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Topic: My first arrangement |
Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2013 7:53 pm |
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I'm a beginner and am about to attempt to put together my first arrangement for pedal steel. I figure it'll help me get a handle on music theory faster than just about any other way. I'm the kind of person who learns best by being tossed in a hole and then having to learn to dig myself out.
I want to compose a pedal steel part for an existing song that doesn't contain pedal steel. I think I already have a song picked out. It's a slow, spacey song, which I think lends itself nicely to the instrument. It's from an album that I bought as a teenager which I recently heard again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZIXxVvZrqM
I think it's just a simple 1-5-1-4 song and it already has a very simple distorted slide guitar part. I think it'll be hard for me to go wrong and it should be a lot of fun. I'm especially looking forward to putting something together to compliment the guitar solo in the outro.
Any tips? |
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Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 27 Mar 2013 4:31 pm
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| No one on here has an opinion? That's odd.... b0b, I think your forum is broken! |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 27 Mar 2013 4:44 pm
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There's already a very simple steel part in that song. It wouldn't hurt to add something a little more, uh, "advanced".
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 31 Mar 2013 5:38 am
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| I guess I would start by asking..."What is your goal?" Do you want to be a pedal steel player, or an arranger? If your answer is "pedal steel player", then I'd forget "arranging" for awhile, and focus on your capabilities on the instrument. Practice first to be competent on the instrument, then you can move later into the technicalities of arranging. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 31 Mar 2013 8:52 am
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I gotta disagree with you there, Donny. The two skills - playing and arranging - complement each other. There's no reason to learn one, then the other. They go hand-in-hand.
Most country bands do "head arrangements" on the bandstand. Steel players by nature arrange their own parts. Jeff Newman taught us that it's okay to not play anything during whole sections of a song. That's a fundamental concept of good arranging.
I'm guilty of playing too much and stepping on other players' parts far too often. If you play less, it makes you sound better when you step into the foreground. That's Arrangments 101. Some of us never get that far.
Sometimes the simplest parts can wow an audience. Think of Ben Keith on Neil Young's records. Who was the arranger? I'm sure that Ben and Neil were of one mind in the studio. As a steel player, Ben instinctively knew where the steel would fit and where he should lay out.
Jerry Garcia wasn't an accomplished player when he did "Teach Your Children", but his arrangement of the pedal steel parts is what made the tune a classic.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
_________________
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Jon DeLorme
From:
Brooklyn New York, USA
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Posted 31 Mar 2013 11:26 am
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In any event I think you should give a stab at it regardless of the complexity or your grand vision. Sounds like a fun project and I'm curious to hear what you come up with
cheers mate |
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Stuart Legg
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Posted 31 Mar 2013 4:51 pm
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Donβt make an arrangement just sit down at the steel and practice practice practice.
You could start out simply and just make chords
Oh wait! You would need to know what each of the chords sounds like or someone would have to some how show you how to make the chords on the Steel.
What Iβm saying there is a lot more to it than just practice practice practice.
Show me a person that can not grasp how to read and write tab in just a few minuets Iβll show you a person who really needs it.
See the chords, play the chord, hear the chords and then practice practice practice.
Here is a few bars starting a few bars in on the song βDesperadoβ in G.
If you can rewrite this tab in a different position on the E9 neck then you donβt need the tab.
Bo is playing this part here
Click here
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Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 31 Mar 2013 6:48 pm
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Responding to Donny, I'm strictly a hobbyist with pedal steel. For the time being, the most I see myself doing is jamming with my friends who play guitar. Because I'm just a hobbyist doing it for my own pleasure, I need things like this to keep it interesting and rewarding for me.
Responding to Stuart, I'm already at the point on the instrument where I can think in chords instead of frets and pedals/levers. I've never attempted this before and will start out playing it safe, but if y'all want to share some personal experience that will really lead me to some amazing sounds, I'd love to hear it. |
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Micky Byrne
From:
United Kingdom (deceased)
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Posted 3 Apr 2013 12:21 pm
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Bob, I remember an article in a steel magazine years ago by Jeff Newman about his very first session. His words ..."I used a D-12 Sho-Bud and let them have it with both barrels" at the end of the session he went to listen to the playback, and asked "Where's my steel??" ... they said You were too busy, we're not using the steel track now"
I agree with you, playing less is actually playing more in a way, if you drop in "hopefully" sweetly, it adds to the dynamics of the tune. I learn't that when I worked the Midwest in 1984 with a 6 piece Minnisota band. After the first set, the band leader said to me "Micky, I'll have none of that...Just play when you're needed" Lesson well learned to this day...well I try to remember!! 
