The Steel Guitar Forum

Herb Steiner wrote:Well, I'll be back out on the road with MMM again this year for his annual Cowboy Christmas Tour, but unlike last year when I played steel guitar, this year will be an acoustic oriented show and I'll be playing dobro predominantly..


MR HERB::::::
QUESTION: I play dobro and lap steel...use different tunings....I always have some difficulty changing...diff tunings..etc...I have not been playing for that many years...so ...??HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE CHANGES????...is it easier to go from psg to dobro or vice versa ...or not much difference...
Also...lots of TX dates....none down in my neck of the woods...beaumont area....guess I should be glad there are texas dates...unlike some folks who dont have a chance....Good Luck...sounds like a great tour for you and the MMM gang....wish I could hear it...
. (maybe some non-pedal as well) which will make life a little bit easier for the road crew!

Murph puts on a great show, very family-centered and very much a celebration of the season, with a cowboy slant to it, of course.

Here's the dates and locations, and I hope to meet any and all of y'all who plan on attending. Send me an email if you're gonna be there and I'll do my best to make contact.


Nov 22 - Wellton AZ
Nov 28 - Greeley CO
Nov 29 - Roosevelt UT
Nov 30 - Grand Junction CO
Dec 2 - Lincoln NE
Dec 3 - Hartford WI
Dec 4 - Cashton WI
Dec 5 - Cashton WI
Dec 6 - Wisconsin Dells WI
Dec 7 - Benton KS
Dec 8 - Wichita Falls TX
Dec 9 - Austin TX (yay!! get to see my wife! )
Dec 10 - Corpus Christi TX
Dec 11 - Wellington TX
Dec 12 - Oklahoma City OK
Dec 13 - Longview TX
Dec 14 - Springfield MO
Dec 15 - Fort Worth TX
Dec 16 - Corsicana TX
Dec 17 - Amarillo TX
Dec 18 - Kerrville TX
Dec 19 - Anson TX
Dec 20 - Lubbock TX
Dec 21 - Roswell NM
Dec 22 - Odessa TX

May your days be sunny and bright
May your hearts be happy and light
Merry Texas Christmas, you all!!

Herb Steiner wrote:Carroll
Thanks for your excellent question. Here's what I can tell you: playing pedal steel, especially C6, improved my knowledge of music theory, chord progressions, and how melody fits over chords. Therefore it improved my dobro playing because I can now look at the guitar neck and visualize chord patterns and melodic positions that I couldn't see without the knowledge I gained from steel playing.

Going from one tuning to the next easily is a product of repetition, practice, and abstract musical knowledge. It's not playing patterns by rote; rather, it's understanding and knowing what note you want to hit, why you want to hit it, how it relates to the last note you just played, and what notes you're intending to play next.

It requires the ability to look at the guitar neck and "see" where your melody lies in a linear "up-and-down the neck" fashion, rather thaa a vertical "straight-bar" chord position fashion.

But it also depends on the style of the music or song you're playing. Some tunes that MMM does, like "Carolina In The Pines" as an example, is very bluegrass banjo influenced, and on those tunes I'd play G tuning using Josh Graves rolls, like the older style dobro. On "Cherokee Fiddle," on the other hand, I choose to play C6 tuning since I prefer having minor chords, partial diminished chords, and more useful slant bar positions under my fingertips.

Am I making myself clear? I realize I'm getting far afield from your question, but it's all related in my convoluted mind. So I'd summarize by saying, prefaced by a HUGE IMHO:

1) it's easier to go from pedal steel to dobro;
2) the right hand techniques are different due to the blocking methods required of pedal steel. Dobro is an acoustic instrument necessitating more "digging into" the strings;
3) the left hand techniques are also different but there are some similarities to Hawaiian non-pedal steel playing - not so much with E9 technique though. More blocking is done with the left hand.

Sorry we won't be close to Beaumont. Longview and Corsicana are prob'ly the closest. Hope you can make one of them.