ok guys lets help out the newbies

[Calvin Walley]

this is off topic but
i did it again ,
i just did another youtube thing
i played another bridge to burn for the first time sunday morning put it on you tube tonight
and yea its lousy haha

but it is a good example of a 3 chord song

[Jerry Grant]

Hi Calvin,
Since I have scolded you somewhat in my other post, being the kind of person I am, I will now commend you for your efforts. It is sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees. I know your intensions are in the right place for wanting to help others along, namely folks like me. But we must be careful not to place ourselves above those we want to help.
And you are right about me - I don't have the courage, or knowhow, to post on youtube. I play psg only for my own enjoyment. But I have played in public - many, many years ago so I know what the jitters are. Keep on keeping on with it. Just remember - if it were easy, everyone would be playing.

Jerry Grant

[Calvin Walley]

Jerry

don't worry about it , i have the toughest
skin of just about anyone on the forum haha

[Bill OCallaghan]

to all the new guys

one of the hardest things i had to learn
was to stop worrying about all the tech. stuff
and just play the dang thing

when i was just about to give up
i got Jeffs sound tracks ( honky tonk heros )
found a few 3 chord songs, turned on the tracks
and just fought thru them
that first week it sounded like hell
but it (I) improved fast so..
(1) find a 3 chord song
(2) learn where all the places you can play them
(3) play them using all 3 picks till you can play them in time ..meaning 10,8 6 or 654 or 543
(4) play it only using 1 or 2 strings

one other thing:

its not how many chords you know ..
its how well you can play just a few

because you can make some really beautiful
music with just 3 chords

Thanks Calvin, this is the kind of encouragement us newbies need!

Thanks to all for this thread, it has been helpful.

Bill

[Calvin Walley]

thanks Bill

now i just wish i could do it
on my youtube thing without shaking haha
i am mortified when i turn that camera on

[Chris LeDrew]

Listen to the masters and prepare yourself for many, many years trying to close the gap between you and them. You will probably never get that close, but it's like lifting weights. Use that resistance to challenge you. There is nothing easy about the pedal steel, least of all how to emote on it. Only after years of practice can one apply method as a matter of course and truly communicate emotion with the pedal steel. I am in awe of the ground-breaking and torch-carrying players of this instrument, and at almost a decade into playing still consider myself a speck on the thumb pick of Buddy Emmons, Lloyd Green and the late great John Hughey.

I applaud your efforts at sparking a thread at helping beginners, Calvin. But I have to say that 3 years on pedal steel is akin to about 6 months on a 6-string guitar, unless there's an 8-hour a day practice regimen in place, 7 days a week. I'm not even talking technical prowess, which any robot can produce. I mean really touching people's emotions and moving them, like only the great players can.

[John Richmond]

Good thread here, Calvin.
Whether we are newbies, oldbies, or in between, it seems we are all trying to learn a tough but beautiful sounding instrument. Some of us learn quicker than others, but that's ok.
When I started playing pedal steel, I took someone's advice and plugged straight in to the amp and played without a volume pedal. The tendency for me as a newbie was to try to cover up my mistakes by backing off the volume pedal. It's hard enough to pluck the right strings while worrying about a bunch of floor pedals, knee levers, AND a volume pedal. In that great book by Winnie Winston and Bill Keith, they compared the volume pedal to the accelerator foot-feed on a car, which was and is a helpful concept.
I think that you mentioned string breakage on another thread, Calvin. I know that I used to break a lot of .011 G# strings because I used to stomp a little hard when I mashed that pedal. I don't know if it was nervousness or trying to "play with authority" or what it was, but I broke a bunch of them. I try to "featherfoot" that pedal, which seems to get better "mileage" out of that high string. Another gas pedal analogy, but it seemed to help me.
Another concept I found useful was, "let the singer sing," or "when the singer opens up his/her mouth, be quiet." According to guitar hero James Burton, what you don't play is as important as what you do play, if not more so.
For what it's worth, I think we can all learn something even if it's from a relatively new member of this great Forum, whether your hero is Norman Hamlet or Donna Hammitt. In many ways I still feel like a newbie, even though I have been at it several years now.

