For all the New-bee Players

[Niels Andrews]

I am here to say after 22 months of working everyday on my pedal steel with some great help, especially from Reece Anderson (RIP), I can start to feel like a Pedal Steel player. I have to say this has been the most humbling endeavor I have ever undertaken. I actually thought I was a guitar player when I started this pursuit.
First I live in the Peoples Republic of California. Pedal Steel players let alone instructors are rare, I think there are 4 in a state of 38 million people.
Anyways after a year of fumbling around with trying books and videos I went and spent a few days with Reece. I can't say enough about the experience. It was life changing.
But to sum it up I was able to take a song today that I had never played before, figure out the melody line, come up with an arrangement and was playing it back and forth on my E9 and B6 tuning pretty much effortlessly. I don't want to stop.
All I had to do was learn Music Theory, do ear training, learn the instrument and practice a couple of thousand hours.
So enjoy the journey, the reward in personal satisfaction is worth it. I have to add I am probably a slow learner, but for me it hasn't been an easy road.
Just practice till your fingers bleed, and you will get it.
I have to say that for anybody wanting to improve their playing; instruction is the only way to go. I am a firm believer in Skype and am currently working with John McClung and it has been great. I plan to continue with other players long into the future.
So enjoy I am having a blast!

[John Wilson]

I started back up a couple of years ago.....

[Keith Currie]

Neils
Are there many guys out there teaching with Skype?

[Niels Andrews]

There are some under the instructors tab in Links, but I think there are many who would teach via Skype, if they just played around with it. It has some limitations but just being able task questions in real time is huge.
It could do a lot to get more people interested in Steel Guitar. Pay it forward you seasoned players, "don't die with your song still in you."
KInd of like being stranded in the desert , there is nothing such as bad help.

[John Ely]

I take Skype lessons from a pro named John Ely, who played for Asleep at the Wheel for a number of years. (Okay this is confusing because MY name is John Ely and HIS name is also John Ely--we are two different people, who strangely enough, have the same name and interest in steel guitar and both live in Minnesota).
John is an excellent teacher who has up to 30+ students enrolled at any time. He has taught me a TON of practical material including technique, music theory, chord and song contruction, etc.
His website is http://www.hawaiiansteel.com/
Even though the website name sounds like it's a hawaiian steel site, John is a pro E9 and C6 player and a great teacher. Email him via his site.
John Ely

[Brandon Halsey]

Glad to hear you are still enjoying yourself and hungry to learn more Niels. I've been playing for about 12 months. Just when I feel like I know what I'm doing, I discover something new and it starts all over again. What an amazing instrument. I was like you. I thought I was a guitar player (and a good one). Boy was I wrong. Once I started learning steel, I realized I knew nothing about music. After reading this forum and playing my steel everyday, I have learned more in 12 months than my previous 15 years playing guitar. Only regret is that I didn't start sooner.

I have to try the Skype thing. I've heard it can be very effective.

[Josh Yenne]

i give lessons in Sonoma... quite a ways though! but if you're up for a vacation or something!

[Jean-Sebastien Gauthier]

I also take lesson with John Ely both with and without pedal and he is a great teacher and a nice guy. I cant figure out how I would learn steel without him.

[Ian Rae]

Hi Niels,

Amongst all your encouraging words I picked up on your reference to "E9 & B6 tunings".
Is this a twin-neck? I ask because I have tuned my C neck down a half tone to get used to the geography in case I ever get my hands on a universal.
As I've not been playing long, I bring no C6 baggage with me and I'm happily working through Buddy Emmons's Basic C6 putting everything up a fret.
But I can see why an experienced E9/C6 player might find a B6 universal disorientating and not worth the switch.

[David Milliken]

Hi Neils: I sure can attest to the power of personal instruction. For the past year, I have been under the influence of one of Canada's greats, forum member Bob Taillefer. He is a spectacular player and great teacher. I am fortunate to live close to him so we can get together on a regular basis. That said, there is nothing quite like a live performance to test your chops. I recently was invited to sit in with a local country band at their practice. I played non-stop for five hours then six nights later, sat in again for another four-hour session of non-stop playing. Those nine hours of live playing with a band were probably equal to two months of sitting in my basement plodding along to tracks. You and everyone else are right. Learning to play PSG is a humbling and life-long event and it seems the more you get to know, the more you realize you don't know. I wish I had taken up this superb instrument 45 years ago.

[David Milliken]

My apology ... Niels ... I need to check my spellings more regularly. No excuse for getting someone's name wrong.

[Mike Perlowin]

John McClung and Rick Schmidt give lessons via Skype.

[Tom Wolverton]

What Mike said. I take lessons from Rick via Skype. It's easy. You might also consider driving down to Santa Ynez, to get a lesson from Bill Flores at Jensen Music.

[Roger Rettig]

Mike Sweeney is another good teacher who offers Skype lessons.