: doing the boring finger exercises/scales, learning some licks, and working on a song. My main slow down is precision. I'll do a triad (say 456 or 345). I'll repeat these grips over and over so that I'm gripping in the same place every time and picking up my speed. I think the goal is to eventually do these without looking. Well, at this stage, I'm a looker! One problem I've had with the triad grips is picking all 3 strings with an equal amount of force. I've noticed my index finger tends to be the lazy one. I'll pick 456 all at once and get sound on the 4 & 6, but the 5 is weak. My remedy for this has been to pick harder and deeper. And one has to sit down at the psg daily. I do twice a day, and more on the weekends. And logging onto the SGF is NOT practice time. There's excellent stuff here, a lot to digest, but don't be a slacker and say that your SGF time equals practice. Now, I've got to close this out and move my rear over one seat to the psg...Oh wait, my wife is calling...

Rick Hulett · Post by **Rick Hulett** » 18 May 2008 9:29 am

Tucker Jackson came out and gave me a lesson the other day. If you're near Portland and want a lesson, he's the man. He's a great player and better yet, a great teacher. He helped me realize that part of my problem has been just basic tuning. It ain't like a guitar, you can't just plug your tuner in and tune to pitch. In fact, I think it's more like chasing your tail while treading water in a can of worms. But, I'm slowly coming to grips with it.

Andy Hoffman · Post by **Andy Hoffman** » 30 Jun 2008 2:00 pm

I'm a newbee and don't know where to find a good book with cd. (or DVD) My steel has 3 pedals and one knee lever. (Lowers the Es) Any suggestions short of getting a new steel? I don't think my EMS Side
Kick can add another knee lever.

bob Ousby · Post by **bob Ousby** » 30 Jun 2008 2:13 pm

Welcome Andy! Joe Wright and Jeffran College have some good home instruction materials for beginners. Also look at the top of the page on the Forum and you'll see a tab "Instruction", also a good place to start. I'm not sure about your brand of steel, possibly our vets will chime in as to what can be added. My Excel S10 has 3 pedals and 4 knee levers.

Chuck Thompson · Post by **Chuck Thompson** » 30 Jun 2008 5:42 pm

Hi Andy and welcome - alot of people swear by the winnie winston book - it is written for a set up like yours - i have learned alot from it so far - b0b has it for sale here (click on instruction tab at the top of the page) and happy steelin!

Andy Hoffman · Post by **Andy Hoffman** » 2 Jul 2008 4:23 am

Thanks for your help. I had quite the typo in my posting. I have an MSA Sidekick ProAm. 1 Knee lever and 3 pedals. ("ems" is what I'll have to call to untangle my hands and feet.)

Finn Walling · Post by **Finn Walling** » 2 Jul 2008 5:07 am

This is the most helpful thread for beginners like me. If I had seen it at first, I wouldn't have bothered everyone with my noob questions...

Jeffrey Shu · Post by **Jeffrey Shu** » 3 Jul 2008 2:41 pm

Though I've been playing for a couple years, I still consider myself a beginner. Just connected with a local player named Rick Nathy for occasional lessons - have had one so far, but that opened significant doors for me from right hand position to alternate positions for maj chords to an easy turnaround (I guess most all are easy when you know them

. He plays a Jimmy Daye setup while play an Emmons, but I'll sort through the confusion to have the tutoring.

The talk here about student vs. pro models has got me thinking again. I play a Dekley student model with three pedals and three knee levers - pretty well equipped, I think, for a student model. I've been playing this with my band without knowing what I'm missing. Ignorance is bliss. But I'm starting to think that maybe the instrument is holding me back a bit. The smoothness of I-IV changes I hear on recordings, for instance. The length of sustain. The three miles my knee travels before hitting the note (mentioned by several). The difficulty I'm having getting the left knee levers both in tune. Anybody else have a Dekley student - or used to have? I guess it's push-pull which from other strings I've read sounds like it's antiquated. I think there's significant cabinet drop too, but again I benefit from not knowing what I'm missing from a better model.

Great postings - thanks to all for sharing.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 4 Jul 2008 10:32 am

If anyone is in the Ardmore, Ok area, I'd like to help out with some beginner lessons. I'm not an authority on pedal steel but I've learned enough now that I can help a rookie get going.

Jerry H. Moore · Post by **Jerry H. Moore** » 6 Jul 2008 9:41 am

There's a lot of free stuff out there that ranges from beginner to expert. Mickey Adams has a good variety of great licks AND some great advice. Greg Cutshaw has tons of tab and sound files. The list goes on.....

The problem is that you will find yourself jumping to a more advanced lesson and leaving out the basics. Start at the beginning and learn the scales and inversions. Thats where private lessons pay off in my opinion. The teacher will go from lesson 1 to lesson 2. We won't do that. We go right to the song at the end! The jam-along CDs are priceless. Steel guitar tab (to a beginner) is a nightmare! That takes some studying to clear it up in your head. My favorite right now is the Mickey Adams lessons on You Tube. I have them saved to my ipod and have it playing through a portable DVD player on my music stand. Take one at a time!!! Very rewarding.

