Bill Leavitt-a brief history & Christmas TAB
Posted: 20 Nov 2005 11:44 am
With all the talk about Bill's tuning lately, I thought it would be a good time to re-tell the story of how it came to be for those who are new to it.
Here's the blurb that's inside my CD "A Different Slant" to start the story...
Bill Leavitt was Chairman of the Guitar Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. for 25 years. He built what has become the largest assemblage of guitar students and faculty in the world. Throughout his years of teaching and writing for the guitar, he never lost his love for the lap steel, which he played in his youth. About 4 years before his death in 1990, he invented a new tuning for the 6 string lap steel (low to high: C#, E, G, Bb, C, D). This unusual tuning which I dubbed "The Leavitt Tuning" for lack of a better name, allowed him to play 3 and 4 note voicings of the complex chords found in jazz standards. He wrote over 70 arrangements of Hawaiian and Jazz songs. I promised him I would let the steel players around the world know of his wonderful creation. By performing at steel shows around the globe, I have begun to spread the word and hope that this recording will not only entertain and instruct, but keep BillÕs music and memory alive.
The rest of the story...
A student came in for his guitar lesson one day back in 1985 or so and showed Bill an old beat up Dickerson lap that he had just bought at a yard sale for $7. (The steel is pictured on the cover of my CD) Bill was thrilled to see it because it was exactly the same as the steel he had as a kid back in Ohio when he took the Oahu Steel Guitar School lessons. The student, seeing how happy Bill was to see an old friend, gave him the steel. Together, we fixed it up, put on a new fretboard and rewired some bad connections. Bill knew about Pedal Steel because I was playing it and showed him all the chords available on it. He didn't like the size, weight, complexity etc. of the double neck Emmons (9 & 10) I had so he started playing around with his new lap. He always liked to write chord solos for guitar of the jazz standards that he loved so dearly so naturally that was the first area he explored with the lap. He soon discovered how limited the standard tunings were for all the jazz voicings he was looking for, so he started experimenting with new tunings. He told me one day, that he had a dream about this diminished tuning and started working on it. Soon he had a handful of arrangements that were amazing in their chord complexity. I would come in his room at 9am and he'd be there playing Misty or Moonlight in Vermont and I'd hear all these hip jazz chords and yet he was NEVER slanting the bar. I couldn't believe it!
In the next year or so he wrote over 70 arrangements of jazz and Hawaiian tunes before he came down with TB, was hospitalized and passed in 1990. When I last saw him in the hospital, 2 days before his death, he was still working on new arrangements. I told him then, that if anything happened to him, I would try to let the steel guitar world know about his wonderful creation.
From playing at the ISGC and Gerry Hogan's Steel show in London as well as other conventions around the east coast and of course the Forum, people have come to embrace the tuning as unique and very musical. Even crusty old Jerry Byrd said it was interesting and that's high praise from him.
It does my heart good to hear Roy and Bill Hatcher and others continue to expand the tuning's possibilities. I'm sure Bill Leavitt would be proud of all the good music he has helped create through his work.
I have Bill's arrangement of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" available for free. Just send me an e-mail and I'll attach it and send it back to you.
Merry Christmas to all.
Mike
thephotodoctor@comcast.net
Here's the blurb that's inside my CD "A Different Slant" to start the story...
Bill Leavitt was Chairman of the Guitar Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. for 25 years. He built what has become the largest assemblage of guitar students and faculty in the world. Throughout his years of teaching and writing for the guitar, he never lost his love for the lap steel, which he played in his youth. About 4 years before his death in 1990, he invented a new tuning for the 6 string lap steel (low to high: C#, E, G, Bb, C, D). This unusual tuning which I dubbed "The Leavitt Tuning" for lack of a better name, allowed him to play 3 and 4 note voicings of the complex chords found in jazz standards. He wrote over 70 arrangements of Hawaiian and Jazz songs. I promised him I would let the steel players around the world know of his wonderful creation. By performing at steel shows around the globe, I have begun to spread the word and hope that this recording will not only entertain and instruct, but keep BillÕs music and memory alive.
The rest of the story...
A student came in for his guitar lesson one day back in 1985 or so and showed Bill an old beat up Dickerson lap that he had just bought at a yard sale for $7. (The steel is pictured on the cover of my CD) Bill was thrilled to see it because it was exactly the same as the steel he had as a kid back in Ohio when he took the Oahu Steel Guitar School lessons. The student, seeing how happy Bill was to see an old friend, gave him the steel. Together, we fixed it up, put on a new fretboard and rewired some bad connections. Bill knew about Pedal Steel because I was playing it and showed him all the chords available on it. He didn't like the size, weight, complexity etc. of the double neck Emmons (9 & 10) I had so he started playing around with his new lap. He always liked to write chord solos for guitar of the jazz standards that he loved so dearly so naturally that was the first area he explored with the lap. He soon discovered how limited the standard tunings were for all the jazz voicings he was looking for, so he started experimenting with new tunings. He told me one day, that he had a dream about this diminished tuning and started working on it. Soon he had a handful of arrangements that were amazing in their chord complexity. I would come in his room at 9am and he'd be there playing Misty or Moonlight in Vermont and I'd hear all these hip jazz chords and yet he was NEVER slanting the bar. I couldn't believe it!
In the next year or so he wrote over 70 arrangements of jazz and Hawaiian tunes before he came down with TB, was hospitalized and passed in 1990. When I last saw him in the hospital, 2 days before his death, he was still working on new arrangements. I told him then, that if anything happened to him, I would try to let the steel guitar world know about his wonderful creation.
From playing at the ISGC and Gerry Hogan's Steel show in London as well as other conventions around the east coast and of course the Forum, people have come to embrace the tuning as unique and very musical. Even crusty old Jerry Byrd said it was interesting and that's high praise from him.
It does my heart good to hear Roy and Bill Hatcher and others continue to expand the tuning's possibilities. I'm sure Bill Leavitt would be proud of all the good music he has helped create through his work.
I have Bill's arrangement of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" available for free. Just send me an e-mail and I'll attach it and send it back to you.
Merry Christmas to all.
Mike
thephotodoctor@comcast.net
