Who plays but doesn't gig?

Steve English · Post by **Steve English** » 28 Jul 2006 9:58 am

I get benefits from both. At home I learn more, and playing out I get a chance to flub up all the things I thought I learned....which takes me back home...kinda like the movie "Groundhog Day". However, the singer I'm currently backing can sing notes that aren't on my steel guitar, so I'm looking to getting back to the home stuff again

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Bo Borland · Post by **Bo Borland** » 28 Jul 2006 10:06 am

Not that it really matters but, a very well known PSG builder told me that about 90% of the steels he sells are to "bedroom players".
The term should not be considered to be derogatory. The abilities of "bedroom players" range from beginners to very good pro level pickers. Some of them can't tune their steel, some can't hear the cabinet drop, while others can, so they temper the tuning to compensate or get compensators built in or tune straight up and play into tune. Some steel players play very well by ear but don't know theoretically what they are doing, while others are musicians that play steel and do understand what notes or numbers makes up any particular chord and how to substitute one chord for another.
Some only play traditional steel, one lick at a time, others wing it, improvise, and try to push the envelope by playing steel with any style of music.
I happen to like all you steel pickers, like frat brothers, every last one of you, because we all have it in common.

I played steel full-time in bars and clubs from around 1976 to somewhere between 1985 & 1990 when I got a fulltime day job to support my family. After that, I was a bedroom picker until last fall when I decided to gig again. I went out and sat in with a couple local bands to get my name around. Sometimes I play for free or for tips, if I like the band and the music, And as long as my honey doesn't gripe too much I will probably hook up with a local band to gig a few nights a month.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 28 Jul 2006 2:06 pm

When I was playing "regular" guitar and bass I rarely played *at home*. Most of my "practice" was listening to CD's of roughs (for originals) or compilations (for cover-band things) in the car (I do a LOT of driving!), then showing up and playing what I'd heard. The bands rarely rehearsed, but most of us had been playing together in parts for years and could do things intuitively - plus when you gig every week or so you get pretty good at changing gears if someone wants to do a new song. For sessions (mine being all either demos or small-time local stuff) I just showed up and played.

With steel it's weird, because I'm having to learn from scratch and it's darned hard to find the TIME to practice. I honestly don't see how anyone COULD be a "bedroom player" - I don't have that kind of spare time - when I'm gigging the "honeydos" pile up exponentially. I'm just hoping to keep slamming away at steel, and get competent enough to start gigging again...and put my "practice" method back into motion. I HAVE played steel in front of humans a couple of times now, but I personally didn't think I played worth beans...got a long way to go.

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 28 Jul 2006 2:29 pm

I am definitely NOT one of those folks who's never gonna take it out in front of people- I am still working on meeting the right people to take it out WITH. I think my chops are basically adequate now after three years, but I am always learning & working at improving them- I was a live player for years & years (guitar & b@anjo) & you never really lose that, if that's what drives your life- I just took a sabbatical from gigging to take up the steel. Seriously, I am talking to several folks now about live performance situations for the not too distant future-
& working on stuff that I hope at some not-too-far off point I can share with the Forum people. So I'll get there when I get there, I'm neither overawed by the experience of others nor underwhelmed by my own past experiences. Some things just have to feel Right.

Don Powalka · Post by **Don Powalka** » 28 Jul 2006 5:05 pm

I've been closet picking about 10 years now. It's hard when you have a family to be running round playing. I have fun practicing and seeing what kinds of sounds that I can get or how much speed I can get, but it does get old staring the basement walls when I play. I've been doing a bit of sitting in with my friends I played with years ago, and some of us are talking about getting a band going again for fun. I hope we can do it.

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Fender Strat Fender Tele Gibson Les Paul ShoBud U12 Genuine Dobro Washburn B16 banjo for aggravation<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Don Powalka on 28 July 2006 at 06:06 PM.]</p></FONT>

Farris Currie · Post by **Farris Currie** » 29 Jul 2006 7:49 am

OK GUYS
I'm not a pro,but i've been there for 40yrs.plus.
Playing out for a few yrs. then in church for many yrs.
Lots of night hours playing with records Lloyd Green ect.

After 16yrs.being shut in at home,working machine shop and taking care of invalid wife.

I like to uncover steel,pat it and say,I can play you!!!!

I like to get a song in my head,then walk over and play it. ITS fun to know,i can play most any country and gospel song i want to.

BUT the glamor is great,when someone comes up to say come on in.

If they can pick,i hand them a guitar and we play for a spell.

I use to build steels,each pc. hand built.
the last steel i built was a single 10 that i had 1000 hrs.in and it sold for 1000.oo dollars. i said thats it!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would get up at 3 a m to work on that steel because during the day i had to make a living on farm equipment.

STEEL IS FUN,PLAYING,BUILDING ECT. BUT, it to be enjoyable, and not a job for me.

farris

Don Barnhardt · Post by **Don Barnhardt** » 29 Jul 2006 7:24 pm

Playing with a band is the best learning aid there is. There's no better way to tighten up your timing and you're forced to learn more songs and licks than you'll ever do at home in your bedroom or whatever. I like playing in a serious group not just jamming but I don't like smoke, drunks, or having to commit my weekends. So I play in my sunroom that I call my studio and am looking for someone to play with who dosen't like those things either.

Kenny Brown · Post by **Kenny Brown** » 29 Jul 2006 9:09 pm

I started playing pedal steel in March of this year. In May I played my first gig and have had several since. I cannot begin to express the amount I have learned from those experiences playing in front of a live crowd. While I'm no pro and will probably be a "weekend warrior" playing gigs for an uncertain amount of time, the lessons I learned playing publically helped me a lot in my practice time at home(blocking and playing clean comes to mind first).

Another thing that I didnt expect---I've played music in front of people on different instruments since I was 14 and I have NEVER had as much fun as I have had this year playing steel guitar in front of others...

Darrell Prichard · Post by **Darrell Prichard** » 30 Jul 2006 5:04 am

My very first actual "paying" gig was with the MSA. I'd only had it a few weeks but apparently had gotten proficient enough with the I-IV-V changes that a local band asked me to sit in for a wedding party they were playing. I brought along my Fender Rhodes EP and after the gig, they invited me to join them fulltime. I didn't keep the MSA much longer than that and they really were more interested in my keyboard playing but it was the PSG that got my foot in the door playing professionally. And yet to this day, I'm not sure why I didn't continue to play PSG. Playing both keys and PSG would've kept me working 24x7 if I had wanted to.