Gliss abuse

[Mike Neer]

I have mixed feelings about the extreme use of glissando--I think Speedy West used it quite a bit, but it was right in line with the rest of playing, and Sol Hoopii was a master.

On the other hand, I do find it kind of ironic that I am not particularly attracted to the single most identifying sound of the steel guitar. There's something about it that turns me off. I used it when I played in a more novel style on acoustic (it's required when playing the Sol Hoopii stuff, but is also a trick to fall back on when you run out of ideas ).

Anyway, since picking up the electric, I have worked on all but eradicating it from my playing. My goal is to play and not make it obvious to folks what I am playing, i.e., guitar or steel guitar.

How do you feel about it?

[Robert Allen]

I think any technique when overdone can get old in a hurry but I'm not for eliminating the sound of the steel guitar. Many bluegrass dobro players have done away with the slides and are effectively playing banjo on a reso instrument. Burkett Graves who played with Flatt & Scruggs had a good mix of fingerpicking rolls interspersed with slides and he always seemed to know where to put the slides and how to balance the two techniques. I'm not much for listening to some of the modern reso players who seem to want to distance themselves from any Hawaiian or steel guitar sound.

[Frank Welsh]

Mike, I think that any technique can be overdone and that gliss should be used tastefully as with any other "trick." I assume you are talking mainly about the octave gliss that is so associated with Hawaiian steel guitar music.

We use a limited form of gliss when sliding from note to note quite often and, used properly, this can give a near-human vocal quality to our playing that other instruments can only dream about.

I sometimes play a passage with no built-in glisses just to lend variety to the sound of a tune but if I eliminated glisses entirely my playing would pretty much sound, tonally at least, like a regular fat-sounding jazz guitar. It's those slides between notes that lend much of the charm and "difference" to steel guitar.

That said, it certainly would be annoying to hear a player who ended every tune with an octave gliss or inserted octave glisses at every opportunity within the tune.

Think of an orchestra that featured bagpipes on each and every song.

[Mike Neer]

That's interesting, Robert.

I don't dislike all sliding, usually just the ones bigger than a whole step. I like to use it a bit at the end of a note to tail off a bit, like a voice, or even a rapid whole step rise or fall like a pedal sound, or even a synth bend wheel. Chances are, if it's not something I would sing, I'm not going to play it (in terms of the gliss).

I'm even really particular about where I use vibrato now. Just trying to play like the sound I imagine in my head.

[Stephen Abruzzo]

Extremes of anything (gliss or distortion as examples) get to be annoying.

I want my playing to sound like a steel or slide guitar....but not with "excessive" techniques.

Sounds like you want to take your steel playing into new genres and not so much in traditional areas for steel?

The dichotomy of the whole thing is that a Steel is most definitely a LEAD instrument (look at me, look at me) and yet you want the listener to not immediately know that you are playing a Steel. This isn't a criticism.....just I notice the dichotomy of what you are going through.

Of course, if people don't know that you are playing a Steel because of your immaculate pick/palm blocking, well then kudos to you for dazzling technique. lol

[Mike Neer]

Stephen, I think listening in context really gives you the opportunity to fine tune your sound--it really has for me. When I'm playing jazz or something other than the more traditional steel styles, like you said, what is obvious to me is that what works in one style, does not work in another. So for jazz, the gliss and vibrato are really kept to a minimum. And of course, one can't pick every note.

When I first started singing big band music a bunch of years ago, I heard a recording of myself and knew exactly what was wrong (well, one of the things that was wrong), and I went to work on it right away. It wasn't that I needed to eliminate vibrato, I needed to learn how and when to use it.

And I do really like the idea of trying not to be so obvious. You're right, the traditional styles are not for me, although learning them is essential, IMO.

[Loyal McAvoy]

I will say Mike that you have mastered the single-string thing; I think anyone who hears you knows you have worked your ass off to accomplish the purity. I also like a clean scale solo, but with surprise accents and unexpected glisses of huge stacked intervals that one only hears with a steel. It reminds me of the horn sections in the early fifties big bands using diatonic sixth harmonized charts, and George Shearing's piano style. I think for my listening I really enjoy a judicial mix of single notes, small and large intervals, and full-on harmonizations that are stacked across the entire string range; not overusing anything.

