Is Pedal Steel the Most Difficult Instrument to Learn ?

Bob Hickish · Post by **Bob Hickish** » 15 Apr 2009 6:15 am

Calvin Walley wrote:i think what scare's and confuses many(myself included ) is the madding amount of musical tech talk

(3) just play the damn thing

Walley --- that says it all -- I'v been at for 60 years and still don't understand some of the posts I read . the "just play the damn thing" works for me .

Hick

Calvin Walley · Post by **Calvin Walley** » 15 Apr 2009 10:55 am

thanks Bob

i think this happens to a lot of new players
some of the guys on here ( with the best of intentions) simply overload a new player
we all want to help but its so easy to give more information than a newbie can understand

Calvin Walley · Post by **Calvin Walley** » 15 Apr 2009 11:01 am

here is a quote from Jeff Newman

many times the music theory and notes complicate things so badly that players will throw up their hands in frustration . it just is not necessary to know the notes if you know where the cord is and how to use it ..simple is better is it not ?

Terje Brattsveen · Post by **Terje Brattsveen** » 15 Apr 2009 2:41 pm

I believe it IS the hardest instrument. On what other instrument do you need both arms and both legs all doing different things and moving in opposite directions at the same time! The left leg is operating pedals AND knee levers, and the right leg is operating knee levers AND a volume pedal. I am a guitar player first and foremost (until I stop sucking at steel) and when I bought a banjo a couple of years ago, I could play songs INSTANTLY and sound decent, but the steel is like from another planet. Hardest thing for me is the intonation. I did 34 takes one time to get a four bar intro to sound correct and in tune. In another 20-30 years I'll have it down. I absolutely LOVE the instrument, and refuse to quit no matter how loud the dogs in the neighbourhood squeal!!!

Calvin Walley · Post by **Calvin Walley** » 15 Apr 2009 3:06 pm

Terje

before you even realize it all of that will be 2nd nature, but it does take a little time in the seat
thats all haha

Austin Tripp · Post by **Austin Tripp** » 16 Apr 2009 5:41 am

IMO, lap steel is a lot harder to play than pedal steel.

Brad Malone · Post by **Brad Malone** » 17 Apr 2009 8:13 am

Alan Miller wrote>>In a post some months ago Bobbe seymore said that pedal steel was an easy instrument to learn, that chord changes are easy with the pedals and levers and key changes are easy etc....most would agree with him on that I would guess .
I think the difficulty for some learning pedal steel is getting the coordination of the pedals ,knee levers, volume pedal, picking hand and bar accuracy spot on<<

Hey Allen, People that are in the business of selling steels are trying to increase their sales by encouraging people to buy their steels. They surely would not increase their sales by telling people that their product was difficult or hard to learn...take what sales people say for what it is worth.

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 17 Apr 2009 8:24 am

With not meaning to bruise some egos in here, I have to admit that I didn't find learning to the play the steel guitar as difficult as some make it out to be.

No matter which instrument we learn to play, it must be done in small steps and with many hours of frustration because nothing seems to work like you hear others playing. If we attempt to take too large of a step when first learning, it just slows us down and makes the learning curve just that much more difficult. Not to mention, the more you practice that faster you achieve.

I found the bass guitar the easiest and the zither by far the most difficult. In fact, after two months I gave up the zither all together. I would place the steel guitar somewhere in the middle of the two.

Calvin Walley · Post by **Calvin Walley** » 17 Apr 2009 3:43 pm

i have been thinking about this and maybe a better way of saying it is :
that a lot of the tech gobbly goop is what really prevented me from playing
once i figured out that i wasn't smart enough to understand all that,
i really did just sit down with the "c" scale and learn to use the same patterns for other keys
then its was just a matter of playing the damn thing
am i a great player ? ooooh nooooo but at least its a lot more fun now

Barry Hyman · Post by **Barry Hyman** » 17 Apr 2009 4:45 pm

I always tell my students it's like juggling while surfing, with maybe a little rocket science thrown in for kicks.

Fiddle players don't use feet and knees... And pedal organ players do similar things with each hand and foot. Trap drummers also, sort of... Steel players do a totally different type of activity with each hand and each foot, and one knee has that vertical...

The first thirty years were HARD! But now I'm having more fun than anybody I know doing anything; it was all worth it...

Dan Tyack · Post by **Dan Tyack** » 17 Apr 2009 9:18 pm

The pedal steel guitar is the easiest instrument I have played. One of the reasons I took it up is because the dobro was too hard (at least to play what I wanted to play).

It all depends on what you are used to. The pedal steel was the first instrument I ever played seriously. Anything else seems really hard. Especially guitar (it hurts my fingers).

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Is Pedal Steel the Most Difficult Instrument to Learn ?

hard enough