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Topic: Has Playing Steel Made You Better At Conventional Guitar? |
Duane Reese
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Posted 13 Oct 2010 8:35 pm |
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I've noticed that playing steel guitar has had an effect on how well I play conventional (hand-held, armpit, Spanish, whatever you want to call it) guitar. It's been a positive one. Playing steel, both due to operation and due to some gigs I found myself in as a result, forced me to learn more theory which has helped my guitar playing, and so has my picking hand. I never could finger pick before I played steel; it was out of the question, but now I can.
Has anyone else found that you can play regular guitar better as a result of playing steel? |
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Ben Lawson
From:
Brooksville Florida
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 1:43 am
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| I play guitar so infrequently that nothing can help anymore. When I started learning steel I would go to my six stringer to help learn a chord or lick. Somewhere between then and now I have to do it the other way around. Since my fingers hurt after about five minutes I just put the guitar down and watch TV or do some other worthwhile persuit. |
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Ryan Barwin
From:
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 4:13 am
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I used to be a "better" guitar player before I played steel. My left hand technique is a bit sloppy now. Just from lack of practice...I don't really pick up the 6-string guitar except for gigs.
Playing steel has made me approach the guitar differently. I think of chord and interval patterns differently, and think in terms of chord tones and that kind of movement, rather than primarily scales.
Also, I used to have all kinds of idiomatic jazz and country guitar licks in my head and in muscle memory, which can be a bit confining and hard to get out of.
Now I feel like I've cleared my head of a lot of those idiomatic sounds and some of that muscle memory. I'm forced to play with my ear, and my hands follow. I've lost some technique (can't play as fast, gets a bit sloppy sometimes, etc), but I feel like I can play a lot more freely and creatively and come up with stuff I wouldn't have before.
And a few times, I've found myself trying to mash pedals that weren't there, when playing guitar.
_________________
www.pedalsteel.ca |
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Papa Joe Pollick
From:
Swanton, Ohio
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 4:21 am
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| Oh Yeah!!!! One thing for sure it helped me develop a tighter ear.I find myself hearing steel when I'm playing 6 string. |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 11:38 am
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Yeah, buddy - I think playing steel has definitely helped my guitar playing significantly. I've been playing guitar a lot the last year or so and I am sometimes amazed how much more I am, for example, using moving chord voicings the way I do on pedal steel. I think that once I have a musical idea well crystallized in my head, I will find a way to get it onto whatever instrument. I may need to find a different way to finger or generally approach it, but I know it's there - it may take a while but I just don't want to give up till I get it.
I got one of my old Teles back last week - traded it to a friend, did a trade to get it back) - and took it to a gig Saturday night. That Tele always channeled me to my two favorite Roys - Buchanan and Nichols - and sho' nuff, Saturday night it was speaking tongues. 
I think knowledge transfers the other way too. Sometimes it's important to 'think steel', but I think it's also important to 'think music'. Many times, I'm called to do something that says, to me, more guitar than pedal steel, but I'm playing steel - why not do what's required on steel? Yeah, that's probably not news for many of you, especially if you're not doubling on guitar - you do what's needed, end of story. But since I pretty much always carry both steel and guitar, I have tended to just switch over. I'd like to get to the point where the musical instrument doesn't dictate the music I'm playing. |
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Darrell Owens
From:
California, USA
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 12:42 pm
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It sure doesn't help me. I spend all my time playing steel, and have almost forgotten how to play guitar.
I am a much better guitar player than I am a steel player, but the pedal steel is fascinating to me, and I cannot walk away from it. My therapy is 'More Steelin'
_________________
Zum Steel, Little Walter Amp, Benado Steel Dream
Darrell Owens
www.darrellowens.com |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 12:49 pm
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I know that there's a positive interaction back and forth, but several times now I've had a dream/nightmare where I'm playing guitar, and I try to step on some pedals to"fix" the chord - that aren't there! 
I either need to build a pedal guitar or the ghost of Phil Baugh is a-comin' for my soul.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX6J0mgX4bc&feature=related |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 2:35 pm
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It's difficult to tell, because I've been playing both side-by-side for nearly 50 years, but I do notice that i've been using the bar a lot more lately, and my left-hand muscles aren't as strong as they used to be. I noticed recently that I've started rattling when I play 12-string guitar, which I never used to do.  |
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 2:50 pm
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Yes, but with a slight curve ..
Playing Bass behind a Grand Piano in a Praise band for 6 years made me a better musician, playing Steel opened my ears to guitar and now I am playing way more guitar than Steel, and studying as well. I did start playing guitar 40 years ago but it took a long time to begin to mature in study. And in reverse I approach Steel way diferent now after studying guitar again !
does all this make any sense ? I know what it means I guess thats really what matters.
t
_________________
Emmons L-II , Fender Telecasters, B-Benders , Eastman Mandolin ,
Pro Tools 12 on WIN 7 !
jobless- but not homeless- now retired 9 years
CURRENT MUSIC TRACKS AT > https://tprior2241.wixsite.com/website |
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Michael Douchette
From:
Gallatin, TN (deceased)
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Jack Stanton
From:
Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 3:46 am
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| No, but it has immensely helped my understanding of music theory which has made me a better musician. |
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Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 8:35 am
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Nope!
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Greg Gefell
From:
Upstate NY
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 8:48 am
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I agree with Jack. The theory of what differentiates one chord from another seems easier to grasp on the steel.
I've demonstrated to 6 string guitar players how you can play the entire harmonized scale in one fret position on PSG and it kind of blows their mind for a minute. Then I show them how to do that same thing within the span of a few frets on their guitar and the lightbulbs go on.
Its a good way to show how many chord changes can be made with very little movement up and down the neck by raising or lowering the right interval(s) in a basic triad.
_________________
https://www.facebook.com/ggefell/ |
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Jack Francis
From:
Queen Creek, Arizona, USA
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 8:54 am
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Not so anyone would notice!  |
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Gene Jones
From:
Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 8:54 am
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"Has Playing Steel Made You Better At Conventional Guitar?"
No! I still have to use my thumb to play a "G" chord.
_________________
"FROM THEN TIL' NOW" |
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Dave Hopping
From:
Aurora, Colorado
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 10:26 am
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YES...Palm blocking and volume pedal technique open up six string playing very nicely.  |
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Matthew Warman
From:
here and now
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 12:43 pm
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| Well I've been playing 6 string guitar longer than psg and what has helped me was being able to bring whatever guitar/music theroy I had to the steel, which helped somewhat in seeing how some chords were put together. I find each instrument has it's own strong points, for instance when I'm in the mood to play some BB King or good old Chicago style blues riffs then the 6 string is great, for something like 'Go Rest High On The Mountain', well the steel says it all so beautifully. I'm grateful to have a 6 string and the 10 string E9. |
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