When are you an 'official' Steel Guitarist

Roual Ranes · Post by **Roual Ranes** » 26 Dec 2011 9:03 pm

Bo,
Someday I hope to get good enough to have an ego like the guy you described.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 26 Dec 2011 9:48 pm

When they ask you, " Can you play anything else, like maybe the banjo?"

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 27 Dec 2011 1:17 am

When you don't need to ask this question, you'll know.

Ransom Beers · Post by **Ransom Beers** » 27 Dec 2011 3:22 am

I'll never know the answer to that question.

I'm neither a steel player nor a guitarist & certainly not together.I just like to larn.

Ransom Beers · Post by **Ransom Beers** » 27 Dec 2011 3:41 am

Richard Sinkler wrote:
I've been introduced on stage more than once as "Cal Smith on steel guitar". I guess I'll be a real steel player when they can remember my name.
Really! That's disgusting. How hard is it to remember CARL Sharp?

Yeah,or Carl Smith!!!

David Ellison · Post by **David Ellison** » 27 Dec 2011 12:32 pm

When I first started with a band, I had to work out every lick I was going to play ahead of time, and practice/perform the songs exactly the way I'd worked them out. At the time, I did not really consider this "being able to play," (most likely people listening didn't know the difference though).

Some time went by, then one day I was trying out a pedal steel in a music shop and ended up jamming with some people after the store closed for the day. I was winging it for the first time... playing country songs I was familiar with but had never played before. I had to keep it simple, but I was improvising for the first time with other musicians. I remember how good I felt afterwards, thinking "Now I feel like I'm really starting to learn to play!" I received an invitation to join their band, so I must have done ok.

I had set kind of tough standards for myself (which was good because it helped me improve quickly), but nowadays I would say that anyone who plays regularly with other musicians (or has in the past) is a steel player.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 27 Dec 2011 12:59 pm

I got some applause after playing a solo, and at this moment I thought I was an official steel player. This feeling didn't hold up for too long, but it felt good than.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 27 Dec 2011 1:05 pm

Joachim said:

I got some applause after playing a solo, and at this moment I thought I was an official steel player.

I get applause quite often after a solo, but it's usually because they are happy they don't have to hear any more.

Roy Davis · Post by **Roy Davis** » 27 Dec 2011 4:51 pm

I don't think I will ever see myself as a steel guitarist. I think I will always see myself as a work in progress. No matter how much I learn I still have not even touched the tip of the iceburg.

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 27 Dec 2011 9:05 pm

The cold hard facts are when you've played steady gigs with the better bands in town 3-7 nights a week for 5 years. Only then is your name written in the book of "steel players" - mainly because you would have to have gotten pretty competant to hang that long w/real pickers. In my view there's very few exceptions and no real shortcuts to that rule.

Russ Tkac · Post by **Russ Tkac** » 28 Dec 2011 5:51 am

Well, it's not when you get asked to play on a recording for FREE.

I gave a friend Rusty Young's website and told him to send his song to Rusty and he'd put a great steel part on it and email it back. He says, "That would cost a lot." So the fact I got picked over Rusty Young does not make me a steel player.

Ransom Beers · Post by **Ransom Beers** » 28 Dec 2011 5:59 am

A Patsy maybe???

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 28 Dec 2011 12:00 pm

i have to point to the original question - why do people think a lap steel is not a STEEL guitar - that a STEEL guitar has to be PEDALED. if you've been playing lap steel, NOT SLIDE steel, which IMO is a different variant (and the one most guitarist turned steelers take up) then i feel you should call yourself an "official" steel guitarist.

i've come to see the non-pedal steel as far more challenging than the pedal steel if the point is that you arent official until you've mastered every pedal and lever on the instrument. i would actually quote Jeff Newman and say you arent an OFFICIAL Steel Guitarist until you can FOLD up all your knees and still play anything you need to with only 2 pedals.

