The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi all,

Here is a new tutorial video for the song: 'Fooling Around'.
Hope you guys enjoy this tutorial, I did not the exact playing on the record but I want to guide you through this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpMbZgyQfYA&t=1s

Best regards,

Mathew Jut

Mathew

I love Mooney and I always try to play his style as accurate as I can. I believe his style is one of the few that should never be watered down through inaccuracies. Its very important that all of the nuance in the Mooney style gets shared as correctly as possible for the next generation....

....On "Foolin' Around" I chose to play many of the licks exactly as I learned them from Ralph. He was my first influence when I got my Fender 400...A few years into playing I met him as a teenager in Michigan. He was traveling with Wynn Stewart and graciously took his time with me......Ralph shared many of his thoughts as I asked him a multitude of questions.....Ralph emphasized there is more to what he does than what I hear ...He went on to explain how he loved to play three strings and put more emphasis on the top two strings for dynamics. He did this so the top two out of the three strings he played would twang louder, but instead of just hitting 2 strings - his way sounds fat and funky.. I played that same concept at the end, where you played and taught the phrase as two strings (I used only one grip with three strings and played them using a different fret position).....Getting the little things right is part of the rhythmic punch of Ralph's style...I didn't switch grips the way you taught. The thinner gauged 3rd string is on top which gives it that Mooney top end bite - So important to the style....

Ralph would also play what I call ghost notes....Without them, Mooney's style has no rhythmic feeling..You missed "all" of the ghost notes in each section of the tutorial making it much harder to play as you taught it...... Pedals were used in the tutorial intro where I played a picked string. The picked note was needed to rhythmically set up the pedal snap.

I am so glad your generation loves this style...For you and everyone, I suggest all to go back to the source and listen to Mooney on those early records....He was a very nuanced player.....Use the slow downer to hear how Ralph snaps the pedals - the tutorial taught too many ups and downs on the B pedal as a smooth move in the intro (That is not what I played, nor what Ralph does in his style) And most importantly there is a missed ghost note which is needed to set up the rhythm for that pedal snap....Going back through those early years would be a great study for anyone who wants to play aggressively on the pedal steel. He was the first Rocker on pedal steel.....You can do this!


As a kid when I first met Mooney, he asked me to play something so I played him my interpretation of a Wynn Stewart solo he played.....He stopped me in my tracks to help me as I am doing here with Mathew...He corrected me by pointing out my inaccuracies in the parts I copied...Saying, "Kid, to play this right, you got to learn what's going on" ...He then showed me how to snap the pedals.Showed me how he picked three and emphasized two for a twang, like on the early Haggard stuff..Ralph pointed out how he used ghost notes(Lightly played notes) to get the rhythm right, so important!.......His style is more complicated and very nuanced....

Paul

Love this, Paul.

I really appreciate both the initial post and Paul's response here. Accuracy aside, anybody willing to take the time and post tutorials like you do deserves thanks. Even if they are approximations of parts, they can serve as a quick reference of what is basically going on in a riff, and allow players to take the ball and run with it by filling in the missing pieces, i.e. the ghost notes in this case. The ghost note concept is important to that Mooney "bounce" and as Paul stated ends up making riffs easier because it anchors you into the rhythm of riffs like this intro. I haven't seen it for myself but I take it Paul digs into such concepts in his course.

Thank you all for the reply, I will be continuing the tutorial videos. I scheduled to do the whole Bakersfield album, because I really love the playing and I think it would help many people out with these songs. But to be clear, I won't be playing and teaching the exact recordings. It will be my OWN arrangement.

Also, I'm not sure what 'Ghost Notes' are but eventually I will! If somebody can explain it to me more clearly, then I would really appreciate that. And off course, I'm also going to study the older recordings in the future but because I'm very busy with my Graduation Internship now, I have to decide what I learn.

I think the ghost notes are basically just inserted so you can play a steady stream of 8th notes happening with your fingers. You kind of just brush or tap the string with the finger, but don't emphasize it.

It's kind of like how a banjo player would play, there's emphasis on different notes, but you're still playing constant 8th notes, just some are more audible than others.

I loved Paul's observation that Mooney was the 'first Rocker on pedal steel'!

I couldn't agree more! Without realising who it may have been, I was exposed to his exciting voicings when I acquired a Capital Records compilation of country tracks by various artists. The one that jumped out to me was Wynn Stewart's 'Man, Man, Mr Sandman'.

I was bowled over at the attack and the aggressive blues phrasing. Of course, it didn't hurt any that the record also had James Burton on electric guitar - James and Ralph were a fearsome combination.

Unfortunately, I had to take down all of my tutorial videos of Paul Franklin. He asked me to take down all his licks & songs because he and Universal own these songs. So, my excuses for the miscommunication! Also, probably Paul Franklin is going to teach all of these songs by himself via his Course, the Paul Franklin Method. I would say, check it out!

Again, huge sorry for this, the Bakersfield plan which I had planned is not going to work out. However, I will continue to do tutorial videos about other songs and my own stuff on YouTube.

I first reached out to Mathew a little over a month ago over helping him with his technique....I did the same with Sharon Frances....I discovered then and there that he is a very nice man who loves playing steel.....I since refer to him as "Sweet Mathew". And I believe his intent was innocent here and I consider him a friend whom I will continue on trying to help...

Paul

Hmmm.......I'm pretty sure teaching tutorials based on released material falls squarely under "fair use", so long as the original source material isn't played in the video.

Now I can certainly understand taking something down by request of the original artist, out of respect, as Matthew was willing to do. But I don't believe anything he did was illegal, or even against Youtube's standards, especially as it was his own interpretation. Hell, look at all the "covers" videos out there.

Again, the original source material is protected.......NOT interpretations or educational uses.