How did you learn licks?

Nick Krol · Post by **Nick Krol** » 25 Mar 2015 1:04 pm

This is my fifth day with the pedal steel, and I feel like things are progressing nicely. I'm pretty comfortable with all the chord positions and moving the bar and operating the pedals and levers and everything, but the bane of my existence right now is blocking. I've made a little progress with palm blocking for single note runs, but have a lot of trouble when I try to get my middle finger in there.

I have a bunch of country style gigs lined up in five or six weeks when the semester ends, and I'd like to play as much of it on Pedal Steel as I can (I also play electric guitar). I know there's only so much progress I can make in a month, but I feel like if I spend my time doing exactly the right things, I can at the very least have a presence and not screw any thing up.

Right now, when I'm playing along with these songs, I haven't been much more creative than just playing the chords underneath. I want to learn at least a couple licks to break up the monotony. How did you do that? What do you think about when you're playing underneath? Any suggestions for who I should listen to, or what steel standards I should take a look at that might contain licks like that? Right now my favorite steel player is Buddy Cage, but I've started to look into others as well. Any help would be appreciated

Bill Moore · Post by **Bill Moore** » 25 Mar 2015 1:06 pm

First, you learn to play scales, single note and harmonized. Then, you practice.

Henry Matthews · Post by **Henry Matthews** » 25 Mar 2015 1:34 pm

Nick, just look for and find the melody of song and then the variations at which you can play melody. I find it to be a fault of some musicians that they don't play melody and some can't. I think if you learn to play true melody then some of those licks will come to you.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 25 Mar 2015 1:38 pm

In addition to the scales, I'd suggest getting something like this
http://www.steelguitarshopper.com/produ ... sberg.html
Or this
http://www.steelguitarshopper.com/produ ... einer.html

I found the greatest luck in learning licks by slicing up intros, and turnarounds into phrases.

Also cruising through the youtube channels of
Mickey Adams at www.youtube.com/singlpilot
And Bobbe Seymour at www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

There are other youtube tutorials, but I like those two. Mine isn't very well geared to the novice except for a few

Nick Krol · Post by **Nick Krol** » 25 Mar 2015 1:59 pm

Thanks guys, at first glance all that stuff looks like it'll help me out a lot

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 25 Mar 2015 5:24 pm

In my early days, I had to learn songs for my band. I learned a lot trying to get the songs down. I learned a lot on the bandstand. I learned a lot by watching steel players on TV like Hal Rugg and Curly Chalker. There was some at home practice too. We didn't have the internet, or even many lessons you could buy.

One of my recommendations is to find some other musicians to for a garage band with when you feel a little more comfortable. You will be surprised how much you will learn. You don't need to be Buddy Emmons to do that. Just some others that want to get together and play. I was fortunate that I was in a band when I first started.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 25 Mar 2015 7:26 pm

I think 5 days sets a new record for "I've been learning steel for _____ (time) and am not making the progress I'd like to be."

Jerry Hedge · Post by **Jerry Hedge** » 25 Mar 2015 7:35 pm

About the time I started getting into pedal steel, I got the Bruce Bouton instructional video. I learned a lot from that. I also had a 10 1/2 foot satellite dish in my back yard. Willie Nelson had just bought the rights to the Show Biz television library (Porter Waggoner Show, Wilburn Brothers Show etc. He started a channel called the Outlaw Music Channel. I was doing amp repair at home for a living,when I wasn't watching guys like Hal Rugg on TV and learning what I could from that. I used to refer to it as Steel Guitar University.

Steve Lipsey · Post by **Steve Lipsey** » 25 Mar 2015 11:31 pm

you could also look in the Tablature section of this forum and pick out some tunes that you like, and pull the licks from the intros and solos there...there's a wealth of great licks from the country rockers (Jerry Garcia, Burrito Brothers, etc) that are pretty straightforward and easy to drop in other tunes...some of the more technically accomplished steel players might be harder to learn from at this point, but country rock both is wonderful and a bit more approachable...

Norman Evans · Post by **Norman Evans** » 26 Mar 2015 6:34 am

The best instruction you can get, IMHO. Try bandstand backup for starters.
http://www.jeffran.com/courses.php?content=VideoCourses

Niels Andrews · Post by **Niels Andrews** » 26 Mar 2015 7:41 am

This has to be a joke. In five days you don't enough to realize what you don't know. There is a guy on you tube out of Las Vegas that can having you play like a studio pro in two weeks. That's the way to go!

Paul Wade · Post by **Paul Wade** » 26 Mar 2015 7:57 am

what Richard said. that's how i learned . plus i took
some lessons from T.C. furlong and don kates:

Tom Keller · Post by **Tom Keller** » 26 Mar 2015 9:27 am

It should be noted that both the Loessberg and the Steiner books are not available at this time, not through the steel shopper anyway.

Daniel Policarpo · Post by **Daniel Policarpo** » 26 Mar 2015 11:35 am

Niels Andrews wrote:There is a guy on you tube out of Las Vegas that can having you play like a studio pro in two weeks. That's the way to go!

I know who you're talking about. Oh man, is that guy mentally ill or what!

I remember 5 days in and even though I was hooked, realized I had a long road ahead of me. Finding somebody to take lessons with, either in person or on Skype has been really beneficial to me. Just make sure its somebody good who is not a jackass like that guy in Vegas. Ricky Davis has a mess of licks in the form of intros, turnarounds, and solos from the greats in a package that will keep you busy for a long time to come. You'll be able to recognize positions and phrases on recordings from working those files.
Getting 2 and three note harmonized scales as well as single note vertical and horizontal scales gives you the foundation to be able to pick and pull stuff you hear on records. Listen to stuff! Youtube is great, but I think tabs and videos are not allowing many young musicians' ears to develop. Turn the other stuff off and put the radio or record player on and really listen. Blocking is going to be a constant thing you will always work on from here on out.

Chris Harvey · Post by **Chris Harvey** » 26 Mar 2015 7:59 pm

I'm still a hack, however, I had a great teacher that taught me how to play melody. As stated in the post there are a ton of instructional videos. Ricky Davis has an AWESOME compendium of breaks and solos. The hot and sassy licks CD will have you busy forever:-)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pedal-Steel-Gui ... 1244176631

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How did you learn licks?

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