The Steel Guitar Forum

Sorry for the dissertation. I realize after reading it that most of you would be very disappointed if you ever heard me play my one lick that I can't seem to find the discipline to move past!

I'd be willing to bet that even Buddy Emmons is still noodling around and finding new stuff.

I'm not sure where that leaves me in the food-chain but I have a pretty good idea!

I'm a pretty slow learner.It's taken me three and a half decades to learn some of what that old guy taught Clyde in three and a half days,although in my defense I did misplace my Winnie book there for a while.

Barry,sorry for double post but to the topic I want to say that for me in the beginning the Winnie book was very helpful and I still recommend it to a fairly new player.Don't give up ever.Don't expect too much too soon.This ia very difficult but extremely rewarding instrument ,certainly the most addictive.You are lucky in that via this forum you can learn and seek support and advice from some of the finest players out there such as Mickey Adams,Ricky Davis,and several others that give of their time and knowledge through videos that they post.Take advantage of this as this wasn't available to many of us years ago.Lastly,get out there and play with other musicians.To me there is no better way to speed up learning and build confidence Good luck!

How I learned Pedal Steel:

1. Purchased Fender 1000 from Heart of Texas Music in Temple Texas in 1971.
2. Instruction. My instruction was from Maxie and Jimmy at Heart of Texas Music. The instruction was "open is an E chord, mash those first two pedals and you get an A chord, don't worry about the rest of it"
3. Since then I have been worrying about the rest of it.

Bought a MSA Sidekick in 74 and borrowed some Jeff Newman material which was way over my head. Shortly our little group won a local district talent contest which led us to record at the CBC Radio Studio in Regina. Had two songs to lay down and between songs the little ax would drift out of tune a little and had to re tune. Desperately bought a different Steel after that but I think I could fix the problem now.

Terry

I studied both classical and jazz music theory back in the day. So I can basically pick up any instrument and learn to play. But I play only C6. It sounds like the Nashville E9 style has some techniques to it that might take a teacher to impart.

After I got my Maverick and soon moved up to a s-10 pro Sho Bud, I'd call bands in Dayton, Ohio who played Country music, introduce myself, and tell them I was a steel player. Their initial excitement (this was 1973), the said "sure come om out and play with us". I didn't have an amp and made up a story that it had been stolen. No problem they'd say I'm sure the lead man has an extra one . Come friday night at the gig they were fiendly and helpful. Saturday night they were less friendly. I did this 3 times. It was trial by fire. The heat was worth it.

Mostly using Winnie/Keith book and Scot's Mel Bay along with various forum member's youtube channels. Latley I have been using Ed Baker's Excel files to incorporate theory as I am learning the tunes. Exploratory surgery.

I started out on Dobro doing open A, G and open E bottleneck style tunings. Then I went to lap steel. My first 8 stringer was a Fender 400. I used that for five years as an 8 string c6th non pedal, before I even hooked the pedals up. I began E9th with encouragement from Don E. Curtis, hooked up my pedals, played the bottom 8 strings without the chromatic, and later learned the top 8 strings. Two years ago I got my first 10 stringer. I still warm up in non pedal style with c6th songs throwing my Eflat knee lever, and playing without pedals for 30 minutes. For other E9th styles, these days I could never get along with anything less than 4 x 5; No instructors yet, I have a lot of licks from Dan Dugmore's early days memorized that I can play with my eyes closed. Internet videos have really speeded up the process, I am currently trying to build up more theory and possibly add an instructor.