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Topic: Getting worse? A dilemma! |
Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 9 Oct 2010 9:26 am |
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That current thread has me thinking and, coincidentally, someone has sent me a YouTube link to a track I recorded for him thirty years ago!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EvbCvhKSJ8
Now, I know it's routine stuff, and it's clear I haven't been playing long at this point, but I'm not sure I could play these now-hackneyed licks so positively today. Back then pedal steel was an interesting diversion for me and I pretty much did things by accident! My approach was very casual, to say the least. In the last ten years I feel I've put in some real effort, and yet... I know more, but I trust my abilities less, if that makes any sense. It is, of course, clearly inspired by the then-current wave of country-rock steel - all I knew then. I guess it's a case of having come face-to-face with reality, knowing what the great players have achieved, and how short I've fallen.
I know that I really like the sound of my ZB on this clip - I wonder where it is now???
(PS: The spoken credit - 'Roger Redwing' - was an inside joke at the time...)
_________________
Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 9 Oct 2010 12:32 pm
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| Roger, I wish that I could play today what you could play back then! |
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 9 Oct 2010 1:33 pm
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I think that old Albert Einstein woulda had fun time with one of these machines.
The more you know, the more you figure out, the greater the expanse of unknown that unfolds before you.
It's a great source of perspective.
Fun thing...
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Lawyers are done: Emmons SD-10, 3 Dekleys including a D10, NV400, and lots of effects units to cover my clams... |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 9 Oct 2010 5:11 pm
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Wait until you get Alzheimer's Disease: then you'll be able to learn the same licks new every day ...if you remember what the steel guitar is, that is.   |
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Don Drummer
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 9 Oct 2010 5:55 pm
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| Good playing Roger. Nice blocking and execution. Your timing sounds like you had been playing for a long time. Don D |
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Clete Ritta
From:
San Antonio, Texas
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Posted 9 Oct 2010 6:11 pm
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Roger,
I think you got it goin good!
At least you've been immortalized in cartoon form!
You can always blame it on cabinet drop from the cold weather in NOME hah.
Dont stop pickin!
Clete |
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Ken Byng
From:
Southampton, England
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 2:14 am Re: Getting worse? A dilemma!
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| Roger Rettig wrote: |
| (PS: The spoken credit - 'Roger Redwing' - was an inside joke at the time...) |
Roger - are you sure it wasn't for the benefit of the Inland Revenue? 
I think we all play in a more uninhibited and energised way when we are younger. Age mellows us not just as people, but also our playing. We try to play in a more sophisticated and less predictable way the older we get. I suppose it is called taste.
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Show Pro D10 - amber (8+6), MSA D10 Legend XL Signature - redburst (9+6), Sho-Bud Pro 111 Custom (8+6), Emmons black Push-Pull D10 (8+5), Zum D10 (8x8), Hudson pedal resonator. Telonics TCA-500, Webb 614-E, |
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Ben Jones
From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 8:09 am
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I thought this thread was gonna be about your telecaster addiction.  |
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Henry Nagle
From:
Santa Rosa, California
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 10:10 am
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Ha! Cool playing, lovely illustration!!
I've noticed a similar evolution in my own playing. I think that once I reached a certain level of ability, that I ceased to be surprised and entertained by my own progress. My ears and tastes became fussier (arguably, they improved), and I became a much more conservative player. In the end, my technique has really suffered but I think I'm a better musician than before. Less adventurous, less confident, more original, less ego driven and more able to focus on making the music better. |
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Ken Byng
From:
Southampton, England
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 10:24 am
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Me too Henry - I used to want to play everything at 100 miles an hour. That's until my taste level started to improve.
_________________
Show Pro D10 - amber (8+6), MSA D10 Legend XL Signature - redburst (9+6), Sho-Bud Pro 111 Custom (8+6), Emmons black Push-Pull D10 (8+5), Zum D10 (8x8), Hudson pedal resonator. Telonics TCA-500, Webb 614-E, |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 11:10 am
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Thanks for your replies.
Ken and Henry: I think you've helped me put this in perspective. I think that, at first, we're so pleased that we're achieving a reasonable level of playing and making generic 'pedal steel sounds' that we're maybe not as discerning as we might unltimately become.
(Henry: I loved your phrase 'I ceased to be entertained and surprised by my own progress'!)
With all due respect to the composer here, this is a fairly trivial piece of music, and I think they were pleased with what I gave them on the day. Perhaps they wouldn't be so happy with what they'd get from me today... 
I do know this - back then I just sat down at the guitar and played; now I've become so obsessed with what I should and shouldn't be doing with my hands that some of the fun's gone out of it. However, I believe that my musicianship - such as it is - has always prevailed, and I've managed to turn in a reasonably professional job, but how my work might 'sit' with another steel-player is another matter entirely. Of course, we don't play for the benefit of other steel-players, but it's a difficult factor to ignore sometimes.
My friend Gerry Hogan invited me to attend a seminar given in the UK by none other than Paul Franklin (in the early-'90s?) I took my steel and found myself sitting near the front - imagine my discomfort when Paul picked me out as having a poor right-hand position!! (Particularly embarrassing, as I was maybe the only attendee who made his living from playing!  ) Naturally I took the undoubtedly justified criticism on board and started to tinker; I'm tinkering still, and don't feel anything like settled! I don't have to tell anyone here what a caring individual Paul is, and his only aim was to help me, but it certainly gave me pause.
