The Steel Guitar Forum

I love Winnie Winston's book so the following implies no disrespect AT ALL. It's a simple fact that the tab for Great Speckled Bird and Nashville to Bakersfield has errors compared to the recording on the CD. It moves too fast for me to figure it out. Does anybody have these two tunes tabbed out with the corrections? Again, I love his book... It has been a great help to me.

I don't know whether to regard them as errors. Several players who publish tab seem to write down what they think they play and then do something else in the moment.

I would learn it as written and treat the recording as an example of a possible variation.

Peter, please check your PM inbox. Thanks

Thank you Gerald. I attempted to send you my email but I'll pm it again.

Peter,
I would not worry about a few errors here and there. I wonder how many hundreds of us, at the least, learned how to play pedal steel based on this incredible book.

If you you are concerned about getting every note correct, you might consider buying an electronic device like THE AMAZING SLOW-DOWNER to help find those errors in this book and other tab you will no doubt find later.

Stevet

Thank you Steve. I was vaguely aware of these slowing down machines but haven't actually considered obtaining one till now. Thanks. As to accuracy, when I feel inspired by a particular set of licks my emotional response between hitting the actual lick and doing an approximation to that lick is night and day. I guess it's the thrill in getting "THAT sound".

Excellent book that, although 42 years old, has aged quite well. Obviously some of the references are dated, and a few minor errors have never been corrected, but there's been no better book on the subject published to date that I'm aware of. An amazing accomplishment to have a book that old that's still in print.

Oak Publications got it right the first time back in the day. It's likely that "Pedal Steel Guitar" has been as influential to budding steel players as Tony Glover's 1965 "Blues Harp" has been to mouth organists.

There is absolutely nothing preventing the updating that book and selling an updated edition. The publisher would probably sell a lot more copies if the tab was modernized. It would cost chump change to have someone do it.

That of course is a business decision and that is just a suggestion on my part.

And...make it spiral-bound. Please.

There are several devices that will slow down songs for you. Amazing Slow Downer is computer software.

A classic book that was "the bible" for a lot of us who learned to play in the 1970s.

Coincidentally, I was playing a song in the book this morning with one of my students. When comparing the tab to the audio, I noticed that the measure lines in the tab are way off. The bar lines seem to be put in at random, not per 4 beats or 3 beats. And rests (in the audio) are not displayed in the tablature. In other words, the tab is continuous on a line and it does not always show the pauses in the steel playing on the audio. And of course, no notation. So I needed to pencil in a lot of rests and measure lines that were not there. If a player can play by ear, he can listen to the audio and figure out the tab. But if he's replying only on the tab it will be a slow process with a lot of guesswork IMO.

I have found it if I am not familiar with a song, it is tough for me to play with tab only because the reats are not shown always. Besides, I have this book and cd and you're right, the cd is very different than the tab. But. The tab is a good baseline to start at. We all take lierty of expression when playing tunes...that's what I love about PSG, no 2 pickers play one song exactly the same. I'd use the tab to learn the notes, and if I don't know the tune, I use the cd to familiarize myself. Just my take