Playing steel guitar - impressions after 1 year

[Dale Kath]

After more than a year of instructional dvd's (Bobbe Seymour, BBouton, Mel Bay), helpful hints from Forum members, I can report that I can tune my steel guitar, I know where the chords are, I know what the pedals do, but I have found that I have great difficulty making it "sound" like a pedal steel. If I had my druthers, I would have picked one up when I was 13 years old. But it is what it is. I have searched for a local instructor with no luck. Playing the PSG and making it sound like a steel - I have great respect for those that make it look so easy. It ain't. I have added a few licks to my originals, but I have to play 725 to get 4 licks that will work! I was hoping it would come to me as easily as my 6 string did. Not giving up, and never will, but getting my psg to sound like a psg - damn elusive!

[Niels Andrews]

Hey Dale,
I had to chuckle at your post, I call the Pedal Steel the "humiliator". About the time you think you know something, you have learned enough to know what you don't know. That is part of the trap, you look at all the time and money you have spent, so that tends to encourage you to stay in the game, then you have a great practice session and think you are making progress, then you watch or listen to a good steel player and you become humble very fast. Don't weaken, just enjoy the journey, it has and continues to be for me an enjoyable adventure.

[Curt Trisko]

It's the most fun I've ever had learning anything. I'm just over two years in and I'm still as excited about it as I ever was. Getting to the point where you can start fine-tuning your playing is incredibly satisfying. If there's a limit to the fine-tuning that can be done on steel, I've never heard of it.

If you're like me, after a year in, you'll start seeing sudden and dramatic jumps in your playing ability. Enjoy it each time because like Niels says, you'll be humbled again and again.

[Don R Brown]

Dale, a while back someone on this forum quoted one of their old teachers. I may not have it word for word but it was something like "When learning the pedal steel, it takes about 2 years to work your way up to 'suck' " In my case it's been just a little over 2 years but I'm just about there!

Also as others have said, your progress will not be linear but will come in random leaps (or small hops) forward, usually after a period of thinking you are not getting anywhere.

Last, do not expect to ever "get there". I know of 3 highly experienced and talented players - one of about 25 years, the other two I think have roughly 35 years each - each of whom have said they sometimes hear a great player and want to quit, or as one said "it makes me want to burn my guitar". Of course they won't quit, and neither should you, but the feeling of wanting to be better than we are is what drives a high percentage of us to keep at it.

Good luck learning! Rule #1 is (or should be) "have fun!".

[Gary Reed]

Dale,
The solution to my frustration was when I contacted Mike Sweeney.
Spending time on Skype with Mike has been what I needed.
Not to say I'm where I want to be, but now I have a guide to get there.
http://www.freewebs.com/steelguitarmusi ... otcamp.htm

[Dale Kath]

encouraging words that I will take into my music room!
If it takes 2, 3, 5 years I will just keep "climbing the mountain." When I bought my psg over a year ago, I had no idea of anything. Have not told anyone this, but might as well be open,.. when I first put my fingerpicks on to play, I put them on backwards, so I had like, eagle claws or talons. I thought to myself, how can they pick with these things on, when it dawned on me, dummy! you put the fingerpicks on backwards! they need to curl around the finger, not vice versa! Gonna keep practicing until I have a "breakthough."

[Brett Day]

Dale, I've been playing for fourteen years, and I still love to play now. Don't ever stop because the more you play, the more you'll love this instrument, the pedal steel guitar. When I started playing, VHS tapes were still being used-I had Tim McCasland's Pedal Steel Guitar video and he said in the video that there are so many who get a little too frustrated and stop playing, but he says the key is to be patient. Don't ever stop playing because the steel is an awesome instrument! The key to learning and playing pedal steel is to have fun and also play from the heart, and stay with it!

[Tim Fleming]

Hi Dale,
It took me at least a year to play anything that sounded like music - and I'd been playing 6-string all of my life.
It's a vastly complex instrument so the breakthroughs come a little less often. They'll come, but patience and perseverance is crucial.
Hang in there!

