Playing with a singer-songwriter - not sounding so 'country'

[Larry Bell]

Listen carefully to the chord structure and honor the feel and harmonies that the music dictates. One example: In some cases you need to learn to stay away from Major thirds. A lot of contemporary country, as well as 'alternative music' whether alt.country or alt.rock often uses chords that are voiced differently from the 1 3 5 major chord structure. Learn to use add9 chords (1 2 5) or sus4 chords (1 4 5) or power chords (151 or any combination of tonic and fifth) in the place of pure major chords. What's really cool, since you aren't playing a major or minor third, those 145 or 125 voicings work when the band is playing EITHER a GMaj chord OR a Gminor chord.

In that context, milking the A pedal to pedal into a pure major third is about as country sounding as you can get. This is often what 'offends' some with the traditional sound of pedal steel. Bending from a 2 up to a Maj3 (rocking onto the A pedal with B down) is one of the staple sounds of traditional country music. If that's not what they are going for, you might be better off staying away from emphasizing and resolving to a Major third.

By the same token, if they ever ask you to 'country it up', YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.

FWIW

[Mitch Ellis]

It seems like there are more and more opportunities to play on projects where they want steel but they don't want it to sound "country". In my case, it seems like everything I play on steel comes out sounding country.

Any tips, hints or ideas for de-countryfying your playing in these type of situations?

I agree with Bob Blair. This may not make any sense, but when I get gigs like this, I don't think of the steel guitar as a "pedal steel guitar". I think of it as a musical instrument and think in terms of notes and sounds that will make the song sound good. This way of thinking seems to make it easier for me to play what's needed.
Mitch

[Earnest Bovine]

when I get gigs like this, I...think in terms of notes and sounds that will make the song sound good.

What do you do on your other gigs?

[Mitch Ellis]

On other gigs, I think of the steel guitar as a "pedal steel guitar". I think of two-string and three-string groups and notes and sounds that will make the song sound good.
Mitch

[Dave McKeough]

great stuff guys....can't wait to play tomorrow. Just bought the Jakob Dylan CD after previewing on itunes and hearing a bunch of cool steel.

Dave

[Mark van Allen]

Nice thread, indeed. I'm not sure what I do exactly, but I play a lot of "singer/songwriter" gigs. Organy pads, atmosphere, use of extended chords, harmony scales as background instead of "licks", arpeggios, substitute chords, thicker tones... we have a whole arsenal.
It's an instrument, not a country instrument.
We may have to convince other folks of that occasionally, shouldn't have to convince ourselves!

[Dave McKeough]

sorta on topic...maybe a bit off. What is everyone using for delay and reverb these days? I'm debating whether to buy a Line6 product or buy seperate guitar pedals. Your opinions and knowledge please. Thanks.

Dave

[Daniel Morris]

Dave:
I've posted elsewhere on this, but to continue this thread about what can be used for non-country steel, I use digital delays. I had an analog Toneczar Echoczar delay (arguably top of the line for guitarists), but after extensive conversations with the builder, came to the conclusion analog isn't the best for pedal steel in most applications (for me at least). Others agree, yet others disagree. For digital, I really like the Empress Vintage Modified SuperDelay. Lots of settings that work well with pedal steel. I also use a Pigtronix Echolution, which has a different vibe - sort of analog sounding, sort of reverbish. One feature I really like on that is the ability to tap in a delay of ~15 seconds.
But the bee's knees on The Gear Page right now is Strymon's new TimeLine (mine's due tomorrow). The original Damage Control version was great, and this one looks to simply multiply its reputation. Works very well with pedal steel as well. Very lush delays, and the new one has a huge range of options.
If you don't want to wait for the next batch (or the next...), their other pedals are top notch, and the Brigadier (bucket-brigade style) and El Capistan (tape delay style) have received rave reviews, including from steelers.
Depends on what you want and what you can afford.
http://www.strymon.net/
http://www.strymon.net/timeline/ check the videos!
http://proguitarshop.com/store/effects- ... edal-p-709
http://proguitarshop.com/store/effects- ... lay-p-1335
http://www.tonefactor.com/
http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_shop.cgi
All good dealers above.

[Joseph Carlson]

Wow! Thanks again everybody for all the great info in this thread. I can't wait to try some of these approaches out. Plus, I have a few dozen new CDs to chase down for inspiration.

Regards,
Joe

[David Ellison]

Listen to My Morning Jacket. Their guitar player, Karl Broemel, also plays pedal steel. This is him playing with Karen Elson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFqe9i0qmg

Try playing single note phrases and using lots of reverb. Make it sound haunting...

[David Mason]

Having listened to all the links (and bravely soldiered on even further) it occurred to me that a lot of the "alt-..." people grew up in the synth-happy mid-80's to mid-90's era where if you didn't go grunge, you were synthesized... I think what some want are really synthesizer parts, but played on real strings. In other words, the steel replaces the keyboard/string section in the structure of a composition, because all keys are fake nowadays - who totes a real piano around? In at least some of the tunes then, swelling into triads that track/lead the chords would fit the bill.

[mike nolan]

David,

I agree... I get a lot of sessions/gigs where the artist wants a pedal steel.... but they don't want it to sound like a pedal steel. So I use some time based effects and stay away from the standard AB stuff. Works great, but sometimes I feel like I'm not really playing steel....... more like synth pads and keyboard sounds. I did a lot of ambient analog synth music back in the day, so it is familiar... and the steel is way more sophisticated than my ARP 2600.....

[Steve Norman]

The new Bon Iver album is a good study

[Drew Howard]

Similar story here, singer/songwriters, non-country bands all wanting steel for R&B, blues, funk, etc. Country has been nil around here especially lately. Americana has taken its place. Live venues are few, though we have a great festival/outdoor concert season in MI. The VFW is about it for shuffles all night long. P