Mel Bay Deluxe Pedal Steel Guitar Method Curiosity

[Jim Williams]

As a beginner this is one of the resources I am using. Something about this book strikes me as rather strange though. On page 17, right after the most basic of materials, the song "Red River Valley" appears. It has mostly double and triple notes, and a lot of pedal changes from A to AB, AB to A, a three fret slide from notes with pedals to notes without, etc. This appears before ANY mention of the techniques involved with tilting your foot from one pedal to the other, playing multiple strings at once, etc. etc.

After that, the next several songs are very simple single string melodies that you would expect for a beginners book. Double notes are not even touched on until page 35.

I have been working on a lot of other material, basic song tabs, etc. so this didn't cause me a particular problem, I just found it curious that a somewhat advanced beginner's piece would be in that place in the book, followed by about a dozen much simpler pieces before getting back to this level again.

Any explanations? Is this a known mistake on the part of the publisher that was supposed to have appeared later in the book?

I like this course a lot, in fact it is probably going to be my main beginner's course but I just found this rather interesting.

[Doug Beaumier]

Jim, I have noticed that too. When I use that book in teaching some beginners I skip over that song and go back to it later. Like you said, the song seems to be out of place in the book.

[Joachim Kettner]

Indeed the book is not exactly going from easy to advanced exercises, like Wild Mountain Thyme (p.145) precedes the easier to play Bee Cee Swing (p.156), but it's still a great book.
If I'm not mistaken Wild Mountain Thyme is exactly the same version as Buddy Emmons' on his "Steel Guitar Album".

[Kenneth Caine]

I struggled at the same place in the book. I kept working it until I got it. This is a great book with a lot of tabs. I am going back through the book and working on things and improving what I did not cover the first time through. Right now I'm working on 'Where Do I Go From Here?", page 119.

Another one of my favorites is When You and I were Young Maggie.

[Jon Guirl]

If I'm not mistaken Wild Mountain Thyme is exactly the same version as Buddy Emmons' on his "Steel Guitar Album".

You are correct on that - To me the fun part of playing Wild Mountain Thyme is trying to get the same little feels, pulls, tone, and texture the way Big E did it on the record. Fun!!!

[Jim Williams]

Yes, definitely a good book. I also have Scotty's "Easiest Pedal Steel" and Gospel books.

[Chris Gabriel]

Sounds like someone's paying attention!

As a teacher, I do my best to present material sequentially. Certainly, there is a benefit to the learner.

However, music, as it is presented in real time, with real expression, rarely if never unfolds in such a way a novice student will easily utilize given skills.

So I would agree the aforementioned book could use a revision or two., for minor pedagogical reasons/considerations.

But, if your goal is clear, I.e. Play the song on page 17, your mind will find a way to accomplish it, either discover it a couple pages further, or work with it, until it dawns on you.

If the problem was repetitious, or extremely problematic, The book would fade into nothing, as useless books do. The problem is minor, therefore, the book has great use value, hell, I use it myself from time to time!

I would also add that despite this particular page, the book gives you plenty of technical studies (etudes) for E9 PSG, from a PSG players point of view. I appreciated this, as a beginner. Thus I purchased it, some time ago. Afters years of practice, I'm happy to report I've finally advanced to the next level! Beginnermediate...

Chris

[Jim Williams]

Yep, it's pretty timeless for sure, the book I have is so old the price on the cover is $14.95 and it didn't have the demo cd with it. I did manage to get the demo files though.