[Don R Brown]

Dale, here's another "something" that may help you at some point. Right now, when you're a year in, make a recording of what you can do. Pick a song you can do fairly decently, or some licks you're working on, whatever. Date it and set it aside.

6 months or a year down the road - or, when you feel discouraged - play that back and compare with what you are able to do THEN. You may be surprised.

Because we are wrapped up in the daily practice and small incremental improvement, it can SEEM like we're getting nowhere. Truth is we're probably making better progress than we realize. I still stink at it, but chances are someone listening can at least figure out what it is that I'm TRYING to do!

It will come to you, give it time.

[Dale Kath]

I was thinking the same thing Don, You don't realize where you are because you are focusing on where you want to be! My initial goal was to get to the point of comfort where I could bring my equipment to someone's gig and sit in for a few songs, and not embarrass myself. From what the guys are saying in this thread, just keep on doing it, doing it, which I plan on doin'!

[Niels Andrews]

Along those same lines that is why the very experienced players forget how difficult it is learning.

[Dave Grothusen]

Dale, at least you had enough brains to turn your picks around. I had a guy one time that wanted me to teach him some things about the steel he bought at a music store. I told him I was not much of a teacher but I could at lease show him the picking groups and what the pedals would do for him. Well we sat down with our guitars face to face one day and I noticed he had his pick on upside down. When I told him, he allowed as how that is what they told him at the music store, and he was getting along fairly well that way. He would not turn them over. I told him to pack up and leave. If he would not listen to me about how to wear picks he probably would not listen to anything else either.
Hang in there.

[richard burton]

I've been chasing after that sound for 30 years now, I've thrown time and money at it, but it's a very elusive animal, sometimes I think that I've got a handle on it, but the very next time I play (without changing any settings), it's gone

[Aaron Mulherin]

Steel is definitely not like piano where after one simple 30 minute lesson you can come home and play Mary had a little lamb. Keep at it. You'll get it. I've been taking lessons for over a year now and still have plenty to learn. If you can understand how to read tabs, that'll help you a bunch. Best of luck to you, you'll get it.
Aaron

[Daniel Policarpo]

Getting back to scale work has been a real help for me the last couple of months. After a little time we can start to feel like we are getting somewhere and we start exploring more intros and parts and playing songs to backing tracks. But something always comes along that lets me know how much I really suck. Good thing this is a really fun instrument to play. The stuff I really like the best on records isn't really that complex to play as far as pedal work or picking hand dynamics,but it is expressive and clean. The phrasing is unique and it pushes the song. If I can play Silent Night really cleanly with some level of expression and it sounds good to somebody else, that is much better than my half-butted clumsy rendition of Bars of Steel.

[Dale Kath]

Kind of spooky that you can "lose" how to play the psg. But I think I understand it. There is nothing automatic when playing it, you have to be listening and be aware of each note as you are playing, much like playing a fretless bass or maybe even a violin. Your ears tell you when you are in tune. We can't depend on sticking our finger on the correct fret. There are none! What I really call "playing by ear." Thanks for the helpful words, friends.

[Kevin Raymer]

Dale,

I'm right there with you brother.
I wish I'd started when I was a teenager too...

I started once about 10 years ago and gave up..

Now I've started again since about Christmas of 2013 and, I can usually tune my guitar after much tedious effort.

I can play Amazing Grace, I am pretty good on a diatonic scale, and I've almost got "a version" of the intro to Whiskey Bent and hell bound" worked up.

I know one or two licks and I'm working to "play along" with the group of guys that we call a band... LOL

I am about and hour north of Nashville so I was fortunate enough to get linked up with Mike Sweeney.

Making that PSG sound/tone is a lot about hand position, blocking, pick technique, and bar technique, and that's the kind of stuff that having someone "see" you play and give you feedback on can help A LOT...