Micky "scars" Byrne U.K. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 3 Apr 2013 12:32 pm
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I have a hard time just sitting there, so I've learned how to comp rhythm on the low strings so that the "steel guitar sound" isn't really there. In a large band, I try to double the keyboard player's rhythm part and mix myself into the groove until it's time for steel fills or a solo.
_________________
-πππ- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video |
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Micky Byrne
From:
United Kingdom (deceased)
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Posted 3 Apr 2013 12:44 pm
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Bob, I know I keep saying "So do I" to your quotes, but I have to say it again Like you I pick block chords on the low notes on my Uni and just keep in the back ground till I'm needed, then the steel comes in. If it's a rocky tune, the Boss-tone kicks in or the Boss RT-20 Lesley simulator. If it's country, I'll keep the toys out 
Micky "scars" Byrne U.K. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 7 Apr 2013 5:34 am
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| b0b wrote: |
I gotta disagree with you there, Donny. The two skills - playing and arranging - complement each other. There's no reason to learn one, then the other. They go hand-in-hand.
Most country bands do "head arrangements" on the bandstand. Steel players by nature arrange their own parts. Jeff Newman taught us that it's okay to not play anything during whole sections of a song. That's a fundamental concept of good arranging.
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Not to be argumentative, b0b, but you're sorta taking Jerry's playing out of context. Jerry had decades of musical experience and exposure to arranging before he touched a pedal steel, so he didn't have to study "arranging" by that time, he already knew it. Jerry's steeling fame was also greatly aided because he was already well known, and in a well known group by the time he got his break playing in TYCW. And while his playing is "memorable", I really don't hear any arranging genius in it - it's pretty average playing and backup techniques that have been used since the dawn of the instrument by thousands of players, most of whom remained unknown. Had that steel intro and break been done 40 years ago on a recording by your group or mine, it would likely have been totally forgotten by now. On the other hand, playing solo stuff on a multi-million seller by a famous group has a way of making one known, regardless of his or her ability.
| Mickey Byrne wrote: |
| Bob, I remember an article in a steel magazine years ago by Jeff Newman about his very first session. His words ..."I used a D-12 Sho-Bud and let them have it with both barrels" at the end of the session he went to listen to the playback, and asked "Where's my steel??" ... they said You were too busy, we're not using the steel track now" |
I think that's more parable than truth. It would take a pretty big ego to go into a session and ruin it by doing something that stupid. But like I was saying above, you must take things in context, and also play in context. You don't play at a session that will likely have dozens of tracks or instruments like you do in a 3 or 4 piece bar gig. You don't play deafeningly loud in a small club, and whisper-quiet in a stadium, and you don't orchestrate for a small group like you do for a big one...because your playing should always match and compliment the venue and the song!
One should never mention overplaying without giving equal time to underplaying. If you play too much, you're intolerable. But if you play too little, you can easily become unnecessary. |
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Micky Byrne
From:
United Kingdom (deceased)
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Posted 7 Apr 2013 6:18 am
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Donny, firstly Geeze, why do most people spell my name with an "E" ... like me calling you Donnie, or Bob, Bobbie ....anyway back to the Message I was telling you about Jeff Newman. It was either in "Steel Guitarist" or one of Scotty's news letters.The statement might or might not have been true. Jeff had a good sence of humour. Many years ago he was stationed here in UK in the USAF. I wrote him a letter once after he had been posted back to the States, asking if he had any tutours on a universal tuning, and I got a snail mail letter back from him that he didn't have any. I guess my convertion of my S-12 was way before Universals were being manufactured, because the guy I got my tuning from was an unknown player from S.D. who had the knowledge to know what alterations had to be done to a S-12 to enable a player to get the C 6th sounds.
Going slightly off thread but here's another mention about being a "Complete mature" player on the band stand. This was written by a respected drum teacher in U.K. called Bob Armstrong. He said to be a complete musician would be this Scenerio. You'd be on stage with a band, and you'd see someone you know come into the club who plays the same instrument as you do, and you "DONT" play to impress him, with flashy licks or overplay what ever instrument you happen to play, but just play for the band you're working in...to compliment the overall sound. Very sound advice
Micky "scars" Byrne U.K. |
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