Can someone sit down with the fiddle or PSG and

Bob Doran · Post by **Bob Doran** » 3 Apr 2008 7:27 pm

play it fairly well the first time they try?
Has anyone ever heard of this with either instrument?
Bob

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 3 Apr 2008 7:37 pm

I, for one, don't believe so.

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 3 Apr 2008 7:46 pm

I agree with Barry

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 4 Apr 2008 1:08 am

Did Jack Benny play Steel too ?

Jim Walker · Post by **Jim Walker** » 4 Apr 2008 1:28 am

Give me 2 minutes with any stringed musical instrument and I'll play ya a tune. I'm a quick study. Of course my main instrument is 6 string guitar but I can play bass at the gig if I have to. I've been on steel guitar 2.4 years now and have been playing with bands since 6 months. I can play a little bit on fiddle, dobro, mandolin, banjo, and piano. I've even owned a few drum sets over the years but I just don't have the stamina to play over about 3 songs on drums. Oh I play a little bit of harmonica too.

You can hear some of my steel paying at:

www.myspace.com/jimwalkeronline

JW

James Martin (U.K.) · Post by **James Martin (U.K.)** » 4 Apr 2008 1:45 am

That was nice steel playing - well worth a listen.

Bob Doran · Post by **Bob Doran** » 4 Apr 2008 1:53 pm

Correct me if I am wrong, but couldn't she play essentially everthing by about age 10.
I saw a picture of her once playing a 4 board steel!
And she couldn't have been 7 years old.
Now if that girl had any kind of childhood at all apart from music, like going to school, and playing with her friends, she couldn't have had much time to practice all those instruments: guitar, mandolin, bass, drums, 4 board steel, sax, clarinet, dobro, piano, violin-
the list goes on and on, but do you see what I mean?

Bob

James Sission · Post by **James Sission** » 4 Apr 2008 2:14 pm

I will probably get a good flaming for this, but I would submit to you that a child will learn much quicker than an adult in most settings. Computer technology is one of those as is music. Me and a friend of mine took guitar lessons together when we were about 10 or 11 I suppose. I just wasnt interested in scales and all that, so I stopped and he stayed with it. By the time he was 14, he was playing lead guitar in his fathers band. By the time he was 17, he played lead and fiddle. He is now an outstanding steel player. I told him once that it took me about 8 months to learn modes and that was working on it 5-7 hours per day while I was going through a divorce at age 40. He mentioned during that conversation that he learned modes in a couple of weeks because he was bored with it and wanted to move to something more interesting and until he got that down, his teacher wouldnt let him. He told me that by the time he was 14, he was very comfortable with knowing what mode to play in over a certain chord. I have been trying to get a FIRM grasp on that for a year now and its coming, but really slowly. I dont know the answer really, but I think some people have an easier time than others. I would submit that there are a lot of posts on this forum about learning to play steel being VERY difficult. To me, it was not difficult to figure out the chords and some simple moved from one to the other. But I made music that sounded fairly well quicker on steel than I did on a 6 string....Just a thought....Thanks...James

David Hartley · Post by **David Hartley** » 4 Apr 2008 3:26 pm

There's only ONE person I knew could do this, He was a mate of mine over here but emigrated to Aussie years ago..He picked up a fiddle and played it from a VERY young age, sat on my steel once and played it after a few seconds... Been PRO all his life..

Does anyone know him??

http://www.gerryhale.com/

Ernest Cawby · Post by **Ernest Cawby** » 5 Apr 2008 8:54 am

Lum borrowed my 6 string steel one night after practice with smoky Metcalf, I went to pick it up the next night he was still playing it, he had played it all night, s
Smokies wife said please take it home he has not moved since last night.
He was playing it well to. He played with Hank williams and others, He also was the one that sent for me to play on the La. Hayride.
He could play any instrument.
He applied for a job with a big band, he asked trhe leader what instrument he needed, the band leader gave him a sax nad he took off. The guy next to him said could you play better if the musc was not upside down. He was playing by ear.
Wimpy Jones was another who played many instruments.

ernie

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 5 Apr 2008 9:35 am

Back in the 1960's.........when were were playing the local NBC Country Music show of the week, an hour long gig......"LIVE".......

The fiddle or accordianist would pick out a song and if we all agreed we'd enjoying doing it, we'd have a three part instrumental worked out and on the play list within about 15-20 minutes. They'd likewise workout arrangements for some of my steel instrumentals.

