The Steel Guitar Forum

Floyd, the problem with classical music is that the of the instruments used are foreign to our American ears.

Several years ago I forced a 20 something year old rock guitarist to listen to Mozart's Eine Kline Nacthmusik, played on guitars instead pf the original instruments. To the kid's surprise, he really liked it. He HAD to hear it played on guitars.

But if you can get past the foreign sounds of the symphony prchestra, you'll see that this music is a treasure trove of great stuff, just waiting for a steel guitarist to adapt it to our instrument.

I got into this because I heard a piece by Ckaude Debussy, liked it, and decided to try to play it, and things just took off from there.

Check out this short waltz by Brahms. It's almost taylor made for the steel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

Martin Yeomans wrote:Not to mention the multitude of times the BIG E stepped away from country to show the versatility of this amazing instrument.

Funny, but I've never really associated Emmons with country. Obviously he did a lot of it because that's where the work was in the early part of his career.
But like you, I've always thought of him as an "all styles" player determined to show what else the instrument can do.

Oh...How’s about the woman that called Pedal Steel a “musical toy” sitting down behind one and seeing how she gets along!

She passed way. Before I learned this, I had a fantasy that I'd show up at her house with a steel and some instruction material, and offer her 2 million dollars if she could play Mary Had A Little Lamb in a week.

I had intended to send her Melinda Rózsahegyi's wonderful video, and ask her how it feels to be in the same league as the people who told Columbus the world was flat and the Wright Brothers that they would never e able to build a machine that could fly.

Here's Melinda's video. I think it's the best steel guitar video I've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDJ4toU ... e=emb_logo

There are times I wish the Forum had a "like" or a "thanks" button.
This is one of them!

I am a listener of classical and pop opera. Love it. I never really tried to play it. Never really had the time to explore it. I am trying to learn, Ave Maria. Beautiful song. I got it about half figured out. Anyone out there tab it out? I remember years ago when my oldest daughter was in High School Choir. Her director asked if anyone in their household played music. She told the director that her dad was a Pedal Steel Guitar player. He made fun of it basically. Did not consider it a actual musical instrument. Had a hard time talking to him face to face at parent teacher conference!!!

Mike , I seen that video of Melinda a couple years back. I truly enjoyed it.

Dave Hopping wrote:There are times I wish the Forum had a "like" or a "thanks" button.
This is one of them!

Dave, did you see this notice? If you have Win 10 there is a thumbs up symbol, an OK symbol etc. for that kind of reply. Look at the PEOPLE category when the page comes up.

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... ght=emojis

examples: 👌👏👍

Mike, I believe you posted that video link earlier or someone else....I enjoyed it then and again now. Thanks for putting it up again.

Kevin Fix wrote: I am trying to learn, Ave Maria. Beautiful song.... Anyone out there tab it out?

At the risk of offending some of you, I say this is the wrong way to learn new material. Tab is good for beginners, but once you know your way around the steel, the reliance on it is keeping it isolated from the rest of the musical world. If you want to play this or any other piece of music, get the sheet music and learn how to read it.

There is sheet music available for millions of pieces of music, in every style and genre.

Players of almost every other instrument know how to read music, This refusal to learn how to read it and insistence on using tab, is IMHO just plain dumb, and us hurting every one of us. It gives ammunition to those who say the steel is not a legitimate instrument.

I have written a short article on how to read music on the E9 neck. I will send this for free to anybody who requests it. Send me an E-mail, NOT a PM, and I’ll attach the file to the reply.

My method is not quick or easy, It requires some serious studying and effort. But it works. If you learn what’s in the article, you won’t be able to just look at a piece of sheet music and instantly play it, but you will be able to figure it out.

Non-country? There's my "Little Pieces" CD with my chamber group Otto, from 15 yrs. ago. Does Satie, Zappa, David Byrne, Brian Wilson, Faure, Piazzola and Shostakovich qualify as "non-country"? Since then, I've been recording stuff by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hammerstein, David Bowie, Beatles, Culture Club, etc. etc. Just yer run-of -the-mill steel repertoire.....

Jim, please forgive me for the oversight. Otto is a terrific CD, and it inspired me to learn the Pavane by Gabriel Fairé that you played.

All you people in forumland, this CD belongs in all your collections.

Mike Perlowin wrote:Players of almost every other instrument know how to read music, This refusal to learn how to read it and insistence on using tab, is IMHO just plain dumb, and us hurting every one of us. It gives ammunition to those who say the steel is not a legitimate instrument.

I have written a short article on how to read music on the E9 neck. I will send this for free to anybody who requests it. Send me an E-mail, NOT a PM, and I’ll attach the file to the reply.

I know from first-hand experience why it is necessary to move on from using tab, but I don't understand how it is reasonable to expect steel players to play off sheet music. Unless you have an extremely quick mind, translating what you see on the sheet music to the tuning of your neck while simultaneously judging how to make it sound graceful instead of just plunking strings seems awfully demanding.

Thanks, Mike. The main problem with reading music on steel is that you have to look at your hands so much. That said, I've gotten around that some by figuring out how to stay on one fret as long as possible. Between 10 strings and a bunch of pitch alterations, you have a lot of notes there, with a range of an octave and a seventh; almost 2 full octaves, and almost fully chromatic. The only thing I'd have to move my bar for would be if I were, say, in C at the 8th fret and there was a written F#. Since I don't lower 5 or 10 a half-step, I'd have to move the bar one fret. I might chance a blind move of only one fret.

Curt Trisko wrote:

Mike Perlowin wrote:Players of almost every other instrument know how to read music, This refusal to learn how to read it and insistence on using tab, is IMHO just plain dumb, and us hurting every one of us. It gives ammunition to those who say the steel is not a legitimate instrument.

I have written a short article on how to read music on the E9 neck. I will send this for free to anybody who requests it. Send me an E-mail, NOT a PM, and I’ll attach the file to the reply.

I know from first-hand experience why it is necessary to move on from using tab, but I don't understand how it is reasonable to expect steel players to play off sheet music. Unless you have an extremely quick mind, translating what you see on the sheet music to the tuning of your neck while simultaneously judging how to make it sound graceful instead of just plunking strings seems awfully demanding.

I don’t know that Mike is insisting on sight-reading. Nobody sight reads tab, do they? But knowing how to read standard notation at least on a basic level and be able to transfer it to pedal steel is a worthy skill. In fact, tab without standard notation stems for note duration is pretty useless to me, unless I kinda know the piece. Without the confines of tablature, the player who is attempting to read standard notation is left with the freedom to add whatever “steelisms” he wants, after learning the basics of the musical idea on the written page.

In defense of tab, I am pretty sure getting started on pedal steel would have been infinitely more difficult for me without it.

I don't think anybody can sight read on the steel. But we should be able to look at a piece of sheet music and figure out how to play it. IMHO, the fact that so many players can't do that is holding the steel back.

Once again, I'll send my article on how to read music on the E9 neck for free to anybody who requests it.

Please send all requests via E-mail, and not in a PM.