The Steel Guitar Forum

I've heard that one of Ralph Mooney's favorite steel players to listen to was Curly Chalker... Could you imagine if Moon had given up because he didn't sound like Curly???

Jeff Newman never passed up a chance to praise Ralph Mooney.

On second thought, that might have been Don Helms who said that... but either way, the principle is the same.

I wrote a blog post on this subject...

http://guitarplanet-david.blogspot.com/ ... be-me.html

... its titled YOU BE YOU, AND I'LL BE ME

I think a person should consider quitting if they have over 25 of the world's finest steel guitars and don'T make a dime playing any of them and the only income in the family is their wife that works 3 jobs. I actually have met quite a few "steel guitar owners" in that condition. You can always tell a real pro player. He gets a big job offer then starts calling around to see if he can borrow a steel rig. Actually owning one is way down of their list of priorities.

David Mitchell wrote:I think a person should consider quitting if they have over 25 of the world's finest steel guitars and don'T make a dime playing any of them and the only income in the family is their wife that works 3 jobs. I actually have met quite a few "steel guitar owners" in that condition. You can always tell a real pro player. He gets a big job offer then starts calling around to see if he can borrow a steel rig. Actually owning one is way down of their list of priorities.

huh??

Unless someone has ran a music store, pawnshop or recording studio for 20 to 30 years like I have they probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Some people just collect the things with no intention of ever playing them. I had a guy come in the store one day with his 6 or 7 year old girl. I asked him if he needed help and he said no. He said his daughter just liked the looks of guitars. I think that carries on into adult hood. On the other hand I can'T count the times I've loaned instruments to broke professional musicians meaning all they did for a living was play music. I've heard all the excuses. My steel is locked up in a club (That was the famous Tom Morrell the morning of a Tommy Allsup session) I loaned him my old Sho-Bud Pro ll with one knee lever. He played iT wonderful. Allsup never even knew it wasn'T his steel because he showed up later.
Then there's the in the pawnshop plea.
Then there's the "mine's being worked on" reason. I guess they never thought about owning two of them. In relation to the original post about quitting the moral of the story is what is quitting? Not touching a steel anymore with 6 of them packed away in cases in your closet or selling all the music gear you have and not looking back? Or just quitting the music profession as I have but still owning plenty of steels and playing for my personal entertainment. You see there are many musical instrument owners who have never really begun in my opinion. They just own musical instruments. There is better things to quit in my opinion than playing music. It's good for the soul and lots cheaper than jetting around the world wining and dining. That's my opinion. For a beginner it might seem like a high mountain to climb and it is but the view from the top is worth it all.

You can learn basics, but you have to be yourself.

WHAT basics?

There are still so many assumptions that everyone with a pedal steel is playing E9 (with a smattering of C6) and therefore must play the "required"beginner material that's singular in style.

Yet there are many of us who don't play E9 - in my case I tried, didn't get it nor did I like the high pitch of the tuning, so I bailed out and went to a B6 (Sneaky Pete's on a Fender, my own with the help of many like and open-minded types and GFI in working out a 10-string version on a GFI Ultra).

I don't play traditional country. I like material voiced in the same range as 6-string guitar, and what I ended up with is both voice with nice fat tone and was very workable with fairly simple "pocket" playing - few slides and just a few grips with lots of pedal mashing...and primarily single note runs.

The E9 "basics" were of no use to me at all, yet I can still "sound" like a "pedal steel" player to most people when I want to, or sound like what *I* want to sound like and be very happy.

I've found most "quitters" felt they had to fit a specific mold. And for a while that same feeling (and a lot of pressure from veteran players) had me frustrated as hell. It was only when a few folks reminded me that I was playing a musical instrument - not a *style*.

Once the whole "forced-style" concept was shoved aside I was completely free of any limitations but my own incompetence (grin).

But that's what I see repeatedly - players who feel they MUST fit the mold, play a specific style and who panic if they don't play some piece of tab *precisely* as written.

A few words to those on the verge of quitting for whatever reason they *think* is behind the feeling: "lighten up and play what you want - and just get close, you don't have to be a clone of somebody else".

When you start playing just to amuse yourself, you find yourself playing looser with more feeling, dynamics and individuality. Which the pedal steel world desperately needs.

