new to the forum

Matt Lange · From: Wisconsin, USA

I've been reading this forum for almost a year, but that 5 dollar entrance fee kept me from signing up until now.
I've been playing 6 string guitar, mainly acoustic, for over 6 years now. I do a lot of folk/blues fingerstyle material (Leo Kottke is my biggest influence). Last spring after seeing Ben Harper and then Robert Randolph i got the steel guitar bug and decided to expand into lap steel.
Because i'm short on funds (being a college student and all) i got myself an Artisan, added an aluminum nut, and had a Fender Vintage Noiseless pickup installed. I love the way it sounds; hopefully i'll get a recording soon to see what you guys think of the tone. After playing all summer listening to Lindley on the "Running on Empty" album, i was finally able to start playing lap steel with my band Jungle James this fall. They all love the sound i get with it, it adds a different demension to the music that 6 string guitar just can't.
Anyway, enough about me. The question that i actually want to ask you guys is about instructional material. I play in open D primarily, and I have the Kelly Joe Phelps DVD which has been really helpful. But Phelps focuses on playing solo, and i was wondering if there is anything out the for D tuning that talks more about lead playing and accompaniment? I play blues, rock, and folk stuff, but info in any genre would be good.
Thanks a lot guys, and i'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of me from now on.

Larry W. Jones · From: Longmont, Colorado

Hello Matt and welcome to the forum. Not much I can contribute, but I did replace the strings on my Artisan and it sounds much better with longer sustain with the Jagwire strings, #J-L6C. http://pedalsteelmusic.com/strings.html

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

I'd suggest the DVD by Darick Campbell on Sacred Steel style. Darick has a style that easily translates to rock or blues. Also I'd recommend checking out Freddie Roulette, great stuff if you can find it.

Matt Lange · From: Wisconsin, USA

Larry,
yeah, new strings was the first thing i did too, but i made the mistake of putting on normal electric guitar strings (9 gague probably). for some reason the strings didn't hold the tuning very well. now i've got nice thick strings on there, and yeah, the new strings helped the Artisan out a lot

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Welcome Matt, Im a new lap player also, playing in a rock band, learning as i go. Keith, Ive noticed alot of the lap videos use an eight string lap including Darick Campbells. Do you think these videos would work well for 6 string lap also? I have the cindy cashdollar one for western swing and she spends the majority of the tape doing a hank williams tune... alot of which involves strings 7 and 8. It was kind of discouraging with my 6 stringer to try and follow along. What do you all think? 8 string videos ok for 6 string players?

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

Welcome Matt. You will find that this is the best five bucks you ever spent!!
BILL

Richard Sevigny · From: Salmon Arm, BC, Canada

I'm with Bill, joining this forum was $5 well spent.

I've been playing lap steel for less than a year. I've been playing C6 with a folk friend since last may. Had no idea what I was doing, but the crowds loved it. Decided to ake lessons after that.

I've also been studying open D and just brought it to rehaarsal to a rock band I've been playing with for the last two years. Will be trying that live for the first time next weekend.

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

Welcome Matt,from Alabama.

Matt Lange · From: Wisconsin, USA

Steinar,
How good is that Arlen Roth video/what all does it cover? It says in the descripton on the "hot licks" website that it goes through Hawaiian playing (which i'm not all that interrested in) as well as David Lindley and others. How much time does it spend on open E tuning?

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

Matt,- sorry, but I have no idea, never seen it myself, only noticed that it's been mentioned by others when people have asked for open-E videos.

But I wouldn't dismiss the "Hawaiian" material only because that's not the style you want to play,- there are many 'universal' techniques that you will benefit from studying and that will transfer well into your prefered style.
If you are looking for a videos that only shows "blues/rock licks" then I don't think such a video exists.

Stacy Phillips' book "The complete dobro player" was a great help for me when I started out, even if it was for another tuning and another style than what I was mostly interested in, simply because I discovered a lot of stuff I wasn't aware of, like: "Huh? Is that possible? Cool!"

I'm also a big fan of simply listening to what your favorite players are doing and try to find stuff out on your own,- too many people underestimate their own ability to pick stuff by ear, and depend too much on the whole DVD/tab stuff.

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Don Kona Woods · From: Hawaiian Kama'aina

Welcome, Matt.

Ditto what Bill Crellar says.