Thanks to all the people that put the free stuff out there!!! It sounds cheap but it does help us decide what to buy. Thanks for all that tab out songs for us to buy. That tabbing thang gets difficult!

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 6 Jul 2008 11:29 am

If you can, join a band, or find some folks to play with. Another avenue is some of the well-produced play-along discs, often found in the guitar bins at the music store. There are many for blues and rock, and a few good ones for country. Here's one of my favorites, very nice tracks that are really fun to play with:
http://www.amazon.com/Stand-Alone-Track ... 646&sr=8-9
Here's another example:
http://www.freeguitarvideos.com/letsjam/LJ2.html

I'm actually playing pedal steel on the Country/bluegrass one, not so much licks to learn as chord padding for any instrument to play along to.

When I started, I would go through all the tabs and books I had (Winnie Winston's is a great one), and stuff I had tabbed out from jams and recordings, playing through everything over and over, and then wondering why I didn't make much progress on my gigs.

It finally dawned on me that I was tackling too much at once, and when I would just work on a few concepts, like licks to move from a I to IV chord, and then take those into a jam or gig and try to shoehorn them into every tune, I started getting better much faster. Oddly, practicing an hour or two a day started to move me along much faster than the 8-10 hours I had been doing.

While sitting alone and playing can be pleasurable, I think you'll get the most mileage playing with a group to get the live interaction of making things up on the spot, and seeing where the things you already know can fit.

Rick Hulett · Post by **Rick Hulett** » 6 Jul 2008 12:49 pm

I've been playing with one band for several years. It's honky tonk/alt country kind of stuff and I've been the lead guitar (Tele) player. It's mostly original stuff and I know the songs like the back of my hand. Over the past couple of months I've moved to playing mostly steel in the band. Last night we had a gig and the other guitar player couldn't make it plus it was outside and looked a bit like rain. So, I decided to leave the steel at home and do it just on Tele. So, I'm playing the intro to a song I've done hundreds of times and in the middle of a lick my mind went completely blank and I realized I was mashing the ground with my left foot wondering why the string wasn't bending. I guess I'm completely confused at this point.

Bryan Daste · Post by **Bryan Daste** » 6 Jul 2008 1:36 pm

A book that really helped me out was the Winnie Winston/Bill Keith book (with CD). There's one on eBay right now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BOOK-Pedal-Stee ... dZViewItem

bob Ousby · Post by **bob Ousby** » 6 Jul 2008 4:30 pm

A hearty Thank You to the guys above for their info. I know it takes time to weed through posts and all, but your willingness to share is what makes this Forum a great and encouraging place to be.

Chuck Snider · Post by **Chuck Snider** » 10 Jul 2008 12:09 pm

I'm just getting underway with a Carter Starter. I got the "bundle" from MusiciansFriend which included the volume pedal and also a 7/8 inch diameter tone bar. I'm not used to using a slide/tonebar so I don't know if the size of the tonebar matters?? or is it just a case of personal preferences?? I see that there are other size tonebars made by Dunlop, including the 7/8 inch size and also a larger 1 inch and a smaller 3/4 inch. Any recommendations form the more experienced folks out there??? At this point whatever I have will take me a little getting used to, so if I should go to a larger or smaller size I would prefer to do it now. By the way, as far as the Carter Starter goes, I'm quite happy with it so far.

Thanks,
Chuck Snider
Roxboro, NC

Marty Kerluk · Post by **Marty Kerluk** » 10 Jul 2008 1:39 pm

I've learned so much from this forum that it surpasses anything from a book or DVD! Thanks forum.

As a beginner I've been going through the Winnie book, and the Jernigan and Jaffran starter books/DVD's.

Tucker Jackson · Post by **Tucker Jackson** » 10 Jul 2008 1:55 pm

Chuck Snider wrote:I'm not used to using a slide/tonebar so I don't know if the size of the tonebar matters?? or is it just a case of personal preferences?? I see that there are other size tonebars made by Dunlop, including the 7/8 inch size and also a larger 1 inch and a smaller 3/4 inch. Any recommendations from the more experienced folks out there???

Chuck, the size of the bar is a matter of personal preference. The 7/8 inch bar is probably the most common size, so you're good to go.

You have lots of things to worry about as a new player -- but the good news is that the size of your bar isn't one them.

bob Ousby · Post by **bob Ousby** » 12 Jul 2008 4:13 am

Chuck...It's a lot like Tucker says. I have a 7/8's Boyett's glass bar and a 15/16's stainless steel. As far as "hand fit", the 7/8's feels more natural and is not as heavy. Part of the fun of psg ownership is purchasing different bars and finding your favorite or favorites.

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Does size matter...for tone bars?

Re: Does size matter...for tone bars?