Well said Jim.

I tried to make a deal with the Devil, tried to sell my soul for skill on the pedal steel. I asked, but he replied "Sorry, I don't work that cheap."

Really brought me down.

The reason I play steel is not because I want to sound like certain players, I play steel because I love the instrument and because of how it looks and sounds in country music and how it sounds on the great country records. I want to sound like Brett Day. I know I won't sound like Paul Franklin, Bruce Bouton, Sonny Garrish, Steve Hinson, John Hughey, Dan Dugmore, Teddy Carr, and Mike Johnson, but I've learned a lot by listening to those guys play, and they've all inspired me to play with feeling. One reason I play a Jackson Steel is not only do I love the sound of a Sho-Bud, but because I'm a huge fan of Sho-Bud steels, and the Jackson is similar to a Sho-Bud

Brett Day wrote:The reason I play steel is not because I want to sound like certain players, I play steel because I love the instrument and because of how it looks and sounds in country music and how it sounds on the great country records. I want to sound like Brett Day. I know I won't sound like Paul Franklin, Bruce Bouton, Sonny Garrish, Steve Hinson, John Hughey, Dan Dugmore, Teddy Carr, and Mike Johnson, but I've learned a lot by listening to those guys play, and they've all inspired me to play with feeling. One reason I play a Jackson Steel is not only do I love the sound of a Sho-Bud, but because I'm a huge fan of Sho-Bud steels, and the Jackson is similar to a Sho-Bud

Brett, that is EXACTLY the best reason for playing the steel. You've got it together.

I couldn't give up even if I wanted to--I need the money!

My $.02
I gave up playing steel guitar professionally in 99. I had to make a job change that would would take me away from home 6 months out of the year. I made this change not for myself but for my family to give the quality of life that they deserved. This was one of the hardest things I ever had to do because I dearly love the steel guitar. After a while, it got to where I didn't even practice anymore because I knew it was use. For almost 10 years, my guitar stayed under my bed gathering dust. A couple of years ago I attended a retirement presentation and after the session was over, I realized that my life was about to change and that I would be able to return to playing. I pulled the guitar out and started practicing again everyday since and I think I'm actually better than I was before! I'm now doing sessions again and working with several people.
The moral of my story is like the late Yogi Berra said, it ain't over till it's over. Just because you or I can't play like the legends, we can still play like we play!!
Dale

Herb Steiner wrote:I tried to make a deal with the Devil, tried to sell my soul for skill on the pedal steel. I asked, but he replied "Sorry, I don't work that cheap."

Really brought me down.

good one Herb

I suck at it but I still love the noises I make... because they are my noises....

Larry has been a wonderful mentor and friend! He is always encouraging, supportive, and never misses the chance to point out that being you is a good thing. Love ya, Brother! Oh, and Larry is a monster on the psg, never ceases to amaze me! He could play a sawhorse and sound fantastic.

Although I had to take a eighteen month pause in playing (double knee replacement".
I recently started playing again with some of the top players in New Mexico.
I recently received one of the best compliments ever. A fellow steeler and close friend referred me for this job and asked another band member how I was doing? His reply.
"He plays a different style than you, his own and really sounds good with what he plays"
That didn't sink in until later on and I thanked him humbly.
One thing I can say to newer steelers, keep on practicing because we all put in thousands of hours over our lifetime to watch an audience or dance crowd smile and have a great time.
Larry

Three categories here.
1.Newbie 2.Mediocre and 3.Exceptional
We are helpful, understanding and encouraging to (1) and go absolutely bonkers waiting for any post or thread hanging on every word from (3) all the while making (2) want to quit!

Such optimism !!
But Stuart, you left out a group, and probably the largest group of all.
That would be the group of somewhat accomplished players, who play mostly for the fun of it. These folks are most always ready to lend a hand to "newbies", know they will never get wealthy playing the steel, and know they will never be as "good" as Buddy Emmons. But they can try can't they? Something to aspire to?
Generally, this group tends to not take itself too seriously. It is after all, supposed to be fun. Right?
No fun ? - there are other hobbies.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

I know where I fit when I was a young full-time professional musician, a mid-life professional with a pretty good day job that allowed me to work musically as well, and now a semi-retired professional with great latitude in the choices I can make in my life.

