The Steel Guitar Forum

Seems like sometimes I can sit down and play for hours and be pretty satisfied with my progress...other times I can't put three chords together...anyone else?

I encounter that situation each time I get enthused and really want to play something nice.

I happens but with time, it will go away.

Jim, I can so relate!

I've been played guitar since 1973 and steel guitar since 1987. I've only played ukulele for a year. Yesterday I plugged in my lap steel, put bar to strings and the most awful sounds ensued. I then picked up my new Kala travel uke and made music that pleased me very much. Lay off the guitar for two months and no biggie. Lay off the steel for two months and yowza!

Each day is a new day for me when I sit at the steel. The way I've learned to work around this issue is by refocusing my attention to different areas of playing. Sometimes it's right hand or scale exercises, sometimes free play, sometimes simply trying to play a melody as expressively as possible. In other words, there are many, many other tasks to tackle. Best thing is just to get the bar on the strings.

I went through that "hit or miss" period in the early days of playing steel guitar. Some days were better than others. Eventually your playing will become consistent, but you have to keep at it for that to happen.

I'm a fairly new Lap Steel player andI thought it was only me having this problem, but reading the posts from some exceptional players on this forum, there's hope for me yet.
I find that one day I can play the tune I'm working on,then the next day it sounds rubbish.
I recently bought Cindy Cashdollar's Western Swing DVD and I find that helps me to understand the fingerboard layout a bit more.

If you don't want to play, don't.
But be aware that what the audience hears is not what you hear. Your worst ever performance may appear excellent to them. Remember that you're not playing to an audience of steel guitarists; you're playing to an audience that, in most part, cannot tell a Dobro from a bass basoon.

I just try to keep at it so when I can't play, it's a little better than last time I couldn't play.

I've thought a lot about this. A lot of it is mental, imho.

i've learned you have to just plow thru those periods, and they WILL come.

i had been pretty dedicated to steel last year and i remember hitting a hard wall where nothing seemed to be coming together (going in reverse) and one day in May .... i just stood up and put it in the case...where it stayed til last Dec.

i keep reminding myself that "time passes regardless" and its best to just keep plodding along, even if no progress seems to be happening. i came back fresh this year and am finally enjoying my playing & making some progress.

What Alan said about a player's perception of his own playing vs. the listeners' perception is very true. YOU may think it sounds like crap sometimes, but the listeners might love it. And vice versa: sometimes it sounds awesome to You, but the listeners aren't impressed. You'll discover this when you start playing out with bands. Audiences often respond when you don't expect it, and they don't respond when you do expect it!

So a "bad day" for you might just be a matter of your perception, the way you're feeling that day, maybe a lack of rest, etc.

I have progressed from hideous to just horrible... but it's taken a long time.

I have well over 300 songs in my solo performance repertoire, but only about 40 songs that I play all the time. (They are the most requested, most recognized hits that I can play well in my sleep)

Whenever I dig out an old tune that I haven't played in months, I miss a lot of notes and chords, and forget the fret positions that I had worked out long ago.

I find it nearly impossible to maintain an inventory of so many songs in my memory. Sometimes when I get a request for one of these, I have to revert to a very simple one string stab at the melody, or sing and play the chord and a few licks.

However I love taking requests, and I enjoy the challenge. Often I am then reminded of the reason I worked out the tune in the first place. (a sweet melody that lends itself to steel guitar, or a cool progression to solo over)

Dom

Dom Franco wrote:...I find it nearly impossible to maintain an inventory of so many songs in my memory...

Imagine how difficult it must be for singers to remember the words. I'm always impressed at the way they do it. At least, all we have to remember is the tune.

All very interesting comments and experiences I can identify with. Another hurdle we face is self-imposed. As musicians we spend a lot of time listening to very high quality recordings and I think we subconsciously try to live up to that level of playing which often is not spontaneous; the result of a misspent youth, pains-taking preparation and several takes.

I usually happens to me at the Rick Alexander Non Pedal Sessions in Dallas right after seeing Doug Jernigan , Maurice Anderson and other featured Super Pickers mind blowing solos.

Often times over the years I would get frustrated and be hours into working on an intro, lick or passage. I found it best to stop, take a break for 15 minutes and hit it again and, many times, solve the elusive frustration in a few seconds or minutes after the short break. It gets quicker when you learn the neck and the timbre of the same note on a different string on a different fret. Or, with pedals, learn the sound of the pedal and knee combinations or combinations with bar slides.
And, some nights in the club,everything flows and the next night it's a struggle. Same thing with tone.
The more you play, the more consistent you become.

