The Steel Guitar Forum

How can I learn to do fills in a song? I am very new to lap steel but I have always enjoyed hearing it.
Thanks for any help...

Check out "Backup Behind The Singer" by DeWitt Scott. It's a book with C6 tab for several songs, along with a CD -- tracks for each song both with and without the steel guitar. It'll give you lots of good examples of fills. I found it very helpful. You can get the book/CD through the forum here (just click on "INSTRUCTION" at the top of this page, then click on "Lap Steel Instructional Material").

That's the only C6 instructional material I know of oriented toward backup rather than solo work. If there are other books or videos out there, somebody let me know -- I'd be interested in getting a copy.

Tom,

Pick up what ever music on CD or vinyl that you can find with steel guitar and singing; listen to the licks used in a chord progression, then find it on your fretboard.
This is how me and Bobby Ingano have learned fills.

You have your homework cut out for you but in the end, you'll be more valuable to a singing group than just someone who only knows how to play steel solo's.

Derrick Mau wrote:Tom,

Pick up what ever music on CD or vinyl that you can find with steel guitar and singing; listen to the licks used in a chord progression, then find it on your fretboard.
This is how me and Bobby Ingano have learned fills.

You have your homework cut out for you but in the end, you'll be more valuable to a singing group than just someone who only knows how to play steel solo's.

I have to second Derrick's suggestion. Whether you want to fill in behind someone in a Hawai'ian style, or westernswing, or whatever, get recordings of songs in those styles, and listen closely to what the steel player does for fills between lyrics.

I also agree with Kekoa's idea, but I think listening and having to use your ears to figure out licks is invaluable to playing the instrument. Any instrument, actually. It's like detective work, and can be extremely gratifying when you 'crack the code' of what a player is doing to make those licks and phrases.

Good luck, and have fun!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I have order the book and I will try to pick out some fills from music. Thanks again.

I second Todd's advice and would add ....

Listen for what good players do to fill; they don't play all over the vocal but look for openings to add something that enhances the tune - which sometimes means not playing anything.

How to start:

1. First make sure you know the chords to a given song cold. Then start by simply playing an arpeggio using the notes of the chord right there under your bar. It may not be great at first but you can't go wrong with chord tones.
2. Next, look for ways to connect each chord with 2-note runs in 3rds, 6ths or octaves. Jerry Byrd was a master at this and you can get some good ideas from his older recordings backing up country singers.
3. In country music, harmonized scale runs are common. In Hawaiian music, there are thousands of variations of the basic turn-around vamp. Here are a few I posted a long time ago: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum8/HTML/001016.html
In Hawaiian or Western Swing playing, you could also fill in with full, lush chords depending on the tune and your personal taste. In Blues music, single note fills are the norm. Basing your fills on chord tones rather than pentatonic scale runs would be my advice here.

A combo of harmonized scale-based runs, arpeggios, and full chords should get you through most back-up situations. Don't forget it's fine to quickly pass chromatically through a chord that's not in the key. Like this, for C7 to F:[tab]

C6th tuning:

C7 F

----12----11----10------------------------------4--|------5-------------------

----12----11-----10--------12-----11----10------4--|------5-------------------

----12----11-----10--------12-----11----10------4--|------5-------------------

---------------------------12-----11----10------4--|------5-------------------

---------------------------------------------------|--------------------------

---------------------------------------------------|---------------------------

[/tab]

Here's a really good song to start with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_oaEw0p3js

Basil Henriques posted this on YouTube a while back -- Jerry Byrd and Marty Robbins in "Beyond The Reef". A great example of backing up the singer. Each fill is straightforward and melodic, and never competes with the vocals. You won't see the same lick used twice.

Having the video helps you pick out what Jerry is doing on the steel, so it's a little easier than just working from a CD. And the Dobro is tuned C6!

Andy Volk wrote:In Hawaiian music, there are thousands of variations of the basic turn-around vamp. Here are a few I posted a long time ago: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum8/HTML/001016.html

Thanks for the link. I've been looking for these!

TW

You can make it easier to learn by ear if you use a tool like Transcribe! which allows you to slow things down without changing the pitch and loop on specific segments.

You can also listen to an entire song and mark each spot you want to work on by tapping a key, and there are EQing tools to help isolate the instrument you want to hear.

That Marty Robbins with JB clip is precious. It does NOT get any smoother than that.

Nahenahe...

TJW