Recommended Instruction Books?

[Glen Derksen]

I would like to know what anyone's most recommended instruction books would be. Thanks.

[Mark Hershey]

Winnie Winston's PSG book.

Dewitt Scotts Anthology

and then Jeff Newman courses.

[Ken Pippus]

All Herb Steiner's stuff.

[Mark van Allen]

Hi, Glen, it depends a bit on what your particular stylistic interests are as there are a lot of great instruction courses floating around, some pretty obscure. I totally agree with the last two posts… for instance, if you like traditional shuffles and classic Nashville style, you can't go wrong with Buddy Emmon's original Emmons Guitar company course with all the Ray Price tunes, or his more recent "Half Duzzin Shuffles". That one is LOADED with great moves and ideas, some quite advanced, and demonstrations of some of the more modern lever changes, splits, etc.
There is an older course around by Catfish John called "Trapping Squirrels" that deals with just usage of the second and 9th string changes.
Jeff Newman's "Up From The Top" series is just a wonderful foundation for building understanding of the use and combinations of the standard pedals and knee levers within the context of the kinds of chord progressions you'd run into on the bandstand, but/and his other courses are based around teaching his lush Mancini-like arrangements of pop and country tunes.

There are older thick books from Keith Hilton and Doug Jernigan with 100 pages of various licks, chord progressions and songs that are just loaded with gems.

So you see what I mean, it depends where your interests lie. I teach and thirst for insight on how others think and play, so I collect instructional material and I'd have to say I've learned something from everyone. We've come a LONG way from the days when the little Sho-Bud books with very simplistic arrangements was about all there was for instruction!

[James Quillian]

This is a good place to start.

http://donzpedalsteel.com/e9thcourse.htm

For $20.00 it will get you started and it is good material, just no bells and whistles.

IMO, learning a string instrument comes down to practice with Tab and MP3 files. Start with the simplest song possible and keep practising. I haven't found much else that makes any difference. Learn first, the things the more complicated stuff is based on.

[Don Sulesky]

Thanks James for the plug.
I now have over 500 satisfied players who have purchased my EZ E9th course since 2004.