[Steve Hamill]

Thanks for the thread Calvin. As a newbie, I understand exactly what you were trying to illicit from your thread. Simple tricks of the trade that increase ones overall enjoyment of the instrument. I play for fun. I started playing PSG this year at the age of 50.
Sometimes I just want to play a simple song. Other times , I want to work on scales,or figuring out the mysteries of keeping it in tune, or maintenance. Mostly, I just want to relax, have fun, and feel the music.

[Calvin Walley]

thanks Steve

you nailed it

[Mitch Ellis]

One peice of advice I would like to offer to the new player (Brand new) concerns the volume petal. As a new player, it's very easy to over-work the volume petal without realizing it. This was the second problem I had to overcome. Here's how I delt with it, and maybe it will help someone else. As you practice, try to keep your volume petal foot perfectly still. After it feels comfortable, you should then be able to "work" it without "pumping" it.
The first problem I had to overcome was intimidation. All of those petals and knee levers scared me. I thought that I had to use all of them to play a song. But you don't. You can play alot of songs with just one petal and one knee lever. Take it one petal and one knee lever at a time. After you get comfortable with petal "A" (raises string 5 and 10 on my steel), add petal "B" (raises string 3 and 6 on my steel). Then add the knee lever that lowers string 4 and 8. If your knee lever lowers only the 8th string, as some do, that's ok. You can play countless songs with just those two petals and that one knee lever. Maybe not the way Buddy Emmons did, but you can still play them. Hang in there. It will get frustrating, but hang in there. Like Mr. John Hughey told me when I first started..." Just keep on playing and one day it'll all start to make sense." He was right.
Mitch

[Richard Sinkler]

watching for the patterns as they play and stop worrying about
things like ...if i flatten this string it will make it a whatever.. who cares!!! if it sounds good play it
you can learn what it is later

Actually, this is one of the things you should learn as a newbie. This is one of the key building blocks of learning to play melodies. Learning to HEAR what is happening is one key to successfully learning the instrument. Just learning what frets you can find chords at is not going to make you a good melody player. You need to find the stuff in between those frets that make the melody jump out. One of the best things about John Hughey's playing was the stuff he played moving from one chord to another or moving to the same chord in another position.

When I play, I am very conscious of the effect (sound) that a pedal or knee lever will give me at any particular time. This is how I am able to play with people and play a song I have never played before and have a good chance of being able to take a solo and having it sound good.

One last thing. Remember that us "experienced" players DO NOT have an OBLIGATION to help new players. We do it because of our love for the instrument and to see new players come in to carry the instrument on in the future. If a new player doesn't want to listen because it is too technical, then maybe that player is not serious about learning. Take the time to learn the theory behind what he is saying. Music is a very technical subject and the steel guitar is a very technical instrument.

[Chris LeDrew]

Well said, Richard. Pedal steel is an instrument that naturally lends itself to theory. Even experienced players who do not read usually have an innate knowledge of the way chord patterns work. I know personally that my knowledge of theory has helped me tremendously in learning the pedal steel. It is the perfect platform for it. Trying to learn steel without theory is like neglecting your legs in a full body workout.

[James Morehead]

Well said Richard and Chris. I think in the beginning, some really are scratching and clawing to grasp SOMETHING to help them connect to the instrument, and progress from there, meaning you can absorb only so much, so fast. I think this is alot of what Calvin is trying to say.

[Tony Prior]

never mind...

[Dean Salisbury]

I am a newbie to the steel guitar. However, I am not new to music! The steel guitar is really no different then any other instrument. Only difference to me is:

They come in different sizes! what I mean is 6 string, 8 string, 10 string, pedal and non-pedal, and can be tuned to many different tunings!

This is what I am doing from my knowledge of the other instruments that I can play like Piano/keyboard; trumpet; sax; and, standard guitar.

First of all and you all know this is tune your guitar in whatever tuning your going to start. At the moment I play a 6 string non pedal guitar and I started off in the tuning of C6 now after a month I have changed tunings to A6 and I have purchased an 8 string but haven't got it yet, hopefully next week.

The first month I purchased several different instructional course as I knew nothing about the steel. I spoke to many people who I found out who was selling courses personally! My first material I purchased was GeorgeBoards course. Thats when I learned that his material was in C6 tuning. I did have a major problem starting out with his course in that one of the DVD's stuck inside the envelope that I received his material. After a few complaints being I thought his course was incomplete. George finally made a comment to me that everything was clear in his #1 DVD. so I started looking and I didn't see a #1 DVD, so I just happen to see the envelope and looked in it and WALLA there was the #1 dvd. What a world of difference. That was what I needed that particular DVD to answer many of my questions.

So for about 3-4 weeks I played and went thru his dvd's. I quickly learned all the major and minor chords and even though my speed was not up with the songs I was playing with. I could play several songs with my back ground it wasn't too hard.

So my first suggestion is learn the chords. what I do is pick a favorite song that I want to learn how to play. In GeorgeBoards course he had Sleep Walk which was always one of my favorites and one that I played on my standard guitar. So that was my first song and he had background music to it as well.

So I learned the chords that he used and began practicing it along with the back ground music.

Being totally new to a steel, there was no way that I could play up at first the speed that the back ground music was played. So luckily, I have slow downer this is a program that slows the music down and usually don't change the pitch, if the pitch does change you have a pitch control where you can adjust the pitch.

So I slowed the music down and began playing along with the song. As I got better in knowing exactly where the chords were and my hand/eyes got better in seeing and going where I needed to go, I increased the speed, etc. First learning nothing more then the chords of the song.

My next step was to learn the picking. Again I went back to slowdowner and slowed up the music and played along with the recording and it wasn't long that I was able to play it not great but good!

When I am learning a new song. Even with the other instruments I play. The first thing I do is take it by pieces. I record the song in pieces. First I record only the introduction, the the first verse, the second, the turn around, etc. All separately.

I then start to write or tab each section. I learn one section or piece at a time. For example, I will first learn the Intro, when I have that down, I go to the 1st verse and learn that, then I go back and play both the intro thru the 1st verse. Then I move on to the 2nd verse, once I know that then I go thru the intro thru the 2nd verse, and continue from there.

This is what I do! Is it the best way to learn. I have no clue, but this method has always worked for me through out the years so it is just what I do.

No theory needed to learn how to play a song!
1. Tune your guitar;
2. pick a song that you like but also have a recording of the song that you can play along with. 3. Break the song down into parts, I record the different parts by themselves. This way I can just loop the part that Im trying to learn. This way I don't spend all my time in reversing it or trying to find exactly the part Im trying to learn;
4. I write or tab out the part Im trying to learn.
5. Then I play and learn the chords of that part first. Once I know the chords and can play it then I move on to the next step.
6. I then begin to pick as well, once I can play the
piece like the recording lets say Im working on the Intro, when I am able to play it as good as I can, but when I have that memorized then I will go on
7. I'll move to the first verse and do the same thing as I did with the Intro. Once I know the first verse I then start from the Intro and go clear thru it and the 1st verse and on and on and on!

As Im going thru this process I am also listening to all the chord changes learning one step of the song at a time, then it becomes natural to hear the chord changes.

I do more things in learning a song then I would expect most people do. Like I write or tab it all out first in sections that Im going to be learning. There are probably a 100 ways of learning quicker, but this is just the way that I've always done it, because that is the way my grandmother taught me how to play the piano so I guess being it worked for me I just continued that same process.


A lot of people have brought up "keys" The only thing that I remember is my grandmother in teaching me the many different keys is that singers and their voices could sing in one key better then they could in another. So she explained to me it is important once you learn a song, to learn to play it in a few other keys, so that if you are playing with a singer that you could play in the same key that the singer could sing in. However, unless your are playing in a group/band or you have a singer singing along with you. You don't have to worry about being able to play in a certain key. Play it in the manner the music that the particular song is being played and in that particular key! Its not important right away! So at first don't worry about the particular key the song is being played in!

So Im not going to discuss "key" other then to say there is 12 different keys but you will not have to learn even though in time you should try, but to start off you know have to know all the keys that a song could be played in!

Take it one song at a time! As you move from one song at a time, you will learn new chords with each song as well.

Another good course I purchased was from rick Alexander. Only problem here was his material was in A6 tuning! So in the past week I've been going through his material, but not really playing being I am waiting from my 8 string to arrive. I've been working on learning the chords a little while I'm waiting. by the time I get my 8 string I should know the major and minor chords and then will have to start all over in the learning process because of course the chords from C6 will be differently played in A6!


Dean from NY

[Tony Prior]

Dean, the good news is by learning the chord chart you are applying basic theory ! Then you applied it to your Instrument and understood what you were playing.

Basic theory on display and in action !

As soon as you picked up your pencil to write a chord chart ..guess what .....

great post

[James Sission]

I can only tell you how I learned steel. Of course there might have been a better way, but basically this is what I did. This post is intended to give insight on how I, a newbie to the steel, went about learning for the first couple of years. I am still learning and my post is in no way intended to suggest that my way is the best or that it is the only way to learn. I am just conveying what worked for me and opened a lot of doors for me.

1. Learned the chords as John Fabian Demonstrates on the video on his website.
2. Learned the 2 major scales that Joe Wright teaches on the Carter Starter Video
3. Studied “Up from the Top” by Jeff Newman.
4. Put those lessons to practical use with Herb Steiner’s tabs and learned why he did what he did on each song. Basically, I analyzed his scale usage to figure out how to apply those scales to other songs in other keys.
5. Live lesson on intonation and tuning with Ricky Davis. Worth EVERY penny.
6. Taken the advice of Paul Franklin, Don Brown, Tony Prior, Bobby Bowman, Jody Cameron and Jody Saunders and many many other awesome players that post here on this forum. There is a wealth of information right here if one wants to take instead of fighting it.


I had a fair theory background before I messed with the steel at all. I learned most of it from a 6 string teacher. I have only been playing since Aug. of 2005, but I missed about 6 months of practice while I concentrated on learning modal theory applied to the 6 string. I did that because I felt it would make be a better musician and better steel player. I realized learning “patterns or boxes” and not learning theory on 6 string was a HUGE mistake. It was effective for learning to play songs, but not for learning to play music, and there is a big difference. So after 2 ½ years, I can play some steel. I am not a great steel player and never will be. All I wanted to do was to be able to play in a band one time, and I made that come true about a year into playing the steel. I get performance anxiety, but I managed to play. It gets a little easier each time, though I still can’t eat before I play in public, it makes me sick to my stomach. So this was my method, and here is the result, you judge….James

www.myspace.com/boothillbandlive

[Kent Thompson]

I can remember years ago, Johnny Cash was asked if he ever studied music, music theory, if he could read music and his reply was: "...NO not most of my life anyway over the years I learned here or there or something to that effect! as far as theory goes again his reply was NO! Some of the old big recording artists where show some chords and whatever and 1, 2, 3, they caught on and wound up to be some of the great artists.

Remember guys some of the best artists that we admire learned to play by ear. "This is known as true God givin talent" not taking away from the music theory at all,but if you have never taken theory and have learned everything by ear then it's harder to learn the more mechanical way.

[Dean Salisbury]

The fact of the matter is beginners don't have a chord chart, most anyway. Furthermore, most don't even look at the chord to find out which notes make up that particular chord! All most want to do is play a song they could careless about what a chord is, what notes are in a particular chord.

A beginner just want to play. They could care less about theory. If your not going to be playing professionally or with others and if your going to just be playing for your own enjoyment THEORY really isn't necessary! The problem those that know theory make it too complicated for a true beginner. I hate to say it but most of the old pros that are now known as some of the great players NEVER KNEW THEORY, many will even say they couldn't read music or tabs. Over the years they would up knowing a little theory but never knew it was in fact theory.

Ya learn what you got to know at the time and as a person spends more time he/she will learn more even if it is a chord or note at a time.

The thread is to help the newbie! There are many different college courses and it cannot be all learned over night or everyone would know it! Why make playing music complicated?

If people had to know theory to play any instrument, 98% of the people would just say thats not for me and would not even bother to play any instrument.

Is theory important and a MUST in order to play any instrument? OF COURSE NOT! Does knowing theory help? of course in certain circumstances, but it is not a must nor is it mandatory.

Why was my grandmother successful in teaching piano. There were a number of reasons. First she didn't start off having students learn and play scales all day long day after day, week after week, month after month. She didn't have her students play the same old boring practice lessons all day long day after day, week after week, month after month.

She was successful because she started her students with learning by playing their favorite songs. Her lessons were put together from those songs that the student(s) wanted to learn. You learned the notes and the chords from that favorite song. One song at a time as you progressed you felt a great accomplishment because you could play a song of which most were an up to date song of the times, songs that others listened to on the radio or TV.

As you were learning your favorite song, you learned what you had to know. She would teach you a little of the theory that was involved concerning that particular song and as you learned more songs you learned more notes, more chords, a little more about theory. But the main thing with her method YOU WERE HAVING FUN and enjoying learning. After a couple dozen songs or so things then started to make a little more sense. Of which none would make sense from day one, but a lot of boring stuff that you didn't need from square one!

The majority of people who want to learn how to play could care less and don't understand why they have to learn this or that, they just want to have fun if they cannot have fun and learn songs right away its good bye for them.

Many would say thats fine forget about music and go on to something else. A real good attitude I would say for so many just to make things more difficult then really what it is to learn how to play an instrument just to have fun.

I don't bring this up to many times. Because it is no ones business but mine. However, in the past 5 years I have purchased over 2 dozen and now you all can laugh of Estebans Guitar packages and have given them to Jr high and high school kids that I knew or heard that they wanted to learn to play a guitar.

These packages come complete with Esteban DVD instructional material. Every student that I have given a guitar to being I keep in touch with them all are all still playing the guitar and learning. The only thing that I told them is if they were going to quit playing I would appreciate them giving the guitar and stuff back to me so I could give it to someone else who wanted to learn.

Not one student yet has given me back the guitar and package I have given to them. Most have went on and have started taking lessons from a professional teacher.

Every student that I gave a guitar learned to play an old time favorite House of the Rising Sun and could even finger pick the song within days or just a couple of weeks. Now being Im medically retired I no longer will have the extra bucks to continue to buy and give away guitars like I use to.

What is my point? Kids, adults, seniors want to learn but if ya make it complicated who would want to? As people play and are having fun they will learn what they need or want to know. They will learn because of the particular circumstance they may be in or want to be in learn theory or whatever! but it is not necessary for those that just want to play for their own amusement!

REMEMBER KISS? KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Thats all ya have to do for people who want to learn how to play is keep it simple to where they can first have fun and secondly learn how to play a song.

Dean from NY

[Tony Prior]

Dean nobody is arguing about theory, nobody is saying it's mandatory or even required.

The simplicity of elementary theory allows any musician, skilled or novice to say..

I am in the Key of A and the other two chords that go with A are D and E .

You don't need a musical degree to know this. But if you are going to play a 3 chord song in the key of A, it's a good thing to know you are playing A,D and E.

Maybe the only theory someone needs to know is the names of the notes up and down the E string. But that is Theory and that is a reference to play music by.
It can be that simple.

thats the KISS rule.

KISS to some may be the basic 3 chord structure and knowing the 3 chords.

Thats what some of the more seasoned players are trying to say.

nobody's arguing. If you know you are playing in the Key of A, that is a minimal amount of theory, it's not ZERO theory.

[Calvin Walley]

just my 2 cents here but;

a raw beginer will need to first need to
get comfortable with finding the major string groups
and the fretboard
before they even attempt to play anything
this alone take some time
they should forget about pedals & knee
lever's untill they get this down pat

[Steve Norman]

I dont understand why a person would chose to not learn as much as they can about something they say they love.

Johny Cash grew up listening to his Mother sing religious music. She could read notes and taught him from a young age to sing from a hymnal. He was exposed to theory Im afraid.

also, my point again,,

the songwriter can do what they want, but the accompanying musicians have to interpret it to play along. We are accompanying musicians for the most part. Are you going to hunt and peck for every note to see if it fits with the song?

Its simple, the more you know the more you can do.

if you chose to be lazy it will reflect in your music. You'll get stuck at the 1 or 2 year mark and will not be able to advance.

You will not be able to communicate with other musicians, and that will make you less desirable to work with.


Which means more work for me,, because I study and try hard. So actually, its in my best interest that you dont learn anything.

Attention all steel players in the pacific north west

Please stop all theory and hard work immediately! I will do all the recording gigs from now on!

On the other hand,, why do I care? I hate it when someone says they hate the steel guitar because they had to suffer through someone sitting there playing in the wrong key pumping away at the ab pedals and sliding all over the place trying to find a good note before the chord changes.

Its in our best interest to make the steel sound as good as possible. When someone hears pretty steel playing they are more likely to want steel in their own project. That means more work for me, and for all of us.

[Dean Salisbury]

Instead of telling me or trying to point out your knowledge to me, why don't you be more helpful and explain your thoughts reasonings to the newbies. You talk about:

"...I am in the Key of A and the other two chords that go with A are D and E .

You don't need a musical degree to know this. But if you are going to play a 3 chord song in the key of A, it's a good thing to know you are playing A,D and E...."

Why not explain all the different "keys" "chords" as well as point out the 3 notes that make up each chord . I know the 12 keys and I know the chords on a standard guitar and on the piano. I don't know them on the steel especially in all the tunings.

Telling me how smart you are, just coming back stating our agreements or disagreement is not helping the newbie. However, if you read the majority posts in the thread that is what the majority is doing just bickering back and forth with obviously people that have some knowledge even with some who have a lot of knowledge. I guess it is no more then human nature to do this just wanting to hear ones self speak or read ones own comments or to just get a dig in here and there.

Keys: there are 12 Keys. I hope I remember them all here:

Gb-F#; B, E, A, D, G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db

Each Key is made up of notes making a scale. These are easy to find using the internet. Just for the sake of argument here, I'll discuss the Key of C

The Key of C is made up by the following scale:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
C, D, E, F, G, A, B,

The C chord is made up of the C, F, G notes what many would consider as I(1)-C, IV(4)-F and V(5)-G notes

The Key of A is made up by the following scale:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
A B C# D E F# G#

The A chord is made up of the A, D, E notes what many would consider as I(1)-A, IV(4)-D and V(5)-E notes

The numbers above is the number of the note of a particular scale.

Like I said you can research the internet to find out what all the keys are and what notes make up the particular KEY scale.

If you cannot research or find the keys or if you need help, email me and I would be glad to help you.

Let me add another issue concerning keys. If you are trying to learn a song but you cannot find sheet music or tabs and you are trying to learn the song by ear! Knowing the key that the song is played it may be of great help. If your playing with a band and if you don't know a song but if you know the 12 Keys all the band has to tell you is what key that they are playing in and you will have a chance in playing along with them. There is a lot more to it, but gives you an idea why theory in time is of great value!

But don't worry about theory or keys NOW! Just get your instrument in tune and begin to learn your first song! Then learn another, then learn another! HAVE FUN!!!!! At the same time you are learning your first song, begin to listen to the chords. Learning how that chord sounds, Get to remember how that chord sounds! Begin while your playing your first song, having fun to start trying to train your ears at the same time. Same thing when you begin playing a single note start listening to the sound of the note(s), begin to try to train your ear, what that particular note or notes sound like.