[Mike Neer]

Thanks for your comments. I like the chordal style of playing, as well, and it's unavoidable to use gliss and other ornaments. It does sound nice. I listened to my Poinciana recording before and there is plenty of glissando in the head. I think, though, that really paying attention to minute detail is important to being all you can be on the instrument. I'm certain Jerry Byrd really scrutinized his own playing to meet his own exacting standards.

I still struggle with some pitch issues, but that's another story....

[Loyal McAvoy]

Another aspect to the discussion is how musicians use their instruments, and if that use is musical or theatrical. If it is for theater, I immediately dismiss the use as “showboating,” and I do not respect the player. I don’t put the guitar behind my back and play it nor do I throw my head back and forth, grimace and dance in circles (even when I had hair) to “show” people how accomplished my playing is, as apposed to their making their decision on listening to my playing. When I see this display, it denigrates both the instrument and the player. Over used gliss on steel would fall into this category to my thinking.

[Tom Snook]

Speaking strictly of Hawaiian music,try to imagine Barney Isaacs and Billy Hew Lens' Steel Guitar Magic record played with no glissando.

[Ron Whitfield]

You'd almost need to call the instrument something else without big glissandro, and when it fits the music it fits. Unfortunately, you hear it done badly so often (non-musical) that (like most badly played steel) it just turns people off.

[Andy Volk]

Vibrato and glissando are ornaments that can add heaven or hell to a given piece of music. It all depends on genre, context and taste. And taste is something that has changed over time. The wide vibrato favored by say, Sidney Bechet, Andy Iona and many early 20th century violinists is out of favor now. Steel guitarists do tend to abuse glissandi in my opinion but it's partly what gives the instrument it's unique character so no gliss and no vibrato at all feels wrong to me.

Players like Jerry Douglas have eliminated much of the gliss sound from their playing so when they do use that effect it's way more powerful than if he were constantly sliding all over the place. However, glissando, to my ear, is one of the things that made Noel Bogg's chordal playing swing like crazy so as I said ... context and taste.

[Niels Andrews]

For you Hawaiian music players, could you really not have gliss in your genre of music. As one who has spent little time playing or listening to this music, off the top of my head that is the identifying characteristic. Isn't that the major sound that really only a steel guitar can make? Maybe Mike can play some Hawaiian tunes with no glissando so I could better understand. Maybe I am "Dazed and Confused".

[Niels Andrews]

For you Hawaiian music players, could you really not have gliss in your genre of music. As one who has spent little time playing or listening to this music, off the top of my head that is the identifying characteristic. Isn't that the major sound that really only a steel guitar can make? Maybe Mike can play some Hawaiian tunes with no glissando so I could better understand. Maybe I am "Dazed and Confused".

[Mike Neer]

Context is everything, Niels. I think I am mainly speaking of the exaggerated or overuse of it. I cannot play without gliss, but I am careful to keep it under control. Even playing Hawaiian style, I try not to make people seasick.

Working on articulation using scales and melodies has been the biggest means of honing in on that kind of control. I think control is a huge word in the world of steel guitar. Only a few rare examples that I can think of have the ability to play with abandon and seemingly always land on their feet: Steve Cunningham, for one--the rarest of birds.

I like talking about technique and playing and concepts more than gear, so this is just another topic for discussion. As with anything else, I reserve the right to change my mind any time. Right now, this is where my head is at.

[Niels Andrews]

I thought that is what you were saying, but it brings to mind two issues. Just yesterday I was thinking what really defines Hawaiian music, besides the gliss and I was listening to some Jerry Byrd listening for some key licks, the phrasing, etc. so this is a timely discussion for me. Didn't reach any conclusion.
The other issue being is I feel most players play Steel Guitar, pedal or lap as that is what it is, and that only. I love some of the stuff Randolph does because unless you listen real close you have no idea what he is playing. I think the point you make about the over use of gliss and vibrato is well taken. Perhaps there would be more acceptance of steel if there was a better understanding of it's capabilities.

