The Steel Guitar Forum

This is for you active Hawaiian steel guitarists. I was curious to know what your typical practice routine consists of. I'm not exactly a beginner, so the scales and arpeggios segment has sort of gone by the wayside for me.

I'm thinking more about how much of your practice time you devote to learning new phrases, repertoire, chord progressions, band practice, chart writing, etc.

Matt,

This past year I have learned 14 new Hawaiian songs. Most of my practice time is in learning new songs. Learning new songs is an incentive within itself. There is something fulfulling in learning something new. It also exercises the brain to keep it from aging. Another incentive is learning new songs for others. I believe people grow tired of hearing the same songs over and over again, at least I do.

Attending the various Hawaiian Steel Guitar conventions forces you to practice more to prepare for your performance, and practicing more improves your playing ability. I have always been in a quandry at the conventions over whether I should play songs I already know well to reduce or eliminate errors or should I play new songs where I might be prone to make more mistakes. One has to remember at the conventions you are playing before other steel guitarists.

Aloha,
Don

About 18 months ago I picked up my guitar again after a 10 year layoff. I do have a physically demanding day job. So I don't have a routine per se. Like Don, I try to learn alot of new songs. But if I come home from work totally exhausted and have trouble working up focus and enthusiasm, I will play scales and arpeggios for as long as I can just to be able to spend some time at the guitar. Sometimes that stimulates me to do more. Other times I manage about half an hour or so before turning in. But anything you can do is better than doing nothing.

My approach is similiar to Don's. I usually practice songs I already know, maybe try and play it a little different. I also like to learn a new song now and then to break up the routine some.

I do a combination of things:

-practice songs I know
since many different artists recorded the same Hawaiian songs, I like to listen to a variety of performances and then play the songs in a particualr style of one of the artist as this sharpens my technique

-learn new hooks, vamps and fills
by learning new melodic lines, I can begin to see how they fit it and extend the scales and chords I currently, plus it helps the ear develo

-transposing between tunings
I play in G, A6, C6, and some B11 and E13. Figuring out how to play the same song across a tuning really helps me understand both the tunings and the song structure

-digital multi-track recording
playing uke, slack key and steel makes you really think about rhythmic structures and phrasing.

My only problem is that with 2 kids and a fulltime job, to fully do this ppractice routine takes about 6 weeks per cycle!

Practice? What's that? .... I know I really should practice, but I am playing so much I guess that counts for something.

My Schedule:
*I keep a lapsteel in my van to play at lunch and during break time on workdays.
*I play twice a month at a local nursing home 3 or more mini-concerts a day.
*Currently I have over 80 background tracks I have recorded to play along with.
*I teach lessons in C6th on Thursday nights.
*I play at Church Sunday mornings usually lap steel with a modified A6th tuning (Lo to hi D E F# A C# E)
*Occasional concerts on lap steel & sometimes Pedal steel E9 chromatic.
*In my spare time I am recording my sixth annual Christmas CD featuring lot of steel guitar.

I guess I play enough to keep my chops up, but I am not reaching out too much to learn new licks! OK! I am going out to the van now and practice... hmmm let's see

Dom

I love my routine with the Jerry Byrd instruction materials. I have the play-along CDs loaded on my iPod (panned left for the backing tracks) and I play through all the lessons until I get to the one I'm working on. With the iPod playing along with me through my MicroCube, it's a nice little personal concert.

Jerry's lessons are very musical and it's nice to use the easier lessons as a warm-up.

It's not cheap, but there's a lot of stuff to learn in there. I find it very valuable.



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Steve Pierce