The Steel Guitar Forum

I am wondering how you practice? I would be interested in hearing how much you practice and if you have a technique that you use while you practice?

I have been writing down the lick, scale or technique that I am trying to improve on (which now add up to about six or seven), then try and practice each one for 10 or 15 minutes. I set a timer to insure that I spend the same amount of time on each one. I find that if I do not set the timer I spend much less time on some and more on others. After that I play along with songs; as best I can. I think doing so helps me with intonation and timing.

Thanks

Steve

Steve,
Why spend the same amt of time on each passage when, in all likelihood, some of them are naturally easier to play and require less effort to perfect and others don't come so naturally?

I would recommend playing each until you have played it twice in a row without a mistake, up to the desired tempo. I personally think a metronome is more critical than a stopwatch and see little return in playing the same little phrase perfectly until the time runs out. Just my personal opinion.

I have some technique building exercises that I will play for 1/2 hour each day I practice, before playing with tracks or noodling . . . uh . . . exploring new ideas. Different crossover patterns and rolls, etc. can help your playing a BUNCH. Play 'em in every key up the neck, starting slow and gradually increasing the tempo. Don't worry about what notes you're playing. Stuff like 10/9/8, 9/8/7, 8/7/6, 7/6/5, 6/5/4, 5/4/3 and then reverse it. Then 10/9/8, 8/7/6, 6/5/4 and finally 10/9/8, 7/6/5, 4/3/2, 1. Don't forget to play them descending as well. Joe Wright ("Secrets of the Wright Hand") and Jeff Newman ("Right Hand Alpha") have some great courses dealing with this.

Spend as much time as possible with something to keep you honest on the tempo -- like a metronome or rhythm tracks. You may also want to record your practice sessions periodically to help you hear what you sound like better.

Also -- don't ignore SLOW PRACTICE. I was told that Pablo Casals, the famous cellist, practiced scales starting with WHOLE NOTES (4 beats per scale tone) -- now THAT'S SLOW. The objective was to savor every note and play it as beautifully as possible. You'll be surprised how much better the other stuff you play will sound.

Just some ideas.

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<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro

I mostly practice non-musical exercises from Joe Wright's "Technique Bundle". They train the muscle memory so that when it's time to play music, ideas can go straight from my head to the guitar. I don't have to think about the motions.

Then I practice scales.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic) Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

I try to get in at least at hour a day and if I have a session coming up where I have to play something other than long tones, I get in at least a couple days of 4 to 6 hrs just before. If it's going to be long tones, I work on being comfortable with the rack. Sometimes I'll work on learning a phrase off a cd, other times I'll put on a few cds that I'm familiar with and play along, if I have a gig looming, I'll work on the material from rehearsals that I've burned on cd, sometimes I'll dial up a radio station and try to play with whatever comes up (since there's no country music on the radio in LA during the week, it's a way of getting comfortable with other forms). More often than not I'll work on 'keeping up' what I'm comfortable with playing since that's most likely what I'm going to play out anyway.

Use a metronome. It helps keep your playing honest. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jeff Lampert on 14 July 2002 at 07:30 PM.]</p></FONT>

Since the voice comes directly from the "music generating" center of your brain, and has no intervening technology, it is the purest representation of your musical ideas. A great thing to do is to scat sing a line, then stop and figure out how to play it on your steel. That will get you playing your OWN ideas, instead of just playing strung-together licks you've already learned, usually from someone else.

Once you get pretty good at finding where your own lines lay on the neck of the steel, try singing along while playing lines, at first starting very slowly and around scale patterns, then getting more complex. That essentially takes the time lag out so your hands can follow orders from your mind quickly without having to "think about it" so long that it's too late.

Hey Steve:

I like to spend at least 1/2 of my practice time for working on chords and progressions to songs I know (and don't know) in every key and position on the neck. Getting comfortable with different (wide) grips and chord inversions is really important when I practice.

Fast passages and smooth execution are very important, but I believe that understanding how the chords stack up on the steel are what "get pretty".

Just my .02

Have fun!


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Larry Chung
ZB D-10 8+4
ZB Custom S-11 4+4

I normally start my practice by warming up with Ralph Mooney's break from "Above and Beyond". For some reason that really looses me up and guess it also lets me get my left leg in play on the pedals and so forth. Proabably a little bizarre sounding, but whatever works, right?

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Emmons LeGrande - 8x4
Session 400 Ltd
Alesis Microverb
Dan-Echo, E-Bow

Welcome to this Great Forum Steve !
you've already got plenty of good advice posted here.
i practice as much as i can. i manage to get 2/4 hours a day. (and it still ain't enough!)
i do get Flak from my Family tho'...
i use a Rythm machine, the MetroGnome
Back up tracks, Band in a Box, Tabs.
Diversity in Practice. Scales, Chords, Key Changes, Harmonics, Speed Pickin', Pedal Pushin', Tone, and playin' Clean
there's so much to work on.
i can be lazy and play what comes easy, but i find myself forcin' myself to a certain Discipline and it does pay off.
i too Play along w: all kinds of Musik. Recordin' what i practice or play is important to me also
i'm far from bein a model steeler but i gotta put them 02 cents in !
+ like Jim C says: "Scat Sing a Line"
(Now that's Good Medicine!)
if you can sing it, you can play it.
(BTW How many scat while soloing ?
where is the George Benson of the PSG ?!!)
Steel is a Gold Mine here...

For what it's worth......I only practice when I'm "in the mood". Otherwise, I gain little except frustration.
If struck by it, I sit and play for as long as I'm motivated..........minutes or hours. If all does not go well within just a few minutes, I pack it away until later in the day. Seems to work good for me.
When younger, I used to spend hours listening to records that had steel guitar on them. By listening closely, I was able to tune out everyone in the band except for the specific instrument (the steel) that I wanted to hear.
I listened to those little "signature sounds"......wondering "WHY" was it done here and not there.....and then HOW was it accomplished.
Based on these small learning steps, I was later able to ad new sounds/techniques in short order.
This is the hard part of learning to play well.... but offers the greatest rewards for a job well done. Just stick with it....but whatever you do.........don't settle for half-right. One important factor not to be overlooked is.......that some of the prettiest sounds are accomplished with the least amount of gimmickry or affects. We're dealing with "sounds" here; not mechanical aptitude.

Record yourself. If you're like me and play along with records, tapes, and CD's a lot, you get to feeling you're at least as good as the guy that made the recording. THEN when you record yourself you find how truly LOUSY you really are! (Darn it!) I find that all those stumbled over fast licks, those pedal pulls that didn't quite make it all the way to the stop, those blocks that didn't, etc., etc. really stand out when you don't have a really good artist (or a band!)covering your shortcomings. Makes me really appreciate those guys who really have the talent I only thought I had. It also forces you to concentrate more on CLEAN playing.

Oh, I'll also put in a plug for Joe Wright's Technique Bundle. Everybody hates doing "finger exercises", me included, but I gotta admit that every time I force myself to sit down and spend even just 10 minutes doing these exercises, my playing is noticeably improved. No kidding. And why not? After all, every 4 year old starting piano or violin knows they have to do finger exercises. In fact, EVERYBODY does finger exercises EXCEPT steel guitarists! How lazy are we?! We've got one of the most challenging instruments to play, and yet most of us don't want to take on the discipline to really work at it. Joe Wright is a massive exception to this, and it certainly shows in his playing. It's like he's got a separate brain available just for steel guitar, if ya know what I mean.

Could Joe Wright be the Czerny of the steel guitar?

practice??.....what's that??

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<font face="monospace" size="3"><pre> ~ ~
©¿© ars longa,
mm vita brevis
www.ntsga.com </pre></font>

I practice with tapes or cds with steel on them, and sometimes I use rhythm tracks. I play along with a lot of today's country songs with steel. Brett Day, Emmons S-10

Ditto Ray Montee...

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kd...and the beat goes on...

I agree with Gil. If at all possible, record yourself. Do it constantly. When you sound good recorded, you sound good, period. It won't happen quickly. Being able to listen yourself back on a recording without cringing is a major accomplishment with this devil instrument.

On stage! I don't think I've had my steel out of the case at home in years, but I'm on stage six hours a day six days a week.

Joe Wright - the man with two brains. It's true! Ever watch him perform? His face is cracking jokes while his body is playing faster than most of us can do on a good day. He must have two brains!

Seriously, the trick is muscle memory, and the only way to get it is through repetitive exercise. I have proved to myself time and time again that half an hour with Joe's "Technique Bundle" does me more good than a weekend full of 4-hour gigs.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic) Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

I was a guest at the Sierra Booth @ the NAMM show 2 years ago and got to see Joe Wright playing under "less that perfect conditions".
He was severly "under-the-weather" with a cold and what ever he was taking to fight it off and I watched him sit at his steel for long periods of time playing stuff that would make you drool all over yourself, moving up and down the neck in a heartbeat and never missing a note or fret position.
Now if you have ever tried to play with a bad cold affecting your hearing, you know how hard it can be to play in tune period, let alone play the stuff Joe was playing.

HE WAS DOING ALL THIS WITH HIS EYES CLOSED!

JE:-)>