Quitting guitar for steel

[Jean-Sebastien Gauthier]

I'm playing guitar for 15 years, I'm not that good but I can play some good blues and some country. I have a very good teacher that teach me jazz (just simple blues-jazz, swing and standard). I started playing in a country band and now do some songs with the lap steel. I try to learn C6 tuning and I do gigs with it. I'm not good but people dig the sound.

So I started listen a lot of Jeremy Wakefield and Leon McAuliffe and I just love there sound and playing, in fact my interested for steel speedily increase and for guitar decrease.

Wee recently get a really good guitarist for the band and I plan to play just lap steel, no more guitar.

I'm just a little bit afraid to quitting guitar for steel but I feel that I need to put all my energies on lap steel to get it.

Any of you have made this kind of move?
And no I don't have the time to play many hours a day of 2 instruments, I have to choose!

[Hugh Holstein]

I did about 5 years ago, I still have my Jaguar, Strat, and Jazz Bass, but I was bitten real bad by the steel bug and I didn't look back, I actually feel now the steel is so much more superior to any fretted instrument that I can't think of playing any other way now, and I'm not the young rocker that I was anyway so it just seems like a natural move now.

I also like the instrument because most people have a lot of fascination over it, and not everyone and their mother plays it.

What I did was exactly what you are thinking, is to make it your main instrument, which I highly recommend, after doing something for 15 years you really cant "quit", you just put it aside, My main reason to do so was to not make getting used to the various modes or intervals that playing with a bar forces confusing, and I feel it was for the better.

And honestly it will just happen anyway, I read somewhere on this forum a quote; "the pull of the steel guitar is greater the the gravitational pull of Jupiter" and I cant agree more, as you find more and more things that can be done on a steel (and it is truly endless) it will begin to overshadow all that you had accomplished on the guitar (my opinion of course).

And then there is the challenge factor that for me anyway is a big bonus.

Just my 2¢

[Bill Creller]

After 40+ years away from music, I only went back to steel guitar in 1999. The other guitars are "resting"

[Jean-Sebastien Gauthier]

Yeah Hugh! good quote!

Yes I don't really quit guitar I will always play but now just for fun, or at least for now, use it to figure out songs and chords.

But I really want to became a good steel player. But its kind of frightening because I will suck at normal guitar after some time of less to none pratice and steel is a very unusual instrument, and maybe why I love it so much to!

[Hugh Holstein]

Sometimes a break can actually help if your pushing yourself a bit, I have noticed that after a moderate hiatus, I'm more refreshed and it seems I sound and play better, again that's just my personal experience.

[Chris Gabriel]

You've got the right idea. I think, just follow your heart.

I agree with Hugh, just "put it aside" in favor of what has really got your ear, the steel.

My guess is you love steel for the following: sustain and gliss. After 15 years without it, it sure does freshen up things alot. (not to mention the cool hot licks of McAuliffe, Wakefield, etc) I understand that!

My thought is that, we play strings. Play em standing up, sitting down, with a steel bar, with your fingertips pushin on a fret board, tapping on em...however!

Just play music, the rest falls into place. I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Who knows, maybe, in 15 years, you'll quit the steel in favor of a Chapman stick. You never know.
Chris

[William Parsons]

I have pretty much done the same thing as you by setting aside my guitar for the steel. I find that the more I come to understand the steel, the more my guitar playing improves when I do decide to play it. I wouldn't worry about losing your guitar skills if you devote more time to learning and playing the steel guitar. You will begin to find new ways to phrase things in your music, and it will carry over well when you decide to give the steel a rest and pick your guitar up. Just my opinion....but I have fun with both instruments and that's why I keep playing.

[Mike Neer]

I've played guitar for 40 years and it is ingrained in my mind, etched in my soul. But at some point I became a little bored with the direction I was going and the gigs I was doing, so I decided to pursue steel. It took a while for me to see things as a steel player, but I never gave up playing guitar. In fact, I played guitar quite a bit, but changed my style. I became more an acoustic player, buying a few archtops and studying George Van Eps, Django, etc.

Today, I am really only interested in playing steel on gigs (unless it is one of the $$$ gigs that I do playing guitar and singing). I just feel like I have a clear sense of direction where I want to go with the steel, and the challenge is big (which I like). I take gigs playing more traditional music on steel as a learning experience, but that's not really where my heart is. My goal is to continue on steel where I left off on electric guitar.

[Rickey Mitchell]

I took up lap steel a few years before I stopped writing and playing music. I 'd played mandolin, guitar mostly bottle neck and bass most of my life.
When I started playing some 25 years later, a lap steel was the first instrument
I started playing. It is the one I write with and the one that I get the flow going.

[John Mulligan]

I got into playing steel by accident. It's driving me crazy. It's hard to play. I've changed tunings three times. I've got two I think I'm going to stick with now, but the damn thing is still driving me crazy. I try to practice an hour a day about 5 times a week. It's not enough. I don't know what's happened to me. I'm trying to learn stuff that's harder to play than most of what I ever attempted on guitar. What is it with middle aged guys and the lap steel? Am I doing this because I can't afford a Ferrari? I'm not very good yet, and I wonder if I ever will be.

Taking up lap steel is not for the faint of heart, and it's going to turn serious on you at some point. Beware!

[Bruce Terrell]

They say that to stave off senility, its good to learn new things. I figure steel is my program to fight dementia.

[Clete Ritta]

Ive played guitar for a long time, mostly electric. Like Mike Neer, I started playing acoustic alot and recently switched to pedal steel. I still play a lot of guitar, but Id rather play the steel, since it is the only way to get any better! Im in a country band now as the sole guitarist, and I choose whether to play guitar or steel on the song, and if I can play it on steel, I do! Sometimes I start on guitar if theres a familiar riff of something, then switch to steel for chorus and solos. If, like your situation, they get a second guitarist, I will relish playing mostly steel all night.

