The Steel Guitar Forum

i am doing this as a poll so the newbies can get and idea of what seems to work or at least give them a starting point

Calvin, you might want to consider starting over so you can include "All of the Above" as one of the possible answers. And maybe also "Two or more of the Above"

How do I vote ? Live Teacher for me

Sorry I was not logged in, stupid me

Hi Calvin,

I learned to play most of the basics by listening to the records of steeel players. People like Jimmy Day, Lloyd Green, and others.

They done their homework and I had mine cut out for me, trying to mimic their sounds. Well, I am still trying to follow in their footprints and learn from every source available!

May GOD bless!

Terry Wood

I think Terry makes a good point. Many of us learned without any teaching materials at all. So in addition to "all the above" there should be a "none of the above." I clicked on "books on my own," but in reality I didn't even have a book. I learned how to tune the thing when I bought it, then just played around with it until I figured out how to sound like what I heard on the radio and on records. It helped that I already knew theory, keyboards, sax, guitar, slide guitar, and Dobro.

I learned by all those methods but the live teacher was by far the most effective for me.

same as david here. listen to records and struggle to figure some of it out.....good tab and books didn't come out til a little later...and videos/dvds (which are so great, i would think, for new players) didn't come out until much too late for me, being old and lazy!

the reason that i did not include " all the above " was that it might add to the confusion of some one trying to figure out a starting point.
maybe i should have added listening to recordings because many did it just that way.
what i was trying to do was give the new comers some idea of what worked for most

Hard for me to just click on one also.
Firstly I am still learning!
The man who sold me my steel last year, threw in a few books of TAB and some CDs (thanks Jamie).... I spent my entire Xmas vacation learning "I'll be there".... (and am still working that piece up).
Then bought some books from the forum.... and worked though the pieces that I liked, and was able to struggle through with my limited knowledge.
Because I am a writer by profession.... I wrote a few simple passages into some music I recorded for work
Finally, I met up with a fellow steeler who gave me some pointers in exchange for some tips on recording...(hi Mike).

Add to that, a lifetime of listening to steel on record and wishing I could own one!

Although I think this a good idea Calvin has, the comparison to the earlier years to today may not be valid.

When I, like many here, started playing in the early 70's there were no teachers, actually barely any other players, the only reference know to modern mankind was maybe a Sho-Bud book or an Emmons something or other. And Maybe a Jeff Newman Seminar two or three states away.

No Internet
No Forums
No Steel Guitar shows ( yet)
No way to track down someone in seconds
No YouTube
No Ebay
no countless tab courses
no countless free tabs
No Ricky/Rebel Website

the resources available to the players today is unlimited in comparison to what many of us were faced with 25/30 years ago.

This being said , the constant is still practice and hard work, the resources are much greater so at least that part of the equation is no longer an issue.

I am in the DID IT BY MYSELF club but it sure would have been nice to have a few pickers to call on. Jeff Newman was around back then but it was very difficult to get to where he was or to KNOW where he was going to be. I was able to attend two Jeff seminars during the course of the 70's..

i had it what i thought was better than most did.
i had a teacher from time to time that i could ask questions but many times the answer was over my head
and i fell into the tab trap
with tabs you can learn to play a few songs but you don't learn how to really play
Tony, your right!! this poll will not cover all the bases, but maybe it might point out a trend if you will, of how some of us got going and maybe what some might want to avoid

"none of the above"

I learned on my own, using my knowledge of guitar and listening to records, figuring out where the chords are, licks, etc.

The best way... on the bandstand, dudes.

Not yet,, but I'm working really hard on it!! I haven't given up yet!!

Larry

I also learned from playing along with records to begin with.And a VERY important point to make is that lots of them had no steel or Dobro on them! It was probably fifteen years later I first tried a tab/cassette course. I still like playing along with records best. Whatever works for you.

Like Doug, I've learned on my own.Years on the six string really helped a lot and understanding how the steel works is another biggy. Although it is mostly the love of the instrument. That sound is like no other. I am determined to be as good a steeler as i can be. I just wish I had started 30 years ago...

Ditto Herb

Robbie Crabtree, Gary, Craig, and Chris said Hi. Jody.

I started on the steel with a cd set; however, you can go only so far with those. From then on it was hours upon endless hours of practicing until I could do everything on those CDs without even thinking about where my hands needed to be to get the notes I wanted.

From them on, it was step by step on my own to expand what I had learned from the CDs and listening to other players.

It also helped to have been playing instruments since the age of six. The ear was there but getting the fingers and mind clued into another instrument; weeeelll. So who in hell invented that stupid thing?

All of the above and then some.... Playing lead guitar for a number of years helped a bunch. At 10 months of playing steel, I hit the bandstand with it like Herb says and truthfully that's when the real learning began. Luckily after 1 year on stage I'm still playing, learning and best of all, I'm getting paid for it.

Jeff Newman and Buddy Charlton..... two of the best.

Many of us learned without any teaching materials at all. So in addition to "all the above" there should be a "none of the above."

"click"

I would think this question has a lot to do with the person's music background. I don't have any guitar knowledge before I started steel. I do have a little music background, but not enough to help very much. I wouldn't have learned from a book. I tried to learn 6-string and bass from a book. Big failure. In my lessons, we started with a book, but got rid of it a few months ago. I am learning much quicker from the tracks and instruction I am given. Just my two-cents.