The Steel Guitar Forum

When I play with my chamber music trio, I give a 30 second lecture and demonstration as part of the performance, in which I explain that it's a steel guitar because it's played with a steel bar, and it's a pedal steel guitar because of the pedals.

I also announce that there will be a Q and A session after the concert.

Mike, that's a great idea. It would be something every steel player should be doing if circumstances allow it.

I build them and show my card to lots of people. I give them the same explanation as you do. I emphasize the name - Pedal Steel Guitar.

Last week in Virginia no one asked what it was. They all seemed to have known it was a PSG, so I didn't get to use my favorite:

"It's a mandolin"... Then for the usual reply: "No it's not...that's not a mandolin".

"Sure it is...folks used these in their kitchen and it sliced their vegetables perfectly even every single time".

I'd better change that culinary joke routine. Should someone pull a tomato out and ask for a demonstration, things could get messy.

Bent, the chamber music trio usually plays for the classical music lovers who have never seen or heard a steel before. The whole point is to introduce them to our instrument.

Horizontal pitch approximator

I've had my fair share of "what is that" questions and some of them have been pretty funny. But, you know, I respect the people who ask because they really want to know what it is. To them it's a fascinating instrument with a beautiful sound (Well, maybe not so much when I play it.)

Anyway, I don't give them a cynical, disrespectful, smart-ass answer. Instead, I look 'em in the eye and tell them it's a "pedal steel guitar". Then I explain that the knee levers and foot pedals raise or lower the pitch of the strings, after which I play a short example. You know what? They appreciate it.

No big long explanation. Does it take a minute or two away from my precious break time? Yeah. Whoopee. So what. I do it anyway.

Wow, These are all great comebacks, Its nice to see you all have a good sense of humor. I really like showing people what it can do, Its kinda like a magic trick to most folks. Thanks for the replies and keep them coming.

I just baffle them on the fly, and tell them my real job is a Porcelain Engineer.

I call it an electrified starvation box.

I find if I just moan and twitch a little, they usually move along. Sometimes a bit of drooling helps.

Here in Scotland it is often referred to as a knitting machine.

Not to topic-drift this vital issue and all it's vital ramifications, but:

Do Scottish steel players wear kilts? You might not have to call it anything at all... just throb at 'em.

I had one guy say " man, that must be one of those new Internet guitars"

Just say that you're doing some light factory work, and the guys in the band are letting you do it on stage.

Around Christmas one year, a woman who was a regular in the audience gave everyone a little broach pin that was a miniature of the instrument that they played. You all know she gave me a little piano tie pin. She said she just loved my piano playing.

Swear this is true .i have been told at a couple of gigs through the years , that while sitting at my Steel playing my little butt of all night with all that sweet Steel guitar stuff.and at the end of the night a lady comes up to me and said . [ You know your the best KEY-BOARD player thats been in this area in a long time.] what do you say.

I cannot remember a time when I didn't know what a pedal steel was, even as a child in the 50s.
Some people will just remain completely ignorant of musical instruments all their lives.

But the steel guitar isn't alone in this respect: when I tell people that I play the lute, about half of them think it's a wind instrument

Okay, folks, if you can't understand why everyone doesn't recognise your instrument immediately, what is a sackbutt?

the rear end of a sack?

Alan:
So a Sackbutt is an earlier version of a trombone, no?
And you play lute? Dang, I'm impressed!
There's another thread about "what do you play":
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ight=sitar
Yup, a guy told me I play a great sitar.
Me n Ravi used to jam, y'know.............

I have a steel guitar lapel pin and when my late grandma saw it asked why I would wear a toaster on my shirt?
Terry

The "punch palaces" I played in? Everyone knew what it was, except for little kids. I can't recall ever being asked what it was.

Yes Daniel, the Sackbutt was an early trombone.
I'm sure Mike knew that, too; he was just being facetious.

And yes, I play the lute and many other mediaeval instruments which I build.



But I've made my point. We worry about people not recognising our instruments, but we ourselves don't recognise many others.
Isn't that a case of "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"?

A couple of years ago while i was playing a lady came up to me ( between songs ) and asked me what I was playing. I told her a pedal steel guitar , and began to tell her how the pedals pull and released strings to make changes in the tone of the notes. She got down on her knees and was looking up under my guitar when the band leader saw her and asked what was she doing, to which she replied. *I'm checking out his equiptment.* Boy , did we have fun with that.

Alan Brookes wrote:Isn't that a case of "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"?

Alan did you mistakingly mean:
"He who lives in glass house should not cast stones"
Just saying thats probably what you meant.

By the way , right before I want kill somebody I think of your statement that Jesus spoke to the angry men with rocks in there hands and Those words are very comforting, Thanks Alan

Praise Jesus

I never get tired of people asking me what a pedal steel guitar is. One time, a worker at my dentist's office asked me, "You play slide guitar, right?" and I said "No, actually I play the steel guitar", then I had to explain to her that slide guitar and steel guitar are not played the same way. I explained to her that playing steel guitar is different from electric guitar because the picks go on the thumb and fingers and the steel bar is where the steel guitar got its name from and you pick instead of strum. She was amazed after I explained it to her. I've heard some people ask me, "the steel guitar, is that a piano with strings"? As a kid, before my aunt explained to me that it's a steel guitar, I thought it was a table with strings.

I've always lucked out, most of the time if Folks ask Me what it is I'm playing (especially if They don't listen to country) I just tell Em its a pedal steel
Then when They look at Me with that dazed confused look I try to explain the best I can , or I just ask if they've ever heard any Buck Owens AT ALL... Then I say this is what lends the "crying" to crying in Your beer I hate the expression but it seems to satisfy Their curiosity.

A lot of people think that a Steel Guitar is a guitar with steel strings, as opposed to a guitar with nylon strings.

And yes, Craig, I was quoting from the Bible, but "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" means the same thing.

In the 1880s there was an African chief who was very impressed with the way European royal courts were fitted out, so he ordered a throne to the same design as that of Queen Victoria. After many months it arrived from Europe, but it was not very comfortable. He had plenty of money, so he ordered another, and stowed the old one in his loft. This, too, failed to come up to his expectations, so he ordered a third throne, and put the second in the loft together with the first. Over the years, he tried and rejected many thrones as not being up to the standard he was expecting, until, one day, his ceiling collapsed under the weight of all those thrones. From this unfortunate event was derived the famous saying:- "People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones."