The Steel Guitar Forum

<SMALL>A couple of steel players continued playing melodic lines right over the fiddle or lead guitar solos.</SMALL>

And the problem with that would be.......?

I agree with the guys who responed who have "been around a while". You bought the same coarses I did. I think every star who put out instructional material, addressed this, and some put out specific instruction for this subject. In fact, I'm looking at Doug Jernigan's Nashville Series "Backing Up The Singer" Vol 1(E9), Vol 2(C6).
I remember the first steel player I played with, David Norris, who was just learning, was well aware of playing and not-playing to compliment my singing. Come to think of it, he taught me how to better phrase my lyrics, to work with his fills. This is very important. I don't know how to explain it, but there comes a point in your experience when you're backing a really good singer, and you intuitively will feel what to play.

I am in a situation where I have just begun playing steel in agroup situation. My general method toward learning steel has been a combination of the Winnie Winston & Scotty books + playing along with records, just as I learned to play guitar.If I can;t figure out what it is from the record, I crack a book & go over my own internal fretboard maps.
I feel that the biggest thing is learning
when to say what's needed and knowing when you don't need to say anything. I have as much fun doing rythmn comps as I do taking lead solos. And a melodic line can be fit in well with a steel without drowning out the vocals, if you are working w/ a volume pedal.
Listening to what's happening in the big picture is more important than just blowing and always was.
When practivcing with records, I always try to envision what the steel part would be- would it be comping, or would it be playing a line?

"Do your tabs, but remember they are just a vehicle to show you how something is played against a chord. The critical thing is that you know is why those notes fit with that chord."

This is completely so. Tabs can only give you the map, but not a bit, really, about HOW the run is played or what kind of attack to give it. All that has to be learned, & once learned, it's a matter of feeling.

This really IS a good thread & there's lot of thoughtful responses here.

This thread, and all the responses, have been very helpful for me and is a great example of why this forum is so valuable. As a newbie, I have been learning entire songs and melody lines, but very little about actually accompanying a band and vocalist. I listen to recordings and songs on the radio, realizing that the steel player is laying back, or putting in nice harmony lines at just the right time, but that's something that has to be learned by doing. Experience is the best teacher, and I'm thinking of trying to find a practice or "jam" band to gain some real world experience. I read a quote from Jeff Newman, where he said something to the effect that the day you buy a steel, you should join a band. I see the wisdom of that now.

Hi James, you are on the right track. It is just as important to learn when to play as how to play. In a four piece band,steel, lead, bass, and drums, I play chord pads when the lead man is playing. In a larger band with rhythm guitar and keyboard, I don't play anything until it is my time. Keep on pickin' and I hope to see you in Dallas. Jody.

When I was learning to play steel there was damn little instruction material. Roy Wiggins published a little book in 1949 that addressed this problem and he said "When backing up a singer do not play all the time he or she is singing. But mostly in between phrases, in vacant spots so to speak. Also do not be practicing new licks." That was good advice then and still is. I've always tried to live by that.

I played steel on a weekend gig about two years ago with a top 40 country band. The guitar player played steel licks constantly from the biginning to the end of every song. He played every lick I knew and then some. When I was motioned to solo, he still played every steel lick he knew, so I laid out. At the end of the gig, the lead singer/ bandleader asked me why I didn't play more. I just shrugged.

I feel there are two ways of approaching my playing. I can try to contribute to the meaning of the song with my playing or I can use the song as an excuse to show how much I can play.
I prefer the former.
Also, It's important that I trust the other lead players to carry the ball if I lay out when they are doing fills or soloing.

<SMALL>I have as much fun doing rythmn comps as I do taking lead solos</SMALL>

Often the comping and background figures are MORE fun than the solos. Most of us who have played outside the traditional country genre, particularly in small combos, have learned how to play piano parts, organ parts, guitar parts, horn section parts, etc. to make the music work. Playing low chord pads and choppy rythmic figures is great practice for the fingers, too, just listen to the space between the notes to make sure that you are supporting and not obscuring the solos and vocals.