The Steel Guitar Forum

I have been thinking about when and how I learned to play steel guitar.

I first started playing chords on an acoustic "Gene Autry" guitar before starting to school.
My dad played steel on an acoustic guitar with a nut extender, before he got his first electric
steel. In 1948, he began teaching me to play steel and I got my first steel as a Christmas
present in 1949 (a Silvertone steel from Sears). My first formal instruction course was a
"SEARS HOME STUDY COURSE FOR ELECTRIC HAWAIIAN GUITAR-40 COMPLETE LESSONS",
which came with my Silvertone steel. Lots of additional study, practice, playing, and
pleasure since then.

C. E.

A guy from a country band called me and said he heard that I played steel. I told him that I owned a steel, but that was very different from playing one. He said to come on down anyway, and I gradually picked it up as the band practiced.

I started taking lessons from a couple who traveled to different towns in Minnesota five days a week.
They gave lessons on guitar and accordion.
They had their own material to teach Hawaiian guitar and I started out on the "Beginner's Waltz".
I kept taking lessons from them and wound up on a Saturday morning radio program on KDUZ in Hutchinson, MN.
It wasn't too long after that that I graduated from high school and that was the end of the lessons. They were a great couple and they taught me a lot.

In my mid-twenties I heard Jerry Byrd's "Admirable Byrd" LP and became obsessed with all things steel guitar. Bought a little Champ and got to work.

I got a gig playing bass in a country band, and I'd never thought much about steel guitar. The sound of the pedal steel flipped me out. I was worried that my pitch sense wasn't good enough, but my buddy, Mayne Smith, up in the bay area, told me to get a Dobro and come an see him, which I did. He helped me out, and I started playing and discovered I could do it! I got a Fender Champion lap steel on the request of Patsy Montana, when I had a gig with her at McCabe's. I quickly got a pedal steel, but I played my Dobro with friends and family, mostly on old country songs.

I got a gig playing bass in a country band, and I'd never thought much about steel guitar. The sound of the pedal steel flipped me out. I was worried that my pitch sense wasn't good enough, but my buddy, Mayne Smith, up in the bay area, told me to get a Dobro and come an see him, which I did. He helped me out, and I started playing and discovered I could do it! I got a Fender Champion lap steel on the request of Patsy Montana, when I had a gig with her at McCabe's. I quickly got a pedal steel, but I played my Dobro with friends and family, mostly on old country songs.

I was a kid working at a music store, found an old lap steel while doing inventory, bought it, and found a really old Hawaiian guitar book. I already played guitar, bass and mandolin.

Then I listened to all sorts of music and wound up playing all sorts of stuff on steel over the years. I took a few lessons and stole ideas from everyone.

Anyway, I'm still playing the steel guitar since the 70's.

I hope this isn't too long and boring. When my father was returning from Korea, the ship made a stop in Japan to take on fuel, and whatever else a ship needs.

The army guys got a day ashore to see the sights. During that day both my father and a buddy of his purchased a steel guitar.

Somewhere during the second leg of the journey, his buddy got into "a game of chance", but lady luck was not on his side. His buddy came to him wishing to sell the steel guitar he had purchased so the buddy could get back into the game.

My father returned home with two steel guitars.

Fast forward to 1960. I decided to learn the guitar. I couldn't help but notice that all the other guys had electric guitars, so the pickup from the lesser steel guitars was trans planted to my new blue and white Silvertone arch top acoustic guitar.

The better of the two steel guitars remains intact, with its high gloss black finish, and most all of the pearl inlay still in place, and the strings still in place to accommodate my left handed father.

We learned of a steel guitar club in Winchester Indiana, and learned of another in Joliet Illinois. He attended all the conventions until his passing.

It is A Tiesco guitar that will always remain strung up left handed in his honer.

Ron

When and how I learned to play steel guitar?
I don't think I know yet. That's what makes it take a lifetime.
C.E., If that Sears course is in low A tuning and contains "Old Black Joe" I still have my copy somewhere.

My dad was a fiddle player in a hillbilly band. When I was 8 years old dad thought it was time for me to be playing an instrument. I wanted to play guitar like my older brother but my hands were too small so the teacher, Felix Chalero, at Chalero's music in Springfield, MA brought out a lap steel and I was off and running with the A tuning Oahu course. In the mid 50's I changed to Pizzitola Music to learn the latest and greatest country tuning, E7th. I picked up the dobro G tuning on my own after high school and have continued to use mostly G and E7th tunings for 60 years. I don't remember the brand name of my first lap steel.

John Dahms wrote:When and how I learned to play steel guitar?
I don't think I know yet. That's what makes it take a lifetime.
C.E., If that Sears course is in low A tuning and contains "Old Black Joe" I still have my copy somewhere.

John, Old Black Joe is not in my 40 Complete Lessons Book, but is in the SEARS HOME STUDY COURSE
FOR HAWAIIAN GUITAR-30 COMPLETE LESSONS PART 2 book.





C. E.

I'm with John on this...I dont know how to play yet !
I started when I was about 21 and teaching guitar in the studio where I took guitar lessons and playing rock and roll. The owner of the store and my guitar teacher was a great steel player and one day I heard him teaching a student "Steelin' the Blues"...that was it ! I told him I had to learn that so he sold me his Fender quad and off I went, and still dont play "Steelin the Blues" very well
He just taught me by rote altho as a guitar student we used the Oahu "Spanish" guitar music. I was leaving for the USAF in less than a year, so I think he tried to show me as much as he could in a short time. This was 1969. I continued with guitar, but I didnt touch a steel again until 1981.

I tried learning pedal steel on a SHo-Bud Maverick back in the early 80's. I got good enough that I sucked really bad at it.

About 5 years ago, I lost the feeling in my left ring and pinky fingers, and decided to leave guitar and bass and try steel again. Started with C6 lap, and have migrated from lap to pedal and back to lap, using a traditional E6 tuning now, and soon to have also a second neck with a similar A6 tuning.
And, I am loving it!

I started with lessons in 1948, I was 11 in Grade 8 at Gorsebrook School. A class mate, Bill Baker said, "I'm taking Hawaiian guitar lessons, it's a lot of fun you should come". After convincing my mom for the $1 per week, I took lessons from the Halifax Hawaiian Studios (HHS). It was the old Low Bass A Major tuning E C# A E A E by the Number System, known as TAB today. With a thumb pick only, my first lesson was "You Are My Sunshine". I caught on quickly and soon my teachers Roy Armstrong and Frank Martell told me to just stick to the music!!!!! Most of my lessons were the Hit Parade of the day, "My Happiness", "There's A Tree In The Meadow" and a lot of Eddy Arnold's hits such as "I'll Hold You In My Heart", "Bouquet of Roses" etc and Hawaiian songs of course such as Aloha Oe and Sweet Leilani. HHS subscribed to the Oahu system which was common.

You can see more and a couple of pics on my personal website George Rout.com click on Music Bio.

Geo

I still feel like the new kid around these parts. 2 years ago, I made my own 6-string lap steel with battery powered tools and a skateboard deck after seeing a YouTube video... and realized that I had no idea how to play the homely little creation that left my workbench.

I started out with regular Ernie Ball electric guitar strings in Low Bass A Major, and the first song I learned was "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes. This week it's strung up in C6th.

I can play well once in a while. When I can get some consistency into my playing, I'll leave the "woodshed" and play for other folks.