'Back to the drawing board!!!'
PS: Thanks for the positive comments!
PPS: Clete: ZBs had some cabinet drop, but that sketch is a bit extreme, isn't it?
PPS: Ben: What's a Telecaster?  
(Edited for sp.)
_________________
Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Last edited by Roger Rettig on 10 Oct 2010 1:26 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 1:10 pm
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Well, if you're playing honestly, your playing can't help but be a reflection of who you are, and testosterone does count in that regard. Not a whole lot of people can either hear or play speed and subtlety at the same time.
I also think that the "great music" of our time has to be placed within that time. If the Beatles had released Sgt. Pepper in either 1957 or 1977 instead of 1967, it might well have belonged in the "children's novelty" section. Cream and Iron Butterfly might have been hooted off the stage only five years earlier - or later.
I have friends my age who have mastered the "art" of playing covers of songs from the time we were adolescents - the Eagles, Stones, Pink Floyd, Santana, etc. And their brains seemingly died in 1977? It seems kinda sad to me when someone's music doesn't change. Like, the Stones, Santana, the Eagles, oops I'll shut up now. 
(I once won tickets to go see Iron Maiden, many, many years after the bloom wore offa that rose. Wrinkly fat guys in black leather - ewww.) |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 3:54 pm
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| David Mason wrote: |
| ...If the Beatles had released Sgt. Pepper in either 1957 or 1977 instead of 1967, it might well have belonged in the "children's novelty" section... |
You mean it doesn't ? |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 4:08 pm
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I'm trying to figure out how a connection was made between my quandary and Iron Maiden! The last pop singers I went nuts about were Don and Phil....
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 5:32 pm
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Me too. I saw them a few years ago live in Birmingham during one of my visits home and they were definitely a lot better than they were in their hayday. They're improving with age.
The first singer I went nuts about was Buddy Holly. Who knows whether he would have improved with age. |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 10 Oct 2010 5:59 pm
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Don and Phil were the last ones - the first was Lonnie Donegan! So how did I finish up playing so much country music?
Topic drift alert!!!!
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Buck Reid
From:
Nashville,TN
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Posted 11 Oct 2010 4:02 pm
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Roger... you're a champ! Could it be the ole "The more we learn the less we know" syndrome? I think it's easier to play with more confidence when our vocabulary is limited. Hope you are well my friend. 
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www.BuckReid.com |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 11 Oct 2010 4:18 pm
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| Roger Rettig wrote: |
| ...the first was Lonnie Donegan!... |
Amen to that. It was Lonnie Donegan who introduced a whole generation of Brits to the music of Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and to American folk and blues culture, without which there would have been no Beatles, no Merseyside sound, no Rolling Stones. As mentioned in a previous thread, I overlook the fact that he ran off with my second cousin's wife... |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 11 Oct 2010 6:43 pm
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Lest anyone should think that I'm expressing some deep frustration here, well, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I've been extremely blessed in my life and have kept a roof over my head just from playing music for a half-a-century now. It isn't all beer-and-skittles (that's an expression we use in the Old Country!), but I've been fortunate enough to get to know - and to play with - some pretty amazing musicians. Every one of them has taught me something and, at sixty-seven, I'm still convinced that my best playing is ahead of me.
There have been plenty of ups-and-downs, obviously, and my concern with my lack of progress is probably a subconscious effort to kick myself in the rear and get on with it!
Thanks, Buck, for chiming in here - you make an excellent point! Your playing is like a 'gold standard', and spinning your CD is all I need to want to get back to the grindstone and work at all this a bit harder. Thanks for the inspiration, my friend.
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 12 Oct 2010 6:00 am
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
| David Mason wrote: |
| ...If the Beatles had released Sgt. Pepper in either 1957 or 1977 instead of 1967, it might well have belonged in the "children's novelty" section... |
You mean it doesn't ? |
Alan, you once called Van Morrison a terrible singer (or something like this) and know you let us know that you don't like the Beatles. Who's next? |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 12 Oct 2010 6:14 am
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| Do you want a list? |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 12 Oct 2010 7:12 am
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Well, I'm not much of a Beatles fan myself (I prefer recordings with good playing on them), and I'll never forgive Van Morrison for ruining Lonnie Donegan's '99 album 'Muleskinner Blues'. For some obscure reason, LD asked Van to sing on the title track with him, and VM's caterwauling is all too apparent!
Ooops! Topic drift again!!! 
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 12 Oct 2010 12:57 pm
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
| Roger Rettig wrote: |
| ...the first was Lonnie Donegan!... |
Amen to that. It was Lonnie Donegan who introduced a whole generation of Brits to the music of Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and to American folk and blues culture, without which there would have been no Beatles, no Merseyside sound, no Rolling Stones. As mentioned in a previous thread, I overlook the fact that he ran off with my second cousin's wife... |
And what about Alexis Korner, Cyril Davies, Chris Barber? |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 12 Oct 2010 1:16 pm
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Lonnie Donegan's fans - almost every pre-teenage and teenage boy in Britain - weren't remotely interested in the history of American roots music, but were hypnotised by Donegan himself. In the process we all got an education in music as a bonus.
The three you mention? Barely an ounce of charisma between them - none of them could have single-handedly started a craze. None were half as good as Lonnie, anyway!
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 12 Oct 2010 1:51 pm
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| The first two of the three I've mentioned were a huge influence on the Stones. But I guess they're also on the list of performers you don't like much. |
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