A question about studying steel

Ben Hoare · From: NSW Australia

Hey guys,I was hoping the academics among us could help me out .This a curly question but here goes.I have recently gone back to University to do a BMUS after years of being a working musician.Even though I was accepted on guitar I have managed to convince my senior lecturer to let me study the pedal steel as my principal instrument.I now have to come up with appropriate studiess and pieces so that they are deemed acceptable standard to study at this level.
Does anyone know where I can find any information on studying steel at this level as the University has no experience with a previous steel player.Even though I have a knowledge of the instrument to some degree I have never done studies etc,as you would think in a classical sense.Any help would be most aprecciated
_________________
www.myspace.com/benspickin

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Ben,
I was in a similar situation in music school about 10 years ago. I went in as a classical composition major. Are you looking at a jazz program ? There are lots of ways to go. I would just take a standard program for guitar/piano/sax and modify it for the steel.
Belmont U in Nashville has a steel program of some sort and so does Berkelee in Boston. I think University of Texas Denton has a program with steel players also you could look into. Shoot me an email if you want.
_________________
Bob

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

"Musical toy...." Rolling Eyes

Dan Beller-McKenna · From: Durham, New Hampshire, USA

Ben,

first a little personal history. I left my first stretch as a (mediocre, amateur) steel player when I tried to transcribe several Bach pieces for the instrument. I had neither the chops nor the musical background (I was a journalism major who had just discovered the classics at the time), and ended up taking classical guitar lessons to see if that would help. In a short while I turned entirely to classical guitar and dropped the steel (as well as country, rock, etc.), and before I knew it I was a classical guitar major. I became more interested in the academic side of my studies over a few years and ended up studying musicology and now am a music history professor. Looking back, it would have been much cooler for me to study pedal steel, although it would not have prepared me as well for what I do now; but that’s neither here nor there for your situation.

The suggestions you’ve received so far are good ones. Transcribing pieces for other instruments is very helpful. You should, legitimately, be able to play classical guitar rep on the steel: it is a guitar after all. I found this too difficult to do convincingly, but hopefully your technique is better than mine. I did learn some things studying 6-string classical that I could have applied well to steel studies if I had stayed that route.

1) The “conservatory” practice regiment really pays dividends, even if it can be mindlessly repetitive and spirit crushing. Endless exercises and slow methodical working of difficult passages will produce results. Of course, this is no different than what you would ideally want to do as a player in any style. The difference is that, as a conservatory student, you will be in a community where everyone else lives this way, practicing 4-6 hours a day or more. Having that around you makes it easier to keep up the strict practice schedule.

2) Most instruments have more rigidly defined standards of technique than steel. This is a good and bad thing. The bad thing is that it is limiting and does not encourage you to find what works best for you. The good thing is, if it is based on decades (or centuries) of knowledge passed down from teachers to students, it will work--perhaps not optimally for you, but it will work better for you than simply trying out things, not knowing whether you are developing bad habits or not. I would think that part of your endeavor would be do define for yourself (and for future conservatory steel players) some standards, based on the accepted wisdom of leading contemporary players.

3) Play with others! Encourage your composer classmates to write things with steel in them. This is ultimately where steel will become accepted; by having rep written specifically for it in a “classical” (whatever that means today) style.

Finally, not all music academics are small and closed minded, just most of them. If your program has already given the go ahead, you have found some folks who can see past their blinders. Meet them half way (study the things they require of you without constantly second guessing them) and you should have a good, fruitful experience.

Best of luck!

Dan
_________________
Durham, NH
dbmCk mUSIC

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Ben Hoare · From: NSW Australia

Thanks for the thoughts fellas as I thought looks like no easy roads here much resourcefulness needed.Thank goodness for the forum!

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Dan Beller-McKenna · From: Durham, New Hampshire, USA

Good points Jim. I can only tell you this: as a classical guitar major, I always felt a little looked down upon for playing transcriptions of violin and cello music (Bach suites, etc.), since it was written for a single line instruments (yes, yes, yes: bowed instruments can play double and triple stops, but that's not what they mainly do). Like it or not, the guitar will always be compared to the piano and its capablilties. The steel will be strange and unfamiliar enough to avoid quite that fate, but I would strongly suspect its "comparitor" will be the classical guitar.

