The Steel Guitar Forum

Could it be possible that by creating a “mental vision” of exactly what steel guitar is and how it’s played for those who are not familiar with the instrument, lead to wider and more instant recognition.

Over my entire playing career I have seen a blank stare when I was asked what instrument I played, and I replied…… “steel guitar” or “pedal guitar”.
It was obvious the mental vision they had at that moment was either a regular guitar made of steel that one could not lift, or a regular guitar with pedals attached similar to a bicycle or automotive brake pedals, and they had no clue as to what the pedals were used for. No need to even mention "knee levers" during those conversations.

I can only imagine what others have envisioned when I called it a “pedal steel guitar”. The mental picture created by the words “steel” and “pedals” followed by the word “guitar” provide a mental image which is confusing to those not yet familiar to steel guitar because our instrument is not shaped or played like a regular guitar.

The past year or so as an experiment, when asked by a novice what instrument I play, I have said…. I play a “slide guitar” and believe it or not, most connect with that phrase and say something like………oh yeah, you play one of those things you play laying flat like this…while making a left to right level hand gesture.

For most, the word “slide” provides the mental image of a level back and fourth motion, which is exactly what we are doing when playing. When discussing musical instruments, were we to say we played a “pitch altering slide”, I think most everyone would know exactly what we were talking about even IF they had never even seen one and they could at least envision such a musical instrument. At the very least, the instrument could be explained much quicker and less confusing.

Not long ago at an engagement a man and his wife was very interested in my steel guitar and during our conversation he asked me why it was called a “steel guitar”. I told him it got it’s name from the smoothly polished steel bar used to slide on the strings. I then proceeded to show him my bar and I gasped as they both looked puzzled and I stood there like a dunce showing them the “black” Tribatone bar I was using.…….we all got a big laugh out of that, and I imagine my face was also a little red..

I suppose if we called it a “pitch altering slide” most everyone would have a clear mental image of the instrument we’re playing.

A lot of people spontaneously call it "slide guitar" anyway. As in "You're the one playing that slide guitar, aren't you?", or "Man, I love that slide guitar!" I usually don't correct them any more.

I've had way too many experiences of having people ask "What is that instrument you're playing?" and carefully enunciating "It's a pedal steel guitar," only to see in their faces that they go "Huh???" and shut down.

Hi, Reece ... I've definitely run into those blank stares before. But, over the last few years, I always have an audio/visual aid that helps me explain a steel when those blank uncomprehending stares begin to happen.

I usually try to maintain at least five business cards on my person at all times. My cards display a photo of me playing steel on them and I'll pull one out and show the photo to the person. Also, I've got several steel guitar clips as ring tones on my phone (a different steel guitar ring tone for each steel player's number that I have stored).

While the individual is looking at the photo on the business card, I'll often open my phone and play a quick steel clip ... the person is able to see and hear the steel and instant recognition toward the instrument is kindled at that moment. I usually end up hearing the individual making a statement like, "Ah, so that's what makes that sound!"

I say it's a pedal steel guitar. Usually the interest is awakened so they ask "What does that mean"? I say a Hawaiian guitar. Most can connect with that. Then I explain very briefly how things work with "tightening or slacking the strings with pedals and knee levers and changing the note". If at any step of the way I see that I have lost them, I quit. But that doesn't happen very often.

If they still show interest beyond the "changing the note" part, and my steel is right there, then it is time to turn it upside down and get more in depth.
I am amazed at the percentage of novices who show a high level of interest in these technical contraptions.

I once spent about 20 min's trying to explain to a relative at a family gathering just exactly what a Pedal Steel Guitar is and what it looked like.
Then I realized that I was wearing a shirt from Jeffran College that had one silk screened on the front of the shirt!
JE:-)>

Believe it or not, and I am sure many others have had the same comment...but folks have referred to my guitar as a "string-keyboard".

On other occasions they neglected to get close to the band all night and mentioned at the end how they liked my keyboard playing.

I always wonder if these are the same people telling the sound guy how things should be mixed...

