The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi everyone! I normally play bluegrass banjo, guitar, mandolin, and bass, but have decided to make to dive into steel guitar, as I've always been fascinated. Currently I am playing a Fender 800 with A6 and C6 necks and not using the pedals trying my best to learn. What is the best way to go about learning the breaks to songs from places like Bob Wills and Carl Smith records, with Herb Remington and Johhny Sibert both on them. There is not really a any tab. I'm trying to hear it out right now and its pretty difficult, especially because I'm not always sure of the tuning or position. What is the best way to learn songs and get down some more of the basics in the country & western styles? Thanks!

Cindy Cashdollar has an excellent 2 DVD set at homespun.com that should help get you started: “Learn To Play Western Swing Guitar””

Larry

I fully endorse the Cindy Cashdollar recommedation - certainly got me started. I would also tip to Eddie Rivers' "Western Swing Rules" contributions on Youtube hosted by Robert Huston, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9rpz ... SETmo18jaA

Eddie demystifies a few soloing techniques and does it in his very relaxed style.

\ paul

You sound a little like me. I play the banjo, guitar and also played dobro before coming to steel guitar, so it has given me a good reference point. With scant materials and few teachers it is a bit of a process with no silver bullet. The Cindy Cashdollar DVDs are a good start. There are a couple of good songbooks for Don Helms (Hank Williams) material and Little Roy Wiggins (Eddie Arnold) material. These are both E6/E13, but a version of that tuning that is extremely similar to C6. There also is the Jerry Byrd course which I think can still be had from Scotty's Music (http://www.scottysmusic.com), and Andy Volk has some good non-pedal books including C6 (http://www.volkmediabooks.com).

I'm still learning, but I'm starting to "get it". Part of that process has just been to take music that I know, that I've played on dobro or other instruments or have just heard, and just work it out by ear. Noodling your way through you begin to learn the patterns of a 6th tuning to the point where you cease to find the different tunings very intimidating. The grips become natural, and A6 vs C6 vs E6 starts to not matter so much. I've done this a lot with old hymns, old country songs, etc, informed somewhat by the arrangements provided in my other materials. The other bit is just to play all the recorded output of say Carl Smith or whoever and just learn to play along with your favorites, listening to the steel and trying to mimic or coming up with your own material that fits. There are also a lot of Youtube videos. Most of them are of the "showing off" variety (nothing wrong with that), which you can still learn from, but the late Rick Alexander for example posted some videos, primarily for A6 I think, where he kind of shows you what he is doing (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 4D58293072). The other piece that is harder to quantify and just takes time is developing style, phrasing and taste.

Here's a Youtube of a fella working out Carl Smith's Loose Talk for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPYNjL5_8zY

And anything on Youtube you can find of the late Kayton Roberts should be inspiring. Here's a couple of my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfkSI5bpbzY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxSF751h1f4


Anyway it's definitely a journey, but a lot of fun.

Check out Eddie Rivers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARCcW3 ... Sz_VzRpW7E

I believe John Ely does skype lessons. His site is invaluable

Andy Volk (volkmedia.com) has an excellent book “Exploring C6th Lap Steel.” It is a comprehensive look at C6th tuning with chords, scales, riffs, techniques and more. A great tool box.

Bill McCloskey wrote:I believe John Ely does skype lessons. His site is invaluable

I take Skype lessons with John: couldn't ask for a better teacher. He's taking the month of May off: he told me he hasn't had a vacation in a dozen years. He certainly deserves one!

I must admit to being a bit of a flounderer. If there is a certain fast song that I am trying to get to grips with for phrasing, I find the YouTube vid and use one of the sites to convert to WAV or MP3. Then play back with Windows media player and reduce speed to half.

Mick:

Did you know that you can lower the speed of Youtube videos by just clicking on the icon on the bottom right that looks like a wheel?

Jesse, I have the Cindy Cashdollar DVDs, mint condition, and will send them off to you for $40 US plus shipping. They're $60 from Homespun.

BTW a lot of Bob Wills, especially the earlier stuff, is jazz standards of the period, often in "horn keys" like Eb and Bb, so if you come from a country & western background they're going to seem odd. I work out the changes by ear on guitar, and after a while that becomes pretty easy. They're mostly blues changes after all. A lot of the later stuff is in folk keys like G so much more straightforward.

"Four or Five Times" is in Eb, Miss Molly is in G, "Polka Dot Blues" is in C, "She's Killing Me" in F - keeps you on your toes for sure. Anyway drop me a PM or email if you're interested in the DVDs.

Mick, did you know that you can change to 1/2 (or 3/4) speed right on the video, under "settings"? No need to convert to another format.