Dan

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Question: Does the university require that you play by yourself if your recitals or are you allowed to have an accompanist? It you are, you can make some very effective arrangements that don't require you to play every note.

While I'm not trying to deal with the world of academia, I am trying to develop a repertoire of material to perform for classical audiences.

My approach is to find music that I like and transcribe it, regardless of what it were originally written for. The repertoire I'm developing for live performance includes some of the things I've recorded, and some that I haven't. But all of it requires some sort of accompaniment. At the moment I'm unsure as to exactly what form that accompaniment will take.

But there is a tremendous amount of material some written for classical guitar, some for piano, some for other instruments, including fill orchestra, that can be arranged for steel and accompanist(s).

One piece I'm considering is Ricuerdos de la Alhambra, which every classical guitarist knows. There's absolutely no possible way the piece can be played as originally written with the melody played by a tremolo, on the steel. But that melody line, lends itself perfectly to the steel, while being harmonized as well. The catch is that arpeggios that the classical guitarist plays with his thumb would have to be played by another instrument.

You should find out whether the college professors would accept your having an accompanist. It they will, that opens up all sorts of possibilities for material for your to perform.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

P.S. I think that for playing classical music, a U-12 is best, not necessarily because of the B6 tuning per sé, but because of the expanded range in the bass register.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin

Jim Robbins · From: Ontario, Canada

1. Transcribe some Bach. There are a bunch of suites that have been transcribed (by Bach, among others) for lute, cello, violin, keyboard, guitar... They're standard conservatory fare & great music, where multiple contrapuntal lines are suggested for single line instruments.
2. Transcribe/arrange some Gershwin & Ellington.
3. Try to transcribe an easy slow movements from a piano sonata or a sonatina by Mozart, Haydn or early Beethoven, or maybe Clementi. Failing that, transcribe some of the 'classical period' guitar pieces (Fernando Sor, Aguado, Carulli). This will be the most gruelling and unpleasant part of the exercise, since the piano was to late 18th century- early 19th century European music what the electric guitar was to late 20th and all the best stuff is written for piano, & so why wouldn't you just play it on piano? but hey, you're the one that wants to go to music school on steel. So suck it up, like us classical guitarists did.
4. See if Susan Alcorn can give you any scores (better ask for the easy ones!)
5. And of course ditto for Mike Perlowin (& ditto re the easy ones); he may be able to help you with some 19th century repertoire (e.g Recuerdos). Or, you could try transcribing the Chopin B minor Prelude for steel (the "raindrops" one -- I bet it could sound ok on steel. I'd try it myself but life is short ...)

That would give you a repertoire as broad or broader than a typical undergrad classical guitar performance major.

Finally, & most important,
6. Hang out with the composers and the contemporary ensemble musicians. You can be an incredible asset to them & they can give you the 'conservatory cred' you'll need.

Good luck. & do all the ear training you can.

David Doggett · Posted 30 Jul 2008 9:05 pm

I have a question. Is your program tied to a particular genre of music, for example classical? Do they let anyone gear their work to genres of music other than classical? For example, if your principle instrument were sax, would they let you mostly study jazz, or insist you mostly play classical music on sax?

If there is leeway in terms of genres, then there is a modest amount of instructional material out there for country steel, some for Hawaiian steel, and a little for jazz steel. After all, country music standards are the classical music of pedal steel. You will have to hunt through all of the instructional material you can find, but some of it is written in tab with standard notation over the tab (for example Doug Jernigans stuff). There are also software programs that you can write tab (or copy from other sources), and the program will add the standard notation above the tab. And I believe there is software now that can listen to recorded music and convert it to standard notation.

What I'm trying to do is give you ideas on how to get standard notation for pedal steel, albeit from genres other than classical music. This will be how you learn the instrument, tab, standard notation, and some standard pedal steel repertoire. Once you have that under your belt you will understand how to adapt some simple classical piano or guitar pieces to pedal steel, and have it in standard notation so your professors can see what you are doing in the language they understand.