This was week after week and we aonly saw each other at the one band practice and then on the LIVE show.

The only time I saw the fiddler write out a note was when he wrote the harmony to a song Spade Cooley had written on scrap paper during his flight to Portland and he wanted to play it that night for the first time.

Is that what you meant? Or, am I in error?

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 5 Apr 2008 9:45 am

No, I don't believe anyone could play any instrument "fairly well" the first time they tried. I do believe in people who have a talent for music, though. One local player named Ronnie Phillips learned to play guitar, steel guitar, bass, banjo, violin, sax, drums, trumpet, piano, clarinet, and a whole host of other instruments in a few months each. It was said by many that he could master an instrument in 6 months if he wanted to. From rumors I heard, he hung a steel upside-down over his bed so that he could play whatever came into his mind at any hour of the night without even getting up. No, he wasn't lazy, he just thought he'd "lost" something if he didn't play it the instant he thought about it. He'd just play an instrument 16-20 hours a day until he'd conquered it. Ronnie also sang like a bird, and knew music backwards and forwards. He could hear any chord and tell you instantly the notes that were in that chord, and play them (in succession) on whatever instrument he happened to be playing. I even tried "testing" him with 8 to 10 note chords, and he could always play out note-for-note whatever I had played, naming the notes as he went along.

He did have a tendency, however, to "play over people's heads". Only a serious musician could appreciate what he was doing most of the time...he seldom played anything in a simple fashion.

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 5 Apr 2008 2:10 pm

James Sission wrote:I will probably get a good flaming for this, but I would submit to you that a child will learn much quicker than an adult in most settings. Thanks...James

Well, James you won't get flaming from me. I think you are dead on in your assessment here.

Look at two examples, and excuse me if I am out a few years: Buddy Emmons started playing the steel at age 14 and Lloyd Green at age 10.
There is no doubt, and I thought this was generally accepted as the truth: The younger you start anything the better chance you have at getting expert at it.
Another example of the benefits of starting early is the thread I just wrote about Dave "Shakey" Seddon. He got started playing piano at age 3, and look at how far he took his musical abilities, even without any formal training.

Oh yes, you gotta start them early. My little Granddaughter, Chloe, is 16 months. I set her on a chair so she faces me and I strum the guitar and sing her a song. Before I know it, her little hand reaches out and strums the guitar.

Myself, I started way too late at age 24. Without having any special talents, my only way was to work at it. Sadly, I quit some 15 years later, to pick it up again a year or so ago. MAN do I notice a huge difference in my ability to learn and comprehend, and to retain what I have learned!
Just my 2c worth...

Bob Doran · Post by **Bob Doran** » 5 Apr 2008 7:27 pm

The lead guitar player in my band can do that, name every chord and the notes no matter how complex.

And the music stops if anyone's tuning is off by more than 3 cents.

Can't get anything past him...

I think some people hear in color and others in black and white.
For instance, if someone plays a chord to me on the piano, I hear what sounds like one note, but a good ear hears all 3 individual notes.
Not fair.

Bob

Gary Grubb · Post by **Gary Grubb** » 5 Apr 2008 9:27 pm

Well, I think I jump in on this one. I started playing guitar when I was thirteen... paid $13 for a Kay in a pawnshop. My step father told me I had wasted my money. I played that thing every chance I got, which was most anytime I wasn't sleeping or going to school. But for all that playing I did, and the many guitars I eventually owned, including a pedal steel, I never got to the level that I thought I could cut it Nashville. This was largely due to the lack of the two 'D's, dedication and determination.

The nice thing about being a kid is if you happen to have the two 'D's, you likely have a lot of time to invest and your body parts haven't warn out yet.

I played for a living for 15 years and then hung it up to raise a family. The kids are grown now and I have picked the guitar back up about five years ago. I sincerely believe I play better now than I ever did when I was playing in the bars.

I think the reason is that I really "want" it now. Back then I was more into the lifestyle than I was the music. I find that now I am really enjoying music and oddly it has provided a very rewarding social life for me and the wife.

If only I had the time and the body parts. Youth is wasted on the young!

The Steel Guitar Forum

Can someone sit down with the fiddle or PSG and

Can someone sit down with the fiddle or PSG and

The reason I ask,is think about someone like Barbra Mandrell

Hi

Lum York

Not sure I understand your question but...................

Donny