Oddly enough, I knew what a steel guitar was before I could tell the difference between an electric bass, a solid body electric guitar, and an archtop acoustic guitar.

People call my pedal steel a slide guitar all the time. I used to explain the proper name, but I don't anymore. Even musicians who know the proper word for it seem to call it a slide guitar occasionally.
But you're right. It's a lot simpler. Especially since many of us also play lap steel and/or dobro, so we're basically "horizontal slide guitar" players. So when people don't know what a pedal steel is, that's how I describe it.
As long as they don't think it's a keyboard. There's always people who call it that till I start playing.

Whenever I try to tell people what it is I always start off by saying "You've probably seen one on TV," and then describe it as looking like a table with strings stretched across it, and the players often look like they are sitting motionless. And more often than not they say they remember seeing one on TV, and that they wondered what it was.

I ALWAYS call it by its full and proper name "pedal steel guitar," at least once in every conversation about it.

I did a gig not too long ago, where a rather well dressed "expensive" looking lady was sitting in the very front row watching the band. In the intermission she came up to me and asked me "Is that some kind of Piano??" I looked her straight in the eyes and said "Well......it has strings"

I've also had it called a Zither, Xylophone, Synthesizer and on one occasion, an Organ

Micky Byrne U.K.

At a recent fund-raiser, after playing for almost 5 hours the folks were coming up to the bandstand to say good night & thank us, ETC, one lady stood pointing at my blue Derby SD-10 and said, "I love this thing--they use these in bluegrass all the time".

On another occasion my sister Sue, who had never heard me play, listened to our band for about two hours, during which I did all the intros, fills and solos. The next day she wanted to see my instrument, so I sat down at the psg and began playing. She looked surprised and said, "You mean all that music was coming from this thing last night?"

Go figur!

I usually say what Mike Perlowin says, which seems to turn a light on..I have had people ask me how does it work? I will take the time after a show to explain what the knee levers and pedals do, how they raise and lower the pitch of the strings,,and how the chords are made..People have always been grateful for the demonstation, and it makes me feel better knowing that I have helped shed some light on the instrument...

I remember when I was around in the late 60's, an old fellow was showing me some hot licks on straight guitar [I had a Gretch Nashville, the big Orange one, wish I had kept it too] He mentioned a steel guitar with pedals on it, I thought he must be joking, I could not even come up with a mental picture of such a guitar, I had seen lap steels but eventually ran into a fellow who had one & saw what the heck was going on. I think I got hooked on steel from that very first lick the guy played. I have had a lot of female audience members come up & tell me I was a heck of a keyboard player!! Don't get that much anymore though.


Ernie Pollock with 4th of July Marlen!!

Sometimes, when I describe what a Pedal Steel is and they don't get it, I go with the "you know that slidy sounding thing that plays all the background music on Spongebob? It's like that, only crazier!" Works every time.... LOL!

On a side note, more tying into Reece's original post, with pedal steel being probably the least emphasized instrument in Country music in the past 20 years, it doesn't bother me that most people are unfamiliar with the instrument. And if you aren't a steel player, you'd have some kind of knowledge of the mechanics of music to understand the concept of a changer.

I tell them it's a Slide Guitar that uses a "steel" bar that slides along the strings. Thats about all they usually want to know...and can remember. Going into the description of the pedals, etc.is usually over-kill.

Bobbe has a t-shirt with a great graphic of a D-10 Sho-Bud and big bold letters "STEEL GUITAR". I wear it often!

Pretty sad ain't it,even after all these years the steel guitar, pedals or not, has been around . And yeah, it is hard to explain what a steel guitar is. I have asked folks to come out and hear me (not that I'm a Reese Anderson ) and I can better explain it. Sometimes it works and I even have them set down behind my guitar and let them REALLY see what I do for a hobby. They at least get to see one up close. Most are amazed and really understand now why I'm nuts.

Spanish guitar
Hawaiian steel guitar
Hawaiian steel guitar with pedals

I had a very rewarding experience a couple of weeks ago. I played at a Nursing Home with several friends, and after I tuned up I ran through a few chords. A little lady sitting directly in front of me in a wheel chair smiled and said,"I don't know what that is that you're playing, but I want it, Its the prettiest thing I ever heard." Several other times during the set, she mentioned my guitar. Then, as we were breaking down, she rolled over to me, and rubbed my guitar several times. Then she gave me a big hug, and said, "Don't forget that this is mine, it even has my fingerprints on it now." The enjoyment that she, and the other residents got, (Me Too) was worth more to me than playing a $100.00 gig at a club. I will definitely go again, when I get the chance.
George...

Reece - earlier today I responded to your comment that you made in the topic I began a few days ago about Chromatics and Diatonics. You'll see in that very reply I gave you that my greatest ambition regarding steel guitar is to contribute to the recognition of the instrument. It is very puzzling to me that after all of this time that so many people don't even know what it is. They may recognize the sound but not the structure or the name. Of course, many many music novices don't necessarily know the difference between a fiddle and violin! I don't believe we have that sort of problem.....yet.

The phrase of choice lately for me has been "String Stretcher". However, I'm not quite sure how to account for the "lowering" parts of our guitars. "String Reducer" just doesn't ring to well.

Stay tuned,
Zane

"String Stretcher" and "String Slack(en)er"? The engineer in me just says "mechanical pitch-changing device". Since it's a stringed instrument, that means one of two things - either change the length of or stretch/slacken the string.

Most experienced musicians I'm in contact with seem to know what a pedal steel guitar is. That's probably colored by the fact that I mostly deal with musicians who play some variant of American roots music - blues, country, rock of some form, jazz, folk, gospel, or bluegrass, as opposed to, let's say, show tunes or European classical music.

But many non-musicians or young/inexperienced musicians I run into think it's either a keyboard or a slide guitar - "Man, that's some cool slide, man." I never understood the keyboard response, but I assume their musical world view is quite limited and they're reacting to the fact that we sit behind our instrument with our hands outstretched as if playing a piano. Of course, to me, a steel guitar has always been a particular variant of a slide guitar, and can always be played as such - so that response makes sense to me. But like Mike, I always mention the phrase "pedal steel guitar".

There was a thread recently about the question of whether to change the mechanics underneath to get a particular scale note with a pedal/lever change or work on bar technique. I sometimes think it's easy to forget that a pedal steel is, after all, a slide guitar and it's really worth it to spend plenty of time focusing on bar and slide technique. One can, in principle, put a pitch-changing mechanism on a non-slide stringed instrument, and it's cool - but not a pedal steel.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't remotely want to run away from the sliding part of it - a big part of the beauty comes directly from that. Pedals and levers are great, but they just add to what is already a great sound. To me, without the inherent sustain and total microtonal control created by noting using an unencumbered smoothly-polished steel bar sliding across the strings, everything would be very different.

Zane--I'm one of the novices who doesn't know the difference 'tween a fiddle and a violin--seriously.
(I just heard Paycheck's "Old Violin")

I have used the term "Electric Slide Harp" with good results.

Ray M. - EXACTLY! There is no difference. That was my point indeed. I have had so many folks through the years ask me now is that a fiddle or violin? Seriously. So at least for our steel guitar contraption to date it still just has one name. I guess we'll see how long that endures.

Dave M. I like "String Slacker". Goodness no we can't get away from the bar technique...if we did that we might actually play in tune at some point.

The sliding “sound” of steel guitar and the visual perception of “sliding” as the instrument’s being played, creates a mental picture that identifies with BOTH the sound and the way the instrument is played.

The defining inherent characteristic of our instrument provides the advantage to “Slide” from chord to chord, which no other instrument can accomplish. The names “steel guitar” or “pedal steel guitar” provides no mental connection to the sound or the way it’s played until and unless it is explained. Even after an explanation those names make no reference as to how the instrument is played or connect with the defining sound. Names not associated can be confusing and more easily become “forgettable” by those not familiar with the instrument or it’s sound.