Other than some of the instructional material, there really is no body of pedal steel music in standard notation. No one has ever composed much music for pedal steel in standard notation. But there is a lot of pedal steel music on recordings and in instructional material. It's just not classical music, and if it is transcribed at all, it may be only in tab. Therefore, a major part of your work will have to be transcribing existing country, Hawaiian or jazz pedal steel standards, from instructional material tab and recordings, into standard notation. That should give you plenty of stuff for a senior recital.

If they insist your studies and senior recital be mostly classical music (which would really be silly for pedal steel), then the existing body of pedal steel country, Hawaiian and jazz can only be a learning tool for you, and you will have to do a lot of adapting of classical piano and guitar pieces to pedal steel.

By the way, I agree with Jim C. that it is only gross ignorance of the instrument that would lead anyone to equate regular guitar or piano music to pedal steel music. Pedal steel is no more like a guitar than a harp is like a violin. There is just too much stuff you can do on guitar or piano that cannot be done on pedal steel. And as much stuff that can be done on pedal steel that cannot be done on guitar or piano. Yeah, it's all music, but trombone music is very different from clarinet music or piano music - same thing for pedal steel and any other instrument.

Good luck.
Smile

Ben Hoare · From: NSW Australia

Accompanist are allowed.They accomodate both classical and contemporary to some degree within reason ,for example I think contemporary jazz is looked upon more favourably than country as a means of study due mainly to the fact of the lack of exposure to modern country and steel.As we all know its technically as demanding as any other form.But the main emphasis is on classical teaching.I had to explain what a pedal steel was and it was a new concept.The reservations of the lecturer were that no one would be able to judge me correctly which is a fair point because it would mean Id probably be assessed by the guitar teacher and how could someone with no experience judge my use of the volume pedal smooth bends in use of pedals and levers and bar technique as well as picking with finger picks against a guitarist's rest stroke etc.I was thinking it maybe wiser to choose something there ears are more used to for this reason.For example I play a Bach piece which they are aware is to a certain difficulty rather than something that is country and written off because of a teacher predisposition to country being a lower form of music or easy.......
OR!!!!!!!
should I do something completely different so it cant be compared to the guy next to me playing guitar.Either way I have to submit my pieces for approval in the next 10 days.
Your thoughts?
_________________
www.myspace.com/benspickin

Johan Jansen · From: Europe

Make your own composition or forget it. Smile

Been there, done that....

John Bresler R.I.P. · From: Thornton, Colorado

Ben:

You might try to get in touch with Professor Daniel Jones at the University of Colorado - Boulder, Colorado. Dan went to the University of California - San Francisco - and got his Masters degree in Music and Pedal Steel Guitar was his primary instrument. As far as I know, he is the only person ever to get a Masters degree with our instrument. Dan could probably give you lots of assistance.

Dan is a very accomplished musician and always plays at least one classical instrumental at Dick Meis' Pro Jam in Denver, Colorado even tho most of the players are country or swing.

Cool

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Here are some suggestions for material that you can play.

Reverie- Debussy
Claure du Lune- Debussy
Gymnopedies #2 Satie *
Prelude #2 in C#, (best transposed to E) Gershwin *
Fanfare for the Common Man (Copland) *
Rondo of the Princes from th Firebird -Stravinsky *
Berceuse and finale from the Firebird Stravinsky *
2nd movement of the New World Symphony (Dvorak)

I have performed or recorded every one of these pieces. The ones marked with * are all on my Firebird Suite CD. You can hear the Gershwin Prelude here:

http://www.perlowinmusic.com/GershwinPrelude2.mp3

It’s true that I overdubbed many of the parts on the CD, but all these pieces can all be performed live, as long as you have an accompanist. They all translate very well to the steel. They all work very well on the E9 neck.

My versions of the Gershwin piece and the Berceuse from the Firebird contains some bass notes and require a 12 string instrument.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin

Forum Index > Pedal Steel		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic