Please Critique Me

Landon Roberson · From: Church Hill, Tennessee, USA

I have been playing the steel guitar for about 10 months now and have put a couple of song up for you to listen to. Please feel free to critique me and let me know what you think and if there are thing I can do to improve. It will not hurt my feelings if you tell me like it is critiqueing me will only make me better. Hope you enjoy the Christmas Music.

http://soundcloud.com/landonroberson/white-christmas

http://soundcloud.com/landonroberson/silent-night

Bill Moran · From: Virginia, USA

Not bad. Keep it up ! Smile

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Bill

Landon Roberson · From: Church Hill, Tennessee, USA

I am playing a GFI Ultra thru a Roland Cube 80XL and a Hilton volume pedal that is all. I use the reverb and delay from the amp. Just got the amp in this week and it is amazing.

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

I E-mailed you some suggestions.

Clark Doughty · From: KANSAS

Good Job.......you're way ahead of me...........keep it up..............Merry Christmas and thanks for the posting.............very encouraging......it can be done...............clark

Landon Roberson · From: Church Hill, Tennessee, USA

Lynn Fargo · From: Fort Edward, NY

Hi Landon,
Only 10 months? Boy, you've been working hard at it! Got the mechanics of the thing down pat! On fret, good timing, nice pedal movement, good blocking. I might suggest that you try sliding into some of your notes with your bar to soften it up a little. That'll give you more of the pedal-like sound that steel is famous for. And maybe work on making your vibrato more pronounced. There's so much going on when playing steel, and all-in-all, you're doing great! Keep it up!

Mike Archer · From: church hill tn

your doing good landon
keep working at it
you have come a long way since your first day over here with me
Mike Very Happy

Landon Roberson · From: Church Hill, Tennessee, USA

Thanks Lynn and Mike for the encouraging words I have been working hard at the pedal steel ever since I got it I practice just about every day and would play more if I had the time. I can go play for hours and it seem like I have only been playing for a few minutes. I got a BJS tone bar for Christmas the 1" Dia. and man did it make a difference in my tone from the Dunlop 7/8" bar I was using in the above clips. I am now wanting to start working on the fills and backing up a singer so I can play at church on the congregational hymns. Any suggestions or tips you may have will be helpful.

Lynn Fargo · From: Fort Edward, NY

Landon,
I'm sending you a private message also. Lynn

Pete Walthall · From: Arkansas, USA

landon that was super good,just one day with mike archer spend two days with him.he will be at your house every day.BEGGEN.for some lessons.keep picken. MIKE YOU GOT HIM STARTED OUT GREAT.

richard burton · From: Britain

Landon,
That's very good playing for only 10 months in, you're a lot better than I was at 10 months Very Happy

However, I can detect areas where a bit of constructive advice wouldn't go amiss:

Intonation
Your either playing a little flat of the fret, or you have tuned to 'just intonation', or you haven't tuned the cabinet drop out of your steel (or a mixture of all 3)

Read how to tune the cabinet drop out of your steel here:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=155861

Abrupt chord changes

You are picking the strings every time that you change chords, instead of letting the strings 'ring' whilst you press the pedals to change to the next chord.

Take 'Silent Night' as an example of how I would play it:

Pick strings 8, 6, and 5, at the 8th fret, no pedals or levers activated.
Let the strings ring, and press the A and B pedals.
Release the pedals, with the strings still ringing.
(thats the 'Si...i...lent bit)

Now, with the strings still ringing, slide down to the 3rd fret, pressing the B pedal slowly as you slide down, making sure that it is fully pressed by the time you land on the 3rd fret

Now,(you may need to pick the strings again, or not, depending on how much sustain your steel has), with the strings still ringing, and the B pedal still pressed, slowly press the A pedal.
(that's the ni...ight bit)

Ransom Beers · Posted 27 Dec 2011 3:12 am

This from a guy with his head stuck in the pedal rods,hee,hee,jus' kiddin'.

Landon Roberson · From: Church Hill, Tennessee, USA

Richard thanks for the tips I will try this tonight and see how it goes. This is exactly why I posted this on the forum to get great tips that will help my playing. I was to by a friend that there is no way they could make a post like this on the forum and get people to tell them how they were playing and I said if you want to get good you have to know what you are doing wrong and how to fix it and this forum is great for helping you with that. Thanks for the help, Landon.

