<SMALL>I know that when I sit down to play my 7 string DustPan, I like to wear drawers that don't ride up on me. 'Cause if they do, I'm not playing my best.</SMALL>
I sense a new business adventure in the future for Howard.
It is the latest thing to improve your steel guitar playing or be at your best.
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A worthy post indeed. I have much recorded music by both pedals and non, and like both and really admire the skill of pedal players. I'm a person that can't pat his head and rub his belly at the same time, let along push & twist!! I've noticed the re-interest of pedal players to non-pedal playing from back about ten years ago. I think that from the time that us old geisers started playing non pedal, a whole new generation of pedal steeelers has come about because the instrument has been in the forefront of so much music from the late 50's up to recent times. It's like a school saying, 'we don't teach that now, we teach this'!!! It just seems to me that during this period, the non-pedal had little exposure, and could have been virtually an 'unknown' with some folks. It was ten years ago, that some young pedal players took a huge interest in "how you get all those sounds without any pedals"!!! And, it's been on the increase since then. I don't know if I'm the only one who has never spent more than 2 minutes behind a pedal steel guitar. And that two minutes was for a photo in the RCA studio in Nashville!!! I've never had the slightest inkling or wish to play pedal steel guitar any more than I wish to play the piano, to me, as someone else posted, I see it as a totally different instrument in the sound production. And I love it like I do non-pedal. Geo
I've been playing Non-Pedal since ’48 & PSG also, since mid-’50's. Recently I decided to combine both styles into just one instrument and bought a New Guitar that can be played either way on both necks! One neck E9 & one neck C-Diatonic Tunings. “Now, if I could just get a tone somewhere close to what Roy Thomson is getting with his PSG”! That's really a rich tone, compared to most PSG's! But, I'm working hard on it!
Coming soon...to a thread near you....a Chuck Lettes and Kay Das collaborative production showing off pedal steel and lap steel complementing each other, courtesy of Camille Saint Saens...
As someone who began playing pedal steel in the late '60s-early '70s and started playing nonpedal in the '80s, I realize that my learning trajectory is "backwards" compared to those (slightly) older steelers who played through the early development of the pedal steel. I love both, but find myself playing much more nonpedal these days ('59 D-8 Stringmaster, assortment of Valco single and double 6-strings).
I guess the analogy that comes to mind is the difference between playing acoustic guitar and electric. They are similar instruments and some knowledge of one can be tranlated/modified/utilized on the other, but they are definitely two different animals. Both are a blast! Now, if I could figure out how to play both at the same time....
<SMALL>I realize that my learning trajectory is "backwards" compared to those (slightly) older steelers who played through the early development of the pedal steel.</SMALL>
John, here is some history of the evolution of the steel guitar to the pedal steel guitar.
The majority of established steel players of that early era (1950-60's) did not readily accept pedals, and in fact thought they were just an extension of using a capo, which was originally thought to be a "lazy" method of playing, and sometimes even a crutch for those who could not play in the conventional way. To play an "open" string was considered to be an unforgivable offense for a serious musician.
For most of those early players, the pedal sound was considered to be "hillbilly", and was avoided by any serious steel player. If you read the Forum you will find that some of those early opinions are still prevalent.
I am thankful that those early innovators ignored the retractors and eventually brought the steel-guitar to it's current status of a utilitarian instrumen, limited only by the abilities of the player.
When it comes to playing pedal steel, some folks experience tremendous frustration. WHY?
IMHO most hear a song they like and then get upset when they can't just sit down and play it; just like the record.
My recommendation is, that they take a perfectly simple to-listen-to album, like Duane Eddy's' "Country Guitar" with Buddy Emmons. Listening to that LP, not as a music
listener, but as a student studying PSG, one can much more easily differeniate between the E-7th chord and the A 6th chords; or, open-non-pedal chord and/or the A-B pedal down chord BEFORE or AS the pedals are smashed.
ONCE you can accurately identify WHERE he is at and WHAT he is doing, it will become radically easier for you to understand WHY he's doing that. Another suggestion would be to acquire and really listen to, the old Bud Issacs records. Again, excellent learning tools. They're easier to listen to and decipher for learning purposes. In the early days of PSG, things weren't as sophisticated at they are today. Another thing to remember, some of the newer HOT PICKERs have altered their tunings that enable them to get things you can't on a standard 8+4. Makes all the difference in the world.....when you're trying to learn and have no idea WHY it isn't working out.
Thanks for the history lesson, Gene. I agree with your appreciation of those folks who readily assimilated the new technology -- as well as those who continued to develop nonpedal technique.
I have a real respect for the masters of both genres.
...at a thread near you....a Chuck Lettes and Kay Das collaborative production showing pedal steel and lap steel complementing each other, courtesy of Camille Saint Saens...