Tell me after one year or less, if there has been anything else that you have spent $5 for that has given you more entertainment, information, or just plain fun than the Forum.

If there is I would like to know about it!

Have fun,
Don

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

Heck, for an additional $1.00, I'll even throw in a few jokes.....

I agree with Steinar with regard to using your ears in addition to instructional material.

You won't go wrong listening to any slide playing by Duane Allman, particularly the first compilation album that includes his studio work with a variety of artists. He plays both electric slide, acoustic slide, and dobro.

Again I'll agree with Steinar about "universal techniques." If you were able to pick out some playing by Sol Hoopi in his hot swing heyday and apply that to what you prefer to play, it will give you more dimension within your genre.

Matt Lange · From: Wisconsin, USA

Howard,
I love Duane Allman; i've played along with "live at filmore east" a bit, but i'll have to check out that compilation your talking about. Is it called "the best of Duane Allman" or something like that?
And i do agree with you guys about listening; most of what i've learned so far has come from listening to Lindley, Allman, Harper, and Ry Cooder. I just wanted to see if there was anything out there that would show me something new for lead/accompniment playing in open D.

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

Duane Allman - an Anthology
Duane Allman - an Anthology Vol ll

These albums influenced me greatly, and also turned me onto the acoustic side of Duane, as well as other artists. For example...Duane's dobro playing on Boz Scagg's rendition of Waiting For A Train turned me onto Jimmie Rogers.....not to mention early Boz Scaggs. Duane's slide work with Delaney & Bonnie, Johnny Jenkins,....etc....a lot of great playing to apply to rock, blues, & folk.

[This message was edited by HowardR on 12 February 2006 at 03:00 PM.]

Ray Shakeshaft · From: Kidderminster, Worcs, UK.

I too am a beginner on LS but I have played various instruments at reasonable semi-pro level for at least forty years and I have been mostly self taught so I have some knowledge of chord structure and sequences etc. The strength and weakness of LS it seems are the numerous tunings. Once you know what you are doing then the options of different tunings are its strength but for raw beginners it is difficult to know where to start and the fact that we may have our own pet styles of music we wish to learn does not help.

I was fortunate in that I knew of Gerald Ross through our mutual interest in ukuleles and I am extremely grateful to him because he has helped me over the initial searching. From there I have made up my own chord charts but without my previous knowledge I reckon it would have been extremely difficult to make sense of what little free information there is on the net and some of the available books etc.(In direct contrast ukulele players can reach a fairly high standard without buying any books etc. because there is so much free material on the net - BUT I must stress that 95% of us uke players use the same tuning and that is where the major difference lies).

As a retired educationalist I have never subscribed to the notion that there is a royal road to any learning - what suits one student may not suit another - but it does strike me that there is a need for well thought out book that offers the budding LS player a reasonable chance of success. It would be interesting to hear from knowledgeable players what they did when they set out and perhaps it could act as a starting point for putting together some material to help beginners.

Ray

[This message was edited by Ray Shakeshaft on 12 February 2006 at 03:04 PM.]

Gary Anwyl · From: Palo Alto, CA

Regard Ben's comment about the using Cindy Cashdollar Western Swing video for learning 6 string C6 tuning, my experience was that I had very little problem applying it to the 6 string tuning.

Her tuning is ACEGACEG (low to high). It's the same as the 6 string C6 tuning (CEGACE) with the addition of the low A 8th string and high G 1st string.

In the tab the only time she uses the 8th string (the low A) is in a strum. In the 6 string tuning you just omit that note and it sounds almost the same.

She rarely uses 1st string (the high G), but when she does it's easy to adjust it to the 6 string tuning. If it's just a single melody note you can play the corresponding note on the 1st string of your 6 string lap steel (the high E). It'll be moved up 4 frets. In the cases where the tab shows a pair of notes, such as the pair at the 4th fret of the 1st and 2nd string in the intro to "Cold Cold Heart", you can play the corresponding notes on the 2nd and 3rd string of the 6 string tuning (the A and C strings) - in this case it would be up at the 11th fret.

[This message was edited by Gary Anwyl on 12 February 2006 at 05:57 PM.]

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Hmmm...Thanks Gary. I have been meaning to go back thru those videos again. I am sure i was clueless the first time thru (and will probably reman so). So much to do and so little time to do it all in.

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