Stuart Legg · Post by **Stuart Legg** » 28 Dec 2011 4:04 pm

Jerome there is a pretty wide gap between the lap steel and PSG of today. In fact the gap is so wide that it is like comparing apples to oranges.
I in no way mean to imply that one is better than the other.
"Steel guitar player" is an incomplete title to broad in scope to be accurate leaving you with the dilima of being a steel player at times and then again not at times depending solely on which instrument you play well or not.
I think the words "Steel guitar player" are just part of the title and should be defind preceded by Steel string guitar, Non-pedal, Pedal, Dobro, Slide and etc.
You can except some or one of those titles if you qualify.
If you do all well then you can be called simply "The Man"

Kenny Martin · Post by **Kenny Martin** » 30 Dec 2011 10:57 am

At 52 i've been playin since i was 9!

When did i become an "Official Steel Guitarist" ?

I think it was Nov 19th 2011 at the Ryman when Bill Anderson called me a "Hairy Legged Steel Guitar Player" when he introduced me!

Or, when Tommy White said "You played superbly"!

Does these two count?

Ransom Beers · Post by **Ransom Beers** » 30 Dec 2011 11:08 am

Kenny,did you have to go out 'n' buy a bigger hat?

Kiddin' about the big hat!

I hope I can get good enough so when people hear me they'll say something nicer than they do now.

Kenny Martin · Post by **Kenny Martin** » 30 Dec 2011 12:10 pm

I think this is when it was official! That's my back when we where getting a standing ovation. Ok, it's official, i'm a "Steel Guitarist"! Only took 41 years!

Dick Sexton · Post by **Dick Sexton** » 30 Dec 2011 12:29 pm

Kenny, ma brother! Let there be no doubt, you are wished many more trips to the stage, with many more standing ovations and much more success... You have friends, their eyes on you, wishing you well.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 30 Dec 2011 12:33 pm

kenny...congratulations...i can only imagine how that feels!

random beers...for someone who claims not to be a steel player, guitarist, etc. you sure have alot to say on a steel guitar forum. same goes for the lane gray theater.
after seeing you guys post incessantly on every thread i've decided to go back to just being a steel player.

Kenny Martin · Post by **Kenny Martin** » 30 Dec 2011 1:49 pm

Mr. Sexton,

What a very nice thing to say. I am humbled man.
Thank you but i ain't nobody! I couldn't carry the steel cases of the guys that get to play there.

Also, thx Chris and i still can't believe i was there.
To be called an "Official Steel Guitarist" i feel any young or older person that decides to learn to play steel and truly have the love of it in their heart is considered a steel guitarist.

Honestly, i became a steel guitarist when i was 13 years old at the Ridge Jamboree in Batesburg, SC when i played behind my daddy singing "Green Green Grass of Home".
The fiddle player talked me into sitting down and play without my daddy knowing it when he stood up to sing.
The fiddle was suppose to play the lead but he told me to, even though i was scared my daddy would get on me.
I did and after we left the stage, and i might add this was a radio show, he took me outside with the band and said "That's your steel now because you play it better than me"
That's when i think i was a steel player because my daddy was and is who i wanted to be.

So it was Official many years ago but for me personally, it was Official when Tommy White said "Kenny you sound great" right before we kicked the next song off at the Ryman. I had a few tears and felt, man did Tommy White just say that to me.

There is no higher indorsement i could get and from the one i hold dear to my heart with my daddy!

Sorry guys to be so personal but again, a steel guitarist in my mind is defined by the love of the instrument and never losing the feeling that you can't wait to play steel every chance you get! Even if you are a beginner or a seasoned player.

I still today am excited everytime i get to play!

Bo Borland · Post by **Bo Borland** » 31 Dec 2011 7:32 pm

When banjo players start giving you the stink eye.

The Steel Guitar Forum

When are you an 'official' Steel Guitarist

When do you tell your friends that you are a Steel Guitarist?

Re: When are you an 'official' Steel Guitarist?

Does this count?