Clete

[Jean-Sebastien Gauthier]

Steel guitar is so fun! Clete I wish you they get a guitarist. Everybody play guitar!!

One thing I found is that I enjoy the steel so much that I have fun taking time to learn lick, transcribe in standard notation and practice with with a metronome. Things I found boring on guitar because I have all these scale and shapes. With the steel I'm more like a child having fun!!

[Mark Mansueto]

Or drive yourself crazy like I do by playing one for a while and then switching back. Not something I'd advise but it does help keep me fresh.

[Jim Cohen]

I've recently gotten pretty heavily into studying jazz guitar and both steel and guitar are 'informing' the other. I find that each instrument lends itself more readily to certain kinds of lines and once they get into my head, they find ways to pop out of the other instrument in due course (even without trying, but especially if I try). The result is that both my steel playing and my guitar playing are becoming more nuanced and interesting. I don't think I'll ever give up one or the other entirely but my focus shifts for a few weeks at a time. But it's a nice symbiotic relationship between the two.

[Steve Ahola]

My thought is that, we play strings. Play em standing up, sitting down, with a steel bar, with your fingertips pushin on a fret board, tapping on em...however!
Just play music, the rest falls into place. I'm sure you'll figure it out.

I agree! It wasn't by choice that I switched from regular guitar to lap steel- the ring and little fingers of my fretting hand went numb 2 years ago (problems with my left ulnar nerve). I have found lap steel to be very rewarding, especially in allowing me to do things that I could never do on regular guitar. And in the challenge of learning something new rather than just rehashing the same old same old, stirring things around hoping to come up with something fresh.

Fortunately due to an improvement in my health the muscles in my hands have regained their strength so I am able to play regular guitar again (although I am still limited to 3 fingers.) I do need to restore the callouses on my fingertips so I strongly recommend that the OP keep playing regular guitar at least enough to maintain his callouses. Or play guitar as much as he wants to. Its not like that is going to detract from what he is learning on lap steel (unless it is sucking up all of the time he has available to practice.) At this point I would recommend that he play lap steel to learn and play regular guitar just for enjoyment if he wants.

So am I going to stop playing lap steel since I can play regular guitar again? Hell no! I think that they fit together very well, and that what I learn on one of them can often be applied to the other. (One example: learning how to finger pick on lap steel has improved my finger picking on regular guitar at least 1000x. Some of my favorite blues guitarists play with just their fingers and I've always wanted to be able to do that since IMO it is a lot more expressive and it gives you much better control of dynamics.)

Steve Ahola

[Clete Ritta]

...the ring and little fingers of my fretting hand went numb 2 years ago (problems with my left ulnar nerve)...

I had injured my left hand years ago and briefly had numbness on those same fingers. It went away soon and it never bothered my guitar playing for many years after. Oddly enough, it cropped up recently, when playing steel for long periods. It would feel cramped and tingly and numb to where I could hardly hold the bar down. I use a heavier bar and its all good now, but apparently nerve damage can be fairly permanent.

Back to the OP topic:
One difference for me with steel and guitar is that I really dont need to think while playing guitar. Right away, I can pretty much play what I hear (either in my head, or on a recording) on the guitar. I am not so familiar with the steel yet as a beginner. Steel takes more concentration in many ways: watching the bar, picking, blocking, volume, and when pedals and levers are added to the fold, it gets downright complicated.

The steel is capable of so many unique sounds that arent readily available to guitarists, and yet can sound just like a guitar too. Like Jim Cohen mentioned, I also find that the two instruments have a symbiotic relationship that improve and add to each other over time, so dont give up the guitar completely! It will be wonderful to have the ability to play on steel as I do on guitar, and that will take decades of practice. I figure at this rate, I still have enough time to be a really good steel player by the time Im 70!

Clete

[Bob Russell]

I've recently gotten pretty heavily into studying jazz guitar and both steel and guitar are 'informing' the other. I find that each instrument lends itself more readily to certain kinds of lines and once they get into my head, they find ways to pop out of the other instrument in due course (even without trying, but especially if I try). The result is that both my steel playing and my guitar playing are becoming more nuanced and interesting. I don't think I'll ever give up one or the other entirely but my focus shifts for a few weeks at a time. But it's a nice symbiotic relationship between the two.

I've been playing jazz guitar for a long time (about 40 years), so improvising on guitar is second nature to me. Improvising on the steel is another story...

[Eric Philippsen]

I think everybody has made some good points here and I agree with them. Here's one perspective or fact that I haven't read, though. It's from a marketing or business outlook, if you will.

That is, everybody and their mother plays guitar. Guitar players are a nickel a dozen. GOOD guitar players are a dime a dozen. They're all over the place. People are so used to hearing good players that, well, they just take them for granted. Again, they're everywhere.

Steel players aren't. We're pretty scarce. People love the sound of steel guitar and they're fascinated with it.

[Jean-Sebastien Gauthier]

Yes Eric thats exacly what I think!!

I think I will take the guitar sometimes and for the begging its easier to me to understand music and learn new songs on guitar and I will always love to jam good old blues on guitar.

But Steel, man thats really exciting, I don't want to be a guitar player who play some slide, I want to be a good steel player. Lap steel and dobro, blues, jazz, cajun, caribbean and country, just everything I love, just good roots music. For me slide is more personal and more emotional and people are always very fascinated by good slide music, its deep and its very rare. Where I live, Quebec, Canada, its very very rare!