Ransom Beers · Posted 27 Dec 2011 5:36 am

The only thing I can say is"How do I go about recording to Sound Cloud,what eqpt. do I need etc.?????

The playing is very good,you should be proud.Nothing says "good" better than favorable comments from your peers.

Landon Roberson · From: Church Hill, Tennessee, USA

Ransom I just went to soundcloud.com and signed up for a free account and uploaded my songs. I record my songs thru my new Roland Cube 80XL it has a line in for my laptop so I have my steel and backing tracks together from the amp and then it has a record/headphone out jack that i connect my Zoom 2 recorder to I then transfer the song from the recorder to my computer and change them from the WAV format to MP3 and then upload them to soundcloud.

Ransom Beers · Posted 27 Dec 2011 6:31 am

Thanks,I too have the Roland 80XL cube amp. running thru my Vegas 400 spkr. as well as the spkr. from the Cube.Well I guess I need to invest in a recorder of some kind.I was chking. some out on American Musical site,might order one in the near future.Thanks again for that info."Keep on steelin".

I'm already signed up for "Sound Cloud".

richard burton · From: Britain

Ransom,
There's a free recording utility called 'Audacity'

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

which is useful for recording vinyl/cassettes/radio to your computer (to record them to CD)

You can also use it to record your playing.

Take a line out from your amp to the microphone input of your computer, set the Audacity recording levels so that you don't clip, and away to go Very Happy

Backing tracks can be imported into Audacity

Here's one that I recorded the steel on Audacity, and uploaded to soundcloud

http://soundcloud.com/steelie1955/new-country-song-times-gonna-1

Paul King · From: Gainesville, Texas, USA

You are doing good Landon for such a short time. It is nice to get advice and tips, but I will tell you playing time is the most important. If you can get with a band and play or just jam with others, that will be really helpful in learning and getting smoother. Best wishes and Happy New Year.

Ransom Beers · Posted 28 Dec 2011 4:56 am

Richard,thanks for the info. I need to purchase a recorder of some sort & will do so as soon as I can then I'll try to upload something to Sound Cloud & then everyone can have a laff!!
And good wishes to everyone for the new yr. from me.

~Nick~

Joseph Barcus · From: Volga West Virginia

I can hear a tuning issue the playing is fine a little choppy but still for only 10 months thats pretty darn good. sit down sometime with your tuner and lay the bar on the string and move it around until you see its in tune try that as often as you can. also make sure your guitar is in tune, and you are not pushing to hard on your bar as well
_________________
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvuH7H8BajODaL_wy3_HSJQ

Ransom Beers · Posted 28 Dec 2011 5:05 pm

Yeah,I pushed too hard on the bar once & fell in the floor,the whiskey had nothing to do with it.

I'm sure getting a lot of lessons by just reading,for instance I thought I was getting good string separation on the Wallace TT I have ,then I read where if I'd lower it down to 3 quarters thickness it would do better,I did that & wow what a difference,thanks to the pros. on this forum.You guys are awesome.

Now if I could just cook.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Quite good for having played only 10 months.

As said by others: you should let the strings ring more during changes in those slow tunes.

More ... since I also play a GFI Ultra from time to time, I noticed the "detuning" and kind of "dead" sound one can get with certain string-sets on that particular PSG - what type of strings do you have on it?
I have found - after having tested several string types/sets - that I get the least detuning, clearest and richest tone and best sustain on my GFI when using Jagwire Lloyd Green strings.

Keep on picking.

Landon Roberson · From: Church Hill, Tennessee, USA

Thanks again for all the advice and help you all are giving me I am trying all of it and it is helping. Joseph I did sit down with the tuner tonight and the gitar was out of tune alittle and then I put the bar on the guitar at fret 3,5,7,8,10 and 12 and tried to get it right on tune on each fret and then noticed where the bar sat in relation to the fret to be in tune I think this will help to play better in tune. Georg I use SIT® Buddy Emmons E9th, stainless wound strings that has the number 10 string at .038 do you think the Lloyd Green Jagwire strings would do better? I hope you all will continue to give me helpful advice to make me a better player.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Landon, it is my experience that the Jagwire LG series strings do much better (in every way) than the SIT Buddy Emmons E9th strings on a GFI Ultra. Wound 6th string in the Jagwire LG series though so have to change travel for that string when switching - an easy operation on the GFI.

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