Where do y'all sit, individually?

Herb Steiner wrote:...now a semi-retired professional with great latitude in the choices I can make in my life.

Where do y'all sit, individually?

Every time I play with a great band who doesn't play too loud, I'm reminded of how much I love playing. And, every time I play with a loud-ass band, I'm reminded of how much I hate doing it. Pop music has changed much since I entered the fray. Back then, there were musicians and singers, and mostly a really varied array of music and styles that was popular. Nowadays, musicians are, for the most part, faceless providers of background for what are more "performers" than they are singers. The star's emphasis is on looks and sex appeal, and all the music part (including the vast majority of songwriting) is homogenized, over-processed, and totally lacking in originality and scope.

Say what you want about Price, Tubb, Owens, Pride, Pierce, Nelson, Jones, Robbins, Cash, and most all of the chart makers from the '60s, none of them sounded alike, even remotely. It was all fresh, unique, and individual. Guess that's why I don't care for much of today's music, and it's probably the reason I don't play much anymore. This ain't Texas, and venues that foster classic country music (or classic rock, for that matter) are all about gone. I feel that most young people today (those music addicts that go everywhere with 'buds stuck in their ears) likely don't have any idea what good music is.

There had been two separate times in my life where I really had to set playing aside, just due to working way too much, and trying to be a respectable producive member of society and all that. But I got really strange in my head from not playing music. I have long had a severe allergic reaction to television and similar, sometimes-benign trashcans of time, TV in particular is like an anti-music monster eating my friend's brains. If I'd known then what I know now, it was that "respectable, productive" foolishness I should've given up on instead.

At first I thought the OP was serious, but I saw it was a tease, and I agree with every word he wrote and its rightfulness.

That "respectable, productive" foolishness that Mason mentioned may come in Maslow's strata of self-esteem--we want to do what's 'right' for others and is reflected by them. Maslo's hierarchy represents what's needed from bottom-up; self-actualization could be said to be the apex, as necessary to human development as basic needs, but arriving after more fundamental needs have been met--food, shelter, community, etc.

We are shaped by the fundamental meeting of basic needs: was there music? What kind? Was there encouragement?
Were you a star in the family band or a sideman? Respectability and productivity definitely are assets in learning to accompany others.

Therefore, it's illogical to think we would naturally gravitate to other styles, as I couldn't get here by other than the path I took.
It would also be naturally impossible that I not copy, imitate, and emulate musicians I heard.

But I'd like to hear what Mr. Emmons--being capable of thoughtful response--would have said about transcendence.
This could have as easily been said about him:

In his later years, Maslow explored a further dimension of needs, while criticizing his own vision on self-actualization. [The self only finds its actualization in giving itself to some higher goal outside oneself, in altruism and spirituality.]

Self, its existence and efficacy, are debatable terms these days in a new paradigm [so much so that the Wikiauthor added
his own editorial statement regarding self and its place, maybe erroneously so, but that's just my editorial opinion].
The invisible self is a reflection of higher goals if others, rather than part of the structure of self in prior paradigms.

Emmons moved on and continued to play more and more like himself, whatever that may be, as time went along.
(Not to mention develop an interest in Eastern philosophy and exposure and thoughts to, say, the potential of broadening this concept of self.)
There was always less and less of others and their wants, having met those needs, and more like nobody else.
Self-actualization is the fact of understanding the path we took to get here.

You can't play like anyone else no matter who you are!

I'll bet Herb plays more like himself now than ever, knowing where he fit when he was younger. There are others.
As for me--o! to have taken that path! There was so much else to do,
but always there was music itself--I just never quit playing (until this moment in time, but never for wanting to play
like someone else, there's still so much left to say.

Only when I transcend what I thought I was can I play like who I am.

As for me--o! to have taken that path!

That path is not an easy road, and it's a lonely path, but yet yes, it's worth it when it "happens".

But I got really strange in my head from not playing music.

Ouch! I hear you Dave. I've been down from playing for over a year now due to shoulder surgery and complications. Strange is right! It's like not being able to communicate! Not being able to speak.
This thread has really taken a turn to the existential.
Thats a beautiful thing, IMHOP.