Just simply start trying to pay attention to what your doing and the sounds that your making. My ears are not that good and with age getting worse. I could never just by ear tune my guitar! I still cannot. I have to have a tuner! However, there are guitar players that don't need a tuner and can within seconds/minutes tune their guitar 100% by ear. When they are done, they can play the note along with a tuner and they will be 100% right on!

One of my friends use to claim I can tune my guitar and its right on. Well he did tune his guitar finding what he thought was a either low or high E then tune the other strings. However he would be way off when matched with a tuner. Yes the guitar was in tune with the strings, but not the proper tuning. Well I can do that, but as soon as I play with someone else, the sounds suck! YUP one of us wouldn't be in the exact tuning!

I don't play with anyone nor do I play in a band. However, I get enjoyment in playing along with the mp3's I have or other recorded music. To sound good you have to be either right on or at least very close to the same tuning. If ya don't have a tuner, they are cheap, get one! And always check and if you have to, re-tune your guitar before you start practicing or playing! ALWAYS! This way your ears will be hearing the same thing the correct note(s) or the sound of the chords!

I hope my memory serves me correctly, but I'm sure if Im not right, some one will be very quickly correcting me!

Hope the above helps you newbies! Its nothing more then a start! but be sure that you are having FUN that is the main thing.


Dean from NYC

[Bent Romnes]

Quote:
"just my 2 cents here but;

a raw beginer will need to first need to
get comfortable with finding the major string groups
and the fretboard
before they even attempt to play anything
this alone take some time
they should forget about pedals & knee
lever's untill they get this down pat"

Calvin, my take on that, is that total immersion is best right off the bat. Learn to use your pedals and knees as well as the fretboard.
You have to get a system in your head or else you will fumble around and get discouraged.

Here is the system I learned and it worked for me. I had basic knowledge of 6 string guitar.
So...First off I learned that my E chord fingering on guitar was the same as the pedal steel tuning open.
Then, I knew that if I applied my index finger to the frets behind the E chord and slid up to the 5th fret I had the next chord that I needed (A) and 2 more gave me the 3rd chord I needed (B)
I applied this directly to the steel, but substituted my finger for the bar.
Now, I had picked up somewhere that if I hit the A and B pedals, this gave me exactly the same effect as if I had slid the whole thing up 5 frets. Then all I needed to get my next chord(B), was to slide up only 2 frets
And voila! the wonderful world of pedal steel opened up before my eyes!

Whether you have this same system in your head, or you adopt another system that works better for you, what I am saying is that you have to develop a system in your head, or you will be forever fumbling around.

[Dean Salisbury]

I guess you and I are the only few that are on the same page here! I started a channel in what is called MIRC. called "guitartabs" where newbies can come on ask questions, its real time. What really drives me crazy is when someone comes on and asks a question there are those that will spend minutes with long drawn out statements that don't even come close in answering the persons question(s). I am finding the very same thing happening on this forum.

My response to people like on the MIRC is if ya cannot answer the question or if ya don't want to, then just be quiet and DON'T RESPOND! People that ask questions obvious to me don't know the answer and may not even have the experience on researching to find the answer. But I have always taught my kids if ya don't know and if ya cannot find out, there is NO stupid QUESTION. The only stupid question is the one NOT ASKED!

It always has amazed me how quick people forgot how they got where there at! They forget the hundreds of stupid questions they had to ask that really got them where they are today! I'm sure none of the just woke up one morning and KNEW EVERYTHING and never had to ask one question! There is surely not that many genius people in the world.

Luckily I am a person who always asks questions not that I may not know the answer, but I'll ask questions that Im sure many are just to scared to ask themselves because of some nut instead of just answering the question asked, will put down the person or make the person look stupid!

As far as Steve goes, he can play all the gigs! He just forgets that he wasn't worth a damn when he began. It took him asking many dumb questions Im sure! Good for him that people answered them or he may not be where he is today!

Most people newbies have no thought(s) in playing professional when they start out! and could care less, they just want to learn how to play a song and most importantly to have fun! They don't need aggravation or to be put down!


Dean from NYC