[Rick Aiello]

The wide vibrato favored by say, Sidney Bechet, Andy Iona and many early 20th century violinists is out of favor now.

The "late, great" Steel Guitarist ... Bernice Honold ... Told me once, that when she was taking lessons in the 30's ... Her teacher would walk around and smack her left hand with a ruler if she stopped moving her bar ... Even for a second

[rodger_mcbride]

There seems to be a fine line between artistry and abuse. I love the Joaquin Murphey integration with gliss and single note phrasing and when someone like Debashish Bhattachrya or Robert Randolf can turn gliss into another whole medium of expression, it moves the instrument forward. It seems to be one of the singular attributes of the steel guitar and I agree with Mike that control is the key to defining it to whatever degree is necessary to your style and expression of the emotional impact of the technique. Without control, it can be a cliche and annoying.
rodger

[John RJ Wilson]

Speaking as a Scotsman, I rather like the idea of bagpipes on every song.

But more seriously, it must be horses for courses surely, imagine Sleepwalk with no glissandi

[Paul DiMaggio]

Would it not be better to take the the things that a steel guitar does well and find more unique and imaginative ways of using those things rather than making it sound like a different instrument? I agree that glissando and vibrato can be and are over used in a lot of cases but they are also part of the instruments vocabulary and as with all things in life, moderation is the key.

[Scott Thomas]

Yes, the word "taste" comes to mind. When Jerry Byrd spoke about "burlesquing" the instrument, I feel he meant the abuse of glissandi as one element of that. But, as was already mentioned, novelty was popular in the 20s and 30s, so audiences then had different tastes. I understand it took the saxophone awhile to gain credibility in some circles again after having been used so long as a novelty instrument to make funny noises.

Niels, I'm a big Jerry Byrd fan also, and I don't know what your listening experience is, but if you are looking for examples of what defines Hawaiian steel, I really think you owe it to yourself to go to the source on that one....to Jerry's heroes like Dick McIntire, David Kelii and Billy Hew Len among others for more perspective.

[Mike Neer]

Would it not be better to take the the things that a steel guitar does well and find more unique and imaginative ways of using those things rather than making it sound like a different instrument? ...

It just doesn't work that way in jazz, at least in my experience and with modern music. Changes have to be made to way the instrument is played if you want to be taken seriously. This is just my experience. Dave Easley does a great job with it. I'm trying to find my own way. I don't really want it to sound like another instrument, I just want it to not be obvious.

Tunings are a whole other issue, and I have been really working my butt off to come to a happy place tuning-wise. A friend warned me long ago that steel players are a crazy bunch who lock themselves in their chambers for years. I think he was right!

[Doug Beaumier]

In my playing experience I have discovered that audiences respond to signature steel sounds most of all... gliss, sustain, vibrato, sliding, harmonics, etc. That's what grabs their attention. Removing that from your playing may work on a couple of songs, but without those techniques you might as well be playing the notes on a regular guitar or a piano IMO.

I do believe that gliss and vibrato can be overdone. Probably the most extreme example I can think of is Roy Smeck playing electric lap steel... sorry Smeck fans. Roy came out of vaudeville, where a performer had 3 minutes to jump out in front of an audience and entertain. I guess that's how he developed his wild and wacky, wiggly bar sound.

Regarding tunings, it's a never-ending adventure and quest. Each tuning has something different to offer, and each has something missing... I think the answer is to settle on two or three tunings that can be accessed easily on the same set of strings. I guess this is how the pedal steel came to be. Open E9 tuning, and the pedals and levers will give you open A6, B6, B7, B9, C# (A pedal & F lever), etc...

[Don Kona Woods]

Doug says,

In my playing experience I have discovered that audiences respond to signature steel sounds most of all... gliss, sustain, vibrato, sliding, harmonics, etc. That's what grabs their attention. Removing that from your playing may work on a couple of songs, but without those techniques you might as well be playing the notes on a regular guitar or a piano IMO.

I am in total agreement with this view particularly with respect to Hawaiian Steel Guitar playing.

[Nate Hofer]

Interesting topic guys. It occurs to me that some gliss is needed with bar slants as well - however that is a traditional technique for traditional music. Perhaps outside of Mike's general approach.