Fingerstyle steel guitar

[Mike Neer]

I don’t think I could have ever predicted that I would end up at this place in my playing, considering that in all my years of playing guitar I never played fingerstyle arrangements. I never even really played chord solos of standard tunes (like I should have) but instead always played as a lead/rhythm guitarist. As far as steel playing, I explored some chord solos years ago but got a little bored with it.

Today it’s a completely different story, as I have made a commitment to my study of piano music, which is something that has always fascinated me. I pretty much function as the right hand of pianist, leaving the left hand stuff to a bassist or other instrumentalist. But man, what a challenge and how completely satisfying it is! I have begun compiling a list of tunes that I am working on, from Ragtime to Stride and Novelty.

I find myself utilizing many of the tools and tricks that I have either picked up from others or discovered on my own to make things works. There is usually a lot going on besides just the melody, even in just the right hand. But I have amassed a lot of transcriptions of Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin, Willie The Lion Smith etc and I am like a kid in a candy store.

Is there real value in this from a steel guitar perspective and does it even sound good? To me it does, but I am biased. I like the idea of being able to play solo or duo or trio and I feel like I am playing a lap steel piano. I wish I had the coordination to make my bass pedals work but the bass lines in this music are far too difficult.

This week I’ve been learning Carolina Shout, that legendary composition by James P. Johnson that every great pianist played back in the days of stride. It really takes time to work this stuff out from the manuscript. Here’s a little 16 bar( x 2 ) section that took 2-3 days to work out and commit to memory.

https://youtu.be/55OdpS2rS4A

[Andy Volk]

Trying to play this contrapuntal stuff on a non-pedal steel is crazy -but in the best way.

While in one sense, you are fighting the nature of the instrument - rolling a huge boulder uphill - in another sense, you are truly opening exciting new doors for the instrument. The amount of technique it takes to pull this off via blocking, selective muting, very subtle slide vs staccato playing, etc. is really staggering. I can hear that you are incorporating everything you've learned from arranging the tunes on your two CDs along with a whole new pianistic vocabulary. While the music still feels most at home on a piano, a piano cannot slide in and out of microtones and THAT is the magic of steel guitar.

I remember years ago, sitting in a music store thinking "Steel guitar is just too hard. Maybe I should try again to just concentrate on regular guitar." I played an arch top for ten minutes then put it down and picked up a Dobro. I played one two-second phrase and the die was cast. Steel guitar all the way. So I totally get how this wacky instrument can feed musical obsession and why. Keep us posted on this way-cool journey, Mike.

[Tim Toberer]

This week I’ve been learning Carolina Shout, that legendary composition by James P. Johnson that every great pianist played back in the days of stride. It really takes time to work this stuff out from the manuscript. Here’s a little 16 bar( x 2 ) section that took 2-3 days to work out and commit to memory.

https://youtu.be/55OdpS2rS4A

I admire your patience! I have some fantasies about stuff like this, but I am thinking of cheating with some pedals. You are a brave man!

[Mike Neer]

No doubt the piano is the king of all string instruments, especially with the percussive element, but also the ability to play notes with all 10 fingers over an extensive range. Guitar is pretty cool too, but playing this stuff on steel guitar is a little cooler than guitar in my opinion. Also, if you listen to just the right hand of the piano alone, the steel can sound even cooler than that. The left hand seals the deal for the piano though.

It's just a joy to do this. I have noticed that a lot of steel players in their later years, like Buddy Emmons, Joaquin and maybe even Jerry Byrd took a left turn, if maybe only for their own enjoyment. Later-period Joaquin was much different from early Joaquin, and I even remember it being said that Buddy took off the picks and played a more chordal type of playing. Jerry Byrd's playing seemed more introspective. I don't know what it is--maybe spending more time playing alone and orchestrating arrangements more.

Bill Hatcher is the man for playing harp-like, almost classical fingerstyle guitar. Mine is the rock and roll version of it. I think my whole musical life has been in the pursuit of how to play the coolest rock and roll--I studied jazz to learn how to play all the right wrong notes (and because I love it), I'm into early American music because it lays out the entire path to rock and roll for me. From Scott Joplin to James P Johnson, Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton to Thelonious Monk, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis. That's what I'm talking about.

I love Ravel, Debussy and Satie and all the others too, but that's for another lifetime. But I would give anything to hear that music come out of my own fingers if at all possible. We should try and treat every note from our own fingers like it's our baby, because they are.

[George Piburn]

You should scope out a master pedal player Marshall Hall.

He had to develop techniques to play classical on his pedal.

Worth a look see for encouragement.

[Erv Niehaus]

My guitar slinging buddy and myself furnished the music for a wedding.
No piano, no organ, nothing but pedal steel and guitar.
We played everything from the Bridal Chorus to the Wedding March.
My playing is all chordal style, very little single note, and my tabs are written the same way..
We started out with a bass player but after a couple of practice, he chickened out, he just couldn't hack it.
But it can be done.
Erv

[Andy Volk]

playing this stuff on steel guitar is a little cooler than guitar in my opinion

Agree. The guitar has been pretty thoroughly explored but not so non-pedal steel guitar, which has largely stayed put in its assigned genres with few players venturing very far afield.

[Mike Neer]

You should scope out a master pedal player Marshall Hall.

He had to develop techniques to play classical on his pedal.

Worth a look see for encouragement.

I will check him out.

My biggest problem is not so much technique, but memory. I've learned about 5 or 6 pieces in the past few months and plan to do a lot more. Finding the time to tab it out for my archive is proving difficult. Video helps, that's why I do it.

[Joe Cook]

That is incredible, Mike! You are an inspiration. I have changed my musical aspirations as I have grown older, but not dove into it with as much gusto as you.

[Mike Neer]

That is incredible, Mike! You are an inspiration. I have changed my musical aspirations as I have grown older, but not dove into it with as much gusto as you.

Much of my life I've played music others paid me to play, so now I don't have anyone else to blame.

[David Irving]

That's really impressive, Mike, and not all that slow either.

[Bill Hatcher]

Wonderfully ambitious!

[Bill Hatcher]

mike. i recorded a snippet of a dixieland tune to see if i could capture a bit of the feel. i put a lower bass string on...needed a little bigger diameter, but i didnt have one, so i just dealt with the pitch. its possible to work up some bass parts with traditional music, but unless you have a guitar with more strings on it, you might be better off just letting the track play the bass or when you have opportunities, just a chord chart for a bass player. there are all sorts of approximations of the stride parts. i have worked with very fine piano players who all had their own way to do it, depending on the size of their hands as to how they voiced the bass parts. i played guitar on a concert with oscar peterson. to see what he did with his left hand was other worldly. i tend to like art tatum just a little over all of them. any way, i was able to capture enough of the bass to make it at least usable and to show what the lap steel might be capable of if someone were interested in this style. https://soundcloud.com/bill-hatcher/way ... nder-in-n0

[Mike Neer]

Very cool, Bill! I love that. I feel more comfortable injecting bass lines on less composed pieces, but keepin mind I have only one bass string: the low C. I thought maybe I could play some bass stuff on my MIDI footpedals but the bass lines are too intense. Definitely need to write out specific bass parts and hire a bassist.

I came across this little nugget in the music and had a heck of a time trying to figure out how to play it, and do so in a way that I could hit consistently and without difficulty. This is a pretty insane slant!

[Bill Hatcher]

That’s not a slant….that’s a contortion!

[Tim Toberer]

One of these might help for the bass parts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOd-s14p2io

[Abe Levy]

Awesome!