Driving down there a couple times a month and sitting in front of him for a couple of hours has been a great benefit to me.

I happen to know that Mike offers "Distance Learning" lessons via Skype, and I've heard folks speak positively of those learning opportunities.

Mike's a member here on the forum, but if you are interested and send me a PM or eMail I will forward you his email address.

Anyway... Best of luck and don't give up..

[Daniel Policarpo]

Dale, I agree; it is crazy how elusive and fragile our knowledge-base on this thing is in the short term, especially week to week. I swear I could play "Days of Wine and Roses" just a couple months ago, and just this week I could not remember how to jump it off properly; had to go back to the tab. But once I got it again, I could play it much better than I had before. I don't think tab is the best way to learn in the long term. It serves a purpose, but I've been weaning myself off it more and more. Like you mentioned earlier, you have to develop your ear and you have to be pretty precise!

It's almost absurd how much you have to invest in time and energy for gainful output in the short term. The reward comes in the long-term, and there is diminishing interest generally speaking in going down that kind of long and winding path these days. There are simply too many other available mediums to make sound. But there is nothing else that can create as beautiful and haunting a sound as the pedal steel, and some young people understand that, somebody is passing that along.

I figure in about 5 years I'll be ok enough to not embarrass myself or the Steel guitar community too badly, until then I will continue to embarrass away.

[Curt Trisko]

One thing about learning pedal steel is that a lot of the songs you play on it don't sound good unless they're played in exactly the right way. The difference between sounding like crap and sounding good is a hair's-width, objectively speaking, but it amounts to a canyon in terms of skill and touch. This is what I think other people mean when they say that some days they "have it" and some days they don't.

For most things in life, close is good enough and even if you're not perfect, you're still alright. Pedal steel doesn't tolerate that kind of complacency. If you've got the kind of personality where you can enjoy it, then it's really good at keeping your mind disciplined and sharp.

[Josh Yenne]

yea.. its a life long humbler... I've been at it 6 years (anniversary in a couple of weeks) and people often say to me "how long did it take you to learn how to play that thing?"

I always pretend to look at my watch and then look around!

I usually say something like "I'll let you know when I get there" (and we'll never get there)

Although I have to say that I think the great difference between those who "own and pedal steel" and those who "play pedal steel" is the blocking. Theres lots of guys that have a steel, can make some pretty sounds on it, even be musical on it... but can't control the strings with the right hand REALLY.

Have no idea what you're playing is like and not saying anything at all about that... but I'd say, of all the things that are hard about this beast, the right hand is maybe the hardest and what people sort of give up on...

It kicks my ass every day and I love it so welcome to the journey.

[chris ivey]

i thought i was getting real good after 3 years.
after 10 years i realized i really didn't know much.
now after 45 years i think maybe i should have gotten a real job.

[Kevin Hatton]

If you are not willing to stick with it for years don't even think about it. It's a tough instrument.

[Dale Kath]

3 years, 6 years, 45 years! And fellow musicians still feel like "they are not there yet." This reinforces my resolve to keep at it. I have no intention of giving up. And yes, that right hand is important. I am garnering that it all boils down to technique - I would think that a proficient steel player would sit down at my Pedalmaster 8 string and make it sing. He/she would coax "the sound" out of the instrument, and make it sound like a pedal steel guitar. That is the crux of my "problem," it sounds like I am playing slide guitar, not a pedal steel. Back to the DVD's!

[Niels Andrews]

Something you might enjoy if you have not already done it is listening to Jerry Byrd. What he can do with six strings and no pedals will astound you. The emotion he can project with just his timing and hands to me has been inspirational to me.

[Curt Trisko]

Something you might enjoy if you have not already done it is listening to Jerry Byrd. What he can do with six strings and no pedals will astound you. The emotion he can project with just his timing and hands to me has been inspirational to me.

Niels, can you post some YouTube links?