The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi all!

really after a bit of listening advice. I've been playing for a fair few years now and am pretty confident on slower tunes. However if I sit in with a band and they are playing quicker 'chicken pickin' type stuff then I really struggle to find lines to play.

Do you have any suggestions of albums with lots of that stuff on? I know that probably sounds daft as I know there's millions but I've always been more into Ryan Adams/ray lamontagne type stuff so I'm not familiar with much else.

I've been listening to some live flying burrito brothers and that's got loads of the type of playing I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance and have a great day 😎

I'd suggest listening to The New Riders Of The Purple Sage. They have Buddy Cage, who is known for being pretty good on the uptempo stuff. Also, you can pick up the Lloyd Green instrumental album off of amazon, or perhaps here on the forum. It is full of quick picking licks.

why not just listen to Allan Jackson songs ? U probably don't need to go any further than that for a long while. Well known songs, popular songs, the whole deal.

Then all it takes is consistent practice .

Just remember this while you are working on UP TEMPO phrases, if you can't play them slowly, you can play them fast .

It's a discipline .

I'd suggest digging into Waylon's more uptempo stuff for some Mooney leads and fills. I don't necessarily have song suggestions, but since it's ALL good, it'll be fun for you to explore his catalog.

Or, just watch some episodes of Dukes of Hazzard. Fast forward to the car chases!

I have the same problem, so I have decided to go back to the basics:

The Bottle Let Me Down
Heartaches By the Number
Working Mans Blues
Truck Drivin Man
Lonesome Onry and Mean

Those are on my current woodshed list. Good luck!!

Tony wrote: if you can't play them slowly, you can play them fast .

... or you can play them half-fast. I do it all the time.

Bill Terry wrote:

Tony wrote: if you can't play them slowly, you can play them fast .

... or you can play them half-fast. I do it all the time.

Nice one Bill!

You have to crawl before you can walk. I would get some rhythm tracks that have up tempo material and play along with them. Their is no easy way but practice. YouTube is a good place for rhythm tracks.

Excellent, thanks for the tips everybody, hugely appreciated!!

Check out Sneaky Pete on this "Dim Lights" 7min:30sec!
Rocky Top is at 25min20sec:
If you click on the "Show More" button, you can then click to the beginning of any song, or just listen to the entire album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPm_1voGkXA

On anything in the Rocky Top range, it is hard for me to play that fast... although I try to do some Buddy Cage-ee style stuff ...it can get messy at that tempo
When it is my turn to solo I stay pretty close to the melody notes, accentuating the basic pedal bends and bar positions that make it sound Pedal-Steel-ee, then finish with a basic Steel lick.
I sometimes try the double-stop deley trick thing, but it is hard to get the tap-tempo right on the fly at a jam.
I try some Banjo-roll things sometimes, too.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QAENUcHceZ4
Masterful phrasing by JayDee. And a darn nice jacket.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YkophFuh7SE
This is a good example of laying back in an uptempo song, and taking a solo at the end that outlines the melody perfectly. I think it’s Bruce Bouton?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=02CdVoqiGOA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dtibj2hZNqA
Nice up close vids of a Paul Franklin Method student who has been practicing.

To get you started, there is a ton of stuff on you tube from forum members like Pete Burak, Paul Sutherland, Mickey Adams, and others. Non pedal players like Doug Beaumier have also posted many excellent close-up vids that demonstrate beautiful and accurate speed picking technique.

To play fast, good blocking is essential.

I don't know how well you can play, you might have got everything nailed, but if you think your blocking is inadequate, practice it.

Paul Franklin's blog has a couple of posts on playing fast: Speed Trap and Slow Down - Speed Up