Rockabilly backup

[Steve Tesmer]

We just lost one of the guitar players in our band. We play a mix of Classic Country and Rockabilly. My problem is that when our lone guitar player takes a solo now, I have to cover the rhythm guitar part. I think I'm doing OK on the country stuff with some simple chording, but I haven't figured out what to do for the Rockabilly tunes. I play a D10, mostly on the E9 neck. I mess around a little on the C6 neck - no pedals at this point.

Any suggestions, tab, books, recordings would be appreciated!

[Jon Light]

Either neck---if your comfort zone is on E9, I'd stay there for now. Plenty of 6th sounds available there.
Think staccato punches---like the bopping in 'Rock Around The Clock'. Strong rhythmic hits with sharp blocking. Set up phrase patterns as opposed to random sharp hits. Sort of like a swing horn section riffing behind the soloist. Absolutely avoid sustained chords. Mud is the enemy of clean, minimal rockabilly. A nice slap-back delay is cool. Keep it simple.

It was a cool breakthrough when I found this stuff. Really helped me to set up something for the guitarist to play against instead of just marking time pretending to justify my existence until the next solo.

Of course I'm hearing in head exactly what I'm describing. No idea if it is translating in this post. But I hope this helps.


edit----try to find some Bill Haley on Youtube----the steel work I've seen is next to nothing so that doesn't help much but it illustrates the vibe I'm talking about. Make the steel dance.

[David Doggett]

A lot of rockabilly has something like a I IV I V I progression. It works out really well to chord this on C6, because so many of the chords are played as 6ths. For the IV, just hit pedal 6 to get the IV9 chord. Then let off for I6. Then hit pedal 6 and go up two frets for the V9. So you are playing I6 IV9 I6 V9 I6. In A (by far the most popular rockabilly key) that would be A6 D9 A6 E9 A6. And other than that pedal 6, just play it like a lap steel and slide into the chords from one fret down, big band style.

[Gabriel Stutz]

I have to do this sometimes with a band I play with, and as someone still learning the instrument I tend to stick to simple dominant 7th chords (B pedal and E-Eb position) . I tend to just to play the low E string on the beat and the G# and B stings on the "and" not sustaining the notes, kind of staccato. I don't know that this is an exciting way of going about it, but it does seem to work without cluttering things up. You can also do some Luther Perkins-like stuff sometimes that works in the no pedal position. Pick the low E on the one, the G# & B on the "and", and the low B on the two, etc. I find the less "interesting" my part is the more functional it becomes in a rockabilly type song.

Gabriel

[Mark van Allen]

Don't forget dropping your thumb down to string 9 at the "no pedals" position for 7ths, adding the A pedal there for 13ths, and up three frets with just the E-F raise for another 7th position. Sliding in and out of those, and doing rhythmic moves with, say, two fingers alternating with the thumb, will afford all kinds of great dominant rhythm vamps.

[James Collett]

Using John's "visionary" technique :D ,
[tab]
1) |
2) |
3) |
4) |
5) |
6) 5 5 5 | 5 5 5
7) 5 | 5
8) 5 5 5 5 | 5 5 5 5
9) 5 | 5
10) 5 5| 5
[/tab]

Rhythm:

"1 2 + 3 + + 1 2 + 3 + "

I think I got that one from a Jeff Newman book.

You can variate that other ways too and get some cool rockabilly rhythms

[Steve Tesmer]

Wow, this all looks like great info. This will keep me busy for a while. Thanks!

[Brint Hannay]

I agree with Jon, thinking "horn section" is a great approach.

[Hal Higgins]

Depending on the tempo of the songs....there are a great many ryhthmic things that can be done on the E9th tuning.......I worked for Sleepy LaBeef, a great Rockabilly artist, for 5 1/2 years and did a great deal of rhythm on the E neck.......I was with him for that length of time so I must have done something right........you'll do alright with it I'm sure.....you'll have to think like a rhythm guitar player and adapt those concepts. HAL

[Richard Sinkler]

I mainly use the technique that David Doggett mentioned, but also on the E9th, sometimes just vamping chords using strings 4, 5 & 8 (no pedals) work well. Leaving the 3rd tone out of the chord, kind of like a light version of a power chord.

[Frederic Mabrut]

I play rockabilly with my band for 20 years now.
Usually I play a lot on the C6 neck but a lot of great licks can be found on the E9 neck.

Here's one I've posted on the French Forum
http://steelguitarfrance.forumactif.com ... -t1572.htm

Or if you don't read French here is the tab
http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/558e9960df_0.02MB

and the mp3 file . Help Yourself!
http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/1314fd1d42_0.26MB

[Tim Whitlock]

For rockabilly, I like to use the tone control, or my vol/tone pedal, with a 6th or 13th chord. Gives a nice horn section retro effect. Bar slams in conjunction with a quick bass to treble tone shift (ala Speedy West doo-wah) fits well, too. Bill Haley had steel on his records before "Rock Around the Clock" hit. Billy Williamson was the steel player and listening to those old Haley songs is a good clinic for rockabilly style steel. Another good example is Speedy on the Tennessee Earnie Ford stuff like "Shotgun Boogie", "Blackberry Boogie", et al. Very close to rockabilly. Of course when in doubt - lay out!

[Steve Tesmer]

I just wanted to offer my thanks to everyone who responded to my question. The suggestions have proved very valuable, and I have been working hard on incorporating these ideas into my playing.

It looks like it is paying off, we had a gig last week and I was able to start working these "staccato punches" into the music. Kind of making believe I am the horn section, or piano. At our break the guitar player turned around and said "Wow, I've never heard stuff like that played on a pedal steel! That was awesome!"

[Jon Light]

Outstanding, Steve. Totally sounds like you 'got it'.

[Donny Hinson]

If you keep the bass control low, you can do a good job "comping" walking chords using strings 6, 8, & 10. Using 6th chords is good too, but it's easily overdone. What you want is variety - playing sounds of brass, rhythm guitar, and piano, as well as regular steel.

It's fun music!

[Michael Johnstone]

In a case like that I'll just grab dom 7 chords and Travis pick like Scotty Moore would do on an Elvis song like Mystery Train. It works better on C6 or a universal but it can be done on a 10 string E9. That tuning is a little lacking on the bottom end for that tho.