/Serious / Slants /

[Dom Franco]

For many years I avoided all slants, and now for the last 5 years I have been working a lot on and now have just about perfected two note slants.

With a 6th tuning I can now get all intervals, and thereby harmonize any melody across all chords.

Now for an even bigger challenge, I am practicing 3 note slants- all ajacent strings are really tough! but I am getting 3 note slants that skip strings pretty good.

I have near perfect pitch, so even slight tuning discrepancies drive me nuts. What a blast! It's a challenge but so rewarding.

I love the jazzy chords, like a flat 5th, diminished 7th, augmented 5th and sus chords etc.

It is coming easier every day.

So share your experience with slants... I would love some more ideas.
Thanks
Dom Franco

[Tom Wolverton]

Been doin' it for years. Can't image playing wo/slants. Sometimes, after a long gig, my hand kinda hurts. I'm wondering if the slanting (esp. on fast tunes) is aggravating some kind of wrist arthritis or something. Maybe its time to switch to the short scale (22.5").

[Ray Montee]

Having started at 'the BEGINNING'........in learning to play steel guitar and having listening to JERRY BYRD's seamless playing for decades.......

SLANTS have never been an odity to me.

SLANTS are not something that can rest on the shelf for years to be dabbled with from time to time, if ever you hope to become an accomplished steel player.

They are simply an essential part of your everyday playing on any steel guitar in any tuning. Whether forward or reverse, whether two or three string, slants are just another tool in the steel players tool box of innovations. Fail to learn them and you might as well chop off a couple of fingers or perhaps a foot.

[Steinar Gregertsen]

I checked "I can slant and get 3 notes in tune pretty good" - don't have enough control over those reverse slants yet, but forward I can get pretty much what I want/need..

[Ron Whitfield]

SLANTS are not something that can rest on the shelf for years to be dabbled with from time to time, if ever you hope to become an accomplished steel player.

...there are many in-demand pros that don't slant.
Not that I'd recommend that road, but it exists.

[Andy Sandoval]

I can't think of even one tune that I like to play on a C6 tuning where I don't use at least one slant.

[Dom Franco]

Having set aside the lap steel over 40 years ago, I played Pedal steel exclusively, and I never needed to slant the bar. Now I play lap steel almost exclusively. (because of the portability and my aging back)
In re-learning slants I am having so much fun but those of you who seem to have no problem with intonation on 3 note slants, truly amaze me.

Without offending anyone I must say that when I hear some of the You Tube offerings and MP3's that some forum members post. I am quite dis-satisfied with the intonation of the slants I hear.

I would rather hear the steel part move to one or two notes in tune than 3 out of tune!

Anyone can slant the bar. Only some can make it sound good.

Dom

[Mike Neer]

Without offending anyone I must say that when I hear some of the You Tube offerings and MP3's that some forum members post. I am quite dis-satisfied with the intonation of the slants I hear.

I would rather hear the steel part move to one or two notes in tune than 3 out of tune!

Anyone can slant the bar. Only some can make it sound good.

Vibrato to the rescue!

Slants are incredibly rewarding if you're willing to spend time with the technique. A tuning like C6 contains so much between the lines.

[Billy Tonnesen]

I learned to play 3 note slants from my Hawaiian Teacher, George Kaahiki on my six string Gibson Lap Steel in 1943. He taught only in the Hawaiian C# Minor tuning. I had to play from written music with notes (not numbers). Have any of you non-pedal Hawiian players ever tried to play "Paradise Isle" without slants ?

[Mike Neer]

That's true: there's no better way to get acclimated to slanting than playing Hawaiian music. To all the players who don't want to bother with learning that style, I say you're missing the boat. That's how you master that technique.

[Roman Sonnleitner]

I can do both forward & reverse slants, as well as 3-note slants, but in truth 90% of the slants I use in playing are two-note forward slants (you know, the old scale-harmonized-in-sixths trick on C6 lap steel...)

[John Billings]

I even use slants when playing bottleneck guitar. Makes me look like a contortionist sometimes, but they work, and add a lot to the music. Here's a four note chord, and I'm also playing the bass note on the 6th string. Requires a bit of vibrato to keep it sounding sweet. You can play two strings with the "tip" of the bar, or a bottleneck, as long as you use some vibrato.

[Rick Winfield]

As others, I've been using "slants" since I began playing "slide" blues, on a 6 string standard. I actually find it easier to do them on a guitar, than I do on the "horizontal plane" of a steel. Maybe it has to do with body position.
Rick
PS:
After re-reading the thread, I'd add: don't under -estimate Hawaiian music. The sound, the power of the music, and of course the slants.There's something "beautiful" there.

[Bill Creller]

Learning to slant the bar was no big deal in the old days when "Hawaiian Guitar" teachers were all over the place, like Oahu conservatory of music places etc. In the early to mid 50s there were 4 in this area. Folks learning on their own seem to avoid practicing slants, which isn't a good idea,IMO
Slanting with the wrist isn't a good idea either. Learning to use the thumb on the end of the bar for reverse slants keeps the arthritis pain away!

[Les Anderson]

It took me four years of endless practice to learn how to slant forward and back and still keep the tuning where it is supposed to be. Practicing slants is still part of my practice and warm up procedures.

Doing slants in cool weather where my hands get cold and dry still causes me havoc when using my BJS, Jerry Byrd on the D8. ( I end up cheating and sneaking in my Stevens bar)

[Bill Creller]

[Kristian Meisling]

I play a lot of jazz standards on C6 and A6 no-pedal and have had to resort to slants to get more complex chords (like m7b5, dim, aug, sus, etc.).

Nobody has mentioned the use of the "Bullet" end of the bar yet. Herb Remington watched me play once and said...you need to use the bullet end of the bar...so I figured I had better get with it.

I do 3-note forward or backward slants where the two top notes are on adjacent strings and the lowest note is one string removed from the other two. I nestle the bullet end of the bar between the top two strings and the geometry of the bullet will make them fret at the same position...all that remains is to use your ear to find the "sweet spot" on the lower note.

I find that when I consciously "dig in" a bit between the top two strings with the bullet end of the bar I get better 3-note slant chord intonation.

OK, so I am often playing 3-note fragments of 4-note chords, but your ear will fill in the missing note, especially if there are others in the band. You definitely have to brush up on your theory and know what 3-note chords you are trying to play...but that's half the fun of it! Those slants outline the chord motion and create leading lines.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. Slants are a critical technique for no-pedal steel, and they just get better and better if you give them a chance...slants rule!

Oh, one more thing...if you want to do "faux pedal" licks on no-pedal you need to get those slants together...it's amazing how you can outline the essence of those pedal lick with just a few notes and bar slants (emulating the sus chord effect of the B-pedal in particular).

[Robert Brown]

Dom,When I'm noodling on my D-8 Fender non-pedal I can usually get two string foward slants, but on the three note and reverse slants, I've got a long way to go. Bob