Jim,

Keep in mind most musical instruments allow for, or require, direct physical contact with the instrument. With the steel guitar we express ourselves through a steel bar and metal or plastic finger picks. From the start you are disconnected from the instrument by a very real physical barrier that must be bridged in order to get at the music. For me there are days where it is harder than others to get past the mechanical aspects of playing the instrument.

Another thing that I have noticed about my own playing is that I like to play with a very strong swing feel. This is great when I am playing with other musicians who feel the rhythm the same way, but it is hard for me to adjust if they don't. I play often with a band the does mostly western swing music but the rhythm guitarist struggles sometimes to play a comfortable swing feel. In this case I have to adjust somehow, and it is not always easy.

Then when we switch to straight ahead country songs I have to remember to loose a lot of my swing, and play more centered on the beat to feel connected with the rest of the band.

When I practice rudiments like scales, arpeggios, etc, I practice them with both a straight and swing feel. I noticed some years ago that it was hard to integrate these rudiments into my playing because I was only practicing them straight.

I hope this helps a little.

Gary Meixner

Alan Brookes wrote:

Dom Franco wrote:...I find it nearly impossible to maintain an inventory of so many songs in my memory...

Imagine how difficult it must be for singers to remember the words. I'm always impressed at the way they do it. At least, all we have to remember is the tune.

That is so true. I have a jam session friend who must know hundreds of songs, and I've never seen him sing from a lyric sheet...it amazes me.

I sing and play my steel on most of my arrangements. I actually remember most of the words to 300+ songs.
I really don't like setting up a music stand and reading lyrics, so I have them memorized. If I recall the first words of the verse, the whole line usually comes back...

Dom

I feel you bro; one thing that helps me to avoid that feeling of "wandering around" on the instrument is that whenever I sit down to practice, I have a goal. Maybe to learn the melody to a song, maybe to practice scales/rhythm/musicianship-type stuff, maybe to enhance an arrangement of a tune I've already worked out the melody to... Even just making a list of all the songs that you are familiar with can help you to move past them (as is usually the case with me!)

Sometimes, I need to wander for a bit; generally, when I let myself roam free, I try to record it, because that is when some bit of inspiration will hit for a song/melody idea!

If you'd like some perspective on your own musicianship, check out a great book called Zen Guitar, by Philip Toshio Sudo (I hope I spelled that right...). It's a quick and fun read, and gave me a whole new outlook on the way I approach our craft! Good luck!

I too recommend Zen Guitar.

Alan Brookes wrote:If you don't want to play, don't.
But be aware that what the audience hears is not what you hear. Your worst ever performance may appear excellent to them. Remember that you're not playing to an audience of steel guitarists; you're playing to an audience that, in most part, cannot tell a Dobro from a bass basoon.

I can't agree more! I know what I'm trying to do, and most often I fail, in my own mind. The audience and my band mates don't know, and what comes out may sound very good to them. On the other hand, I'll play what I think is a great solo, and my bandmates don't like it!

I just try to find something new each time I play. It might be working on intonation or just remembering how the danged song goes, but I'm always trying to improve.

And yes, sometimes the picks feel like lobster claws and the sound coming out sounds like a cat fight. But I try to remember that someday I might have a reason to imitate a cat fight, so if nothing else I can figure out how to do that.

Those moments don't seem to last as long as they once did.

If I force myself to practice when I'm not into it, I know I won't get anything out of it! Sometimes picking up a different instrument helps me thru it like the uke or mandolin,after all we are musicians right not just steel guitarists? I think we all hit "clams" at some time and the audience isn't made up entirely of steel guitarists. Furthermore I think I am my own worst critic.
A well know member on this forum told me something that I'll never forget... "Ya just need a shot of confidence and it doesn't take much to impress people on the Pedal steel guitar"!

I can certaily relate to this topic and enjoyed reading rhe various comments...glad rhat i am not alone in this feeling. When it happens to me, i go back to some simple tunes that i know in my sleep to get my confidence back,,,typically a Hank Williams tune. Then, after I feel more confident and feel like I sound ok, I return to working on more difficult, newer material i am trying to learn. Some days, if that doesnt work, i just walk away and do something else, something fun like mowing the yard