The Steel Guitar Forum

My steel playing came in a round about journey through many years of band playing with chromatic harmonicas and an old Gibson acoustic that I used to lay on my lap and use a knife for a slide. I just liked the sound of the slide.

I started playing harmonicas in the late forties and progressed through bass, chord and 280 chromatic harmonicas. This experience with playing the bass, chord and melody was the perfect recipe for what was to come later on in life.

I spotted a D8 steel, volume pedal, and Fender Reverb amp at an elderly couple’s yard sale, all for $50.00 bucks. I got the stuff home and within ten minutes I had it set up and set in to picking out chords and learning how to do bar slants to get as much as I could out of that thing. Most of my day was spent in front of that steel and it would be safe to say that it very quickly became an infatuation. I also found this forum within two hours after buying the steel.

I did my first basement jam within a month after getting the steel and my first stage appearance was in less than three months. Thanks to more than forty years with the lowly harmonica, I had a learned ear for whatever musical experience I would need to learn to play this beautiful machine.

I now jam with a new found friend who has a D10 MSA and to my surprise, the transition from no pedals to pedals was rather easy so, it will be only a matter time before a pedal steel sits in our front room.


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(I am not right all of the time but I sure like to think I am!)

I have been playing since the mid seventies and my advice to you Mike and everyone else is to find $150 and invest in the TASCAM Guitar Trainer CD-GT1. After all these years I can now figure out ANYTHING! Playing it is another story, but this devise
even helps with that because it will loop a phrase that you can practice at four speeds between actual and half speed. I thought it would cut my practice time in half but instead now I practice twice as much.

Likewise, the Amazing Slow Downer is a program you can download in 10 minutes, costs only 45 bucks. It's the best learning tool I ever used.

Besides that find people who are better than you and get them to show you stuff, and start playing out as soon as possible.

I was very lucky. My mother taught Hawaiian steel in the 40s and dad was one of her students at about 18. They married and had me 2 years later. When I was around 9 or 10 mom sat me down with her old square neck box guitar, plastic picks(all three),and number system Oahu music she once taught on.

In 1953 dad boutht a new D 6 Fender and later taught me to play the Jerry Byrd tuning and styles like Jerry, Don Helms, Speedy and others. Dad could get an amazing amount of music out of just 6 strings.

By the time I was 15 I wanted a PSG bad and finally got a Fender 400 6 pedal. Dad and I played on it for a year before we knew how to tune it. We never heard of D 9th. I met Tom Kiley a few times and liked his playing so I called him up and started taking lessons. He got a chuckle out of our tuning and set me up correctly. I owe a lot to Tom. He would give me a 2hr lesson that was supposed to be 30 min.

We didn't have tab. like now days. I spent a lot of time playing records and slowing them down to figure out what they were doing, listening close to figure out how heavy of a string and what fret and pedal. I tried to learn everything on "Buck Owens Sings Harlen Howard"(Mooney) and Jimmy Day "Steel and Strings". I wish I still had the fire and drive and time I had then.

I had been playing 6 string guitar,since I was about 8yrs. old. I started stumbling around with the steel in the mid 70's. Having a guitar background really helped with making some sense out of the steel.But, there sure was a lot I didn't know. Until I met Jeff Newman and went to one ( if not the first ) of his seminars up here in the northeast. The man literally turned the lights on for me about playing the steel.Even though I didn't, and still don't have a playing style like his, he enlightened me in many ways. The finding of soo many places to play the same chord, and the relative minors and sevenths. Not to mention augmented and diminished chords. I probably would have found them, eventually, but the thrill of all this knowledge unfolding at once, was stupendous. So,all in all, I credit Jeff with setting me in the right direction. I still don't sound like anybody great, but, I make myself happy every time I play my steel.

-What a great thread! It's completely inspiring to hear everyone's stories on this-
For myself, I feel all I'll really need- once I have had a lttle time to work out with one- is a volume pedal- I am a few months away from affording what I want- I tried an old used guitar vol ped for a while, but it broke on me- The thing is, I have played guitar for some 38 of my 49 years, and I feel like I am on the cusp of being confident enough to take it out on stage- soon, soon... the other part of my equation is, finding the folks to play with-
I do an AWFUL lot of practicing with stuff off CD's, and it's mostly applying what I was playing on 6 string in the new context. While I have not had a teacher (and I am still open to that, on a minimal basis- I find I best approach learning things by rude trial and error. My general approach is to it as a "super-bender" guitar- and not necc. foramlly stylistic, such as old time western swing players played it, but more lead/vocal accompaniment lines, and blocky rythmns reminiscent of Motown horn riffs. Whatever squeezes into the background of what I am working with, and of course, "less is more."
I worked withthe Winnie WInston Book and the Scotty book some - beofre my Scotty book grew legs and walked away to who knows where- 9gonna get another pretty soon)- I found the diagrams in that very revealing & helpful as to what the pedals & levers do. I have done some experimenting with tuning the top stings so it sounds an open major chord on all ten- and I happen to Like the overtones it gives, so the blocking work I do is really minimal, and mostly centered on the left hand. My goal is to sound as fluid as I usually sound on 6 string, & say what I want to make it say. A lot of that development will come as I reorient myself to the different "map" of the PS fretboard. Needless to say, some things are much easier to figure out (on steel parts from records)- than others!
But- that's only me- there's so many well rounded players on the forum, and everyone, it seems, is someone you can learn SOMETHING from!

I wandered around with various books and videos until I met Billy Cooper. He was able to break things down into understandable and do-able chunks. If it wasn't for Bill, I don't know if I'd be still playing today. Best, -Dave

I fell into what may be a perfect learnign enviroment for a steel player. I took approximately 30 lessons in four days and went directly back to work playing five nights a week and was virtually the only lead instrument in the band. The leader of the group was an excellent singer and probably one of the best rythm players i ever worked with. I progressed on steel, fiddle, and guitar just by playing non stop. it was a great experience that was priceless.

Grew up in northern Michigan. Too remote for (steel) teachers, especially in the '50's. Just put a 45 on the turntable and didn't quit 'till I either learned it or the record gave out ...

Mike, I called you and asked what do I do with this 20 string monster now?