Can we still be friends?

Mike Neer · From: NJ

It has been 20 years now that I’ve been a member of this forum. Crazy how fast that time has flown. In that time, I have been through quite a few changes, most significantly making the decision to focus solely on lap steel. First, it started with feeble attempts at trying to play electric lap steel, then followed by a foray into acoustic Hawaiian style playing with a group called the Moonlighters, which gave me a little footing. Then, another feeble attempt at electric, particularly C6-based playing, which forced me to throw down and invest all of myself into learning. It really paid off for me. It wasn’t easy leaving all of my past behind, including many lucrative gig situations that I had been in.

Without this forum, I feel like I would have been stuck in a loop chasing my own tail. But here, I learned a lot of important things that weren’t taught in the few books available. My advice is to seek out as much as possible about all the players and styles you can. The one sad thing is that so many people seem to like to keep things in neat little boxes. History has already been made, the future relies on unpacking those boxes.

That being said, as I’ve progressed in my playing I’ve been able to shift my attention solely on the music and less on the playing. The last record I made took every ounce of my playing that I could muster and while I was happy with the result, I asked myself “is this all there is?” I want more out of the instrument than I have been able to find.

Which brings me to my next point: I’m focusing more of my creative energy into live production and composition, using the lap steel as a tool, but also expanding into places where I feel like I am in no-man’s land. While it is super exciting and full of promise, it’s also a little lonely and at times frustrating and misunderstood. I’m using MIDI combined with steel guitar to create sort of an Ambient Jazz thing, sometimes rendering the steel guitar indistinguishable in the mix. I don’t have any issue with this, but a lot of folks wonder why I would want my steel to be an electric piano, or a cello, etc. Again, it’s all about the music and the unpacking of lots of little boxes. In this case, my lap steel is the tool I use to get the job done.

Why am I typing all this? I just want to know if we can still be friends.
Thanks for reading.

Noah Miller · From: Rocky Hill, CT

I don't have a problem with any of that as long as I can still make fun of bagpipes. Razz

Joe A. Roberts · From: Seoul, South Korea

Have you seen this video of Cody Farwell’s? It may interest you: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jckmn6yjPQQ

Joe Elk · From: Ohio, USA

JUST KEEP PLAYING!
JOE ELK CENTRAL OHIO

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Joe Cook · From: Lake Osoyoos, WA

Mike, you are an inspiration. Music is meant to be a creative endeavor. I like all kinds of music. My musical tastes run from Jerry Byrd to The Dead Boys. I think creative musicians keep an open ear to everything as inspiration, even a different instruments' tonality can inspire a new song. Keep pushing the boundaries, Mike. I enjoy your playing.

Bill McCloskey · From: Nanuet, NY

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Steffen Gunter · From: Munich, Germany

Of course we can! Mike Brecker played the Midi Wind Instrument, so Mike Neer can use his steel guitar as midi controller too! It will still be music played by a human being and not a computer.
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Tim Toberer · From: Nebraska, USA

Anyone who can play Monk on the lap steel is cool in my book. Cool

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Yes.
Instruments are the tools of the music making trade, and music (among many other things) is a vehicle for exploring our instrument.

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

As far as I’m concerned, we can be even BETTER friends! You’re moving into the realm of fine art music, and you are arriving there with a full set of musical “chops”. I am really looking forward to seeing where this leads you.

John Cage, La Monte Young, Ben Patterson…
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Current Tunings:
6 String | G6 – e G D G B D
7 String | G6 – e G B D G B D

https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database

Bill Sinclair · From: Waynesboro, PA, USA

Dang, I thought this was going to be a really cool midi cover of a Todd Rundgren song. Smile

Yep, always interested in what you're up to.

Karl Paulsen · From: Chicago

Love to hear about folks using steel in interesting ways. Everyone has their own preferences but I find the thought that steel should only sound "like steel" a bit silly.

Where would we be if people had put limits on what an electric fretted guitar should sound like?

The steel guitar (with or without pedals) is such an interesting, long-sustaining, expressive instrument that it'd be a shame if that wasn't explored in new and experimental ways.
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Ryan Lunenfeld · From: Colorado, USA

Go for it!

There are so many tools at our disposal to combine to create unique sounds, and twists on our lap steels today.

There's a great steel player(albeit pedal) that mixes new tools together, Chuck Johnson check him out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9ICEvOXPG4

I think he's a member of the forum?
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David Matzenik · From: Cairns, on the Coral Sea

Thank God for people like you, Mike. Me? I'm just a guy who hears a tune he likes and tries to play it.
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Don Downes · From: New Hampshire, USA

Yogi said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Your heart will tell you where to go.

I wish you good travels.
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Michael Butler · From: California, USA

two thumbs up for you!

i feel the same. i play and write "standard type" songs as well as ambient type also. sometimes i even combine the two. i've run vocals, harmonica and lap steel thru heavy effects or change them via midi and it seems to allow me to think differently.

could you divulge your setup?

thanks,

play music!
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Daniel Baston · From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Mike, a lot of the things you said there resonated with me. I am also so grateful to the forum for being a deep well of information, inspiration and encouragement. I have been a member of a few different music and guitar-related forums over the years and this one is special. I, like you, would not have been able to get where I have with playing steel without this amazing place and community. I am not implying that I have accomplished anything even approaching what you have, but I think you can see what I mean.

Having said that, I would also like to thank you personally. Both through things that you have posted on here and through your music, I have learned a lot from you. I know that I am not alone in that either. And the fact that you are following your muse is a great inspiration itself, regardless of specific creative goals. I think it is also safe to say that without your influence (from a distance), I would not have gotten to where I am at with steel guitar. I don't want to make this about me, so I will only briefly say that I think I am getting closer the point where I can share what I am working on with other people. I hope that I can in some way give back, even in a small way to this wonderful community. Ok maybe that sounds sappy, but I think that this place and really the steel guitar community in general, is pretty great.

Thanks for everything you have contributed to steel players and for your excellent music. 'Steel on' Mr. Neer.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Of course, Mike!

I just wrote this on another thread - the instruments and techniques are a means, not an end. That can be easy to forget when ya' get down in the weeds. I have to kick myself in the ass every once in a while to remind myself to get out of my foxhole and look around to see what's really going on.

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

Gotta say this thread is a nice reminder of just how great this forum is. Whether you play lap steel to replicate Hawaiian music, vintage Country music, or you’re into pushing the instrument into brand new experimental dimensions… there’s a home for you in this group of people.

Fantastic!
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Current Tunings:
6 String | G6 – e G D G B D
7 String | G6 – e G B D G B D

https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database

Thomas Bray · From: Ohio, USA

Mike, I'm on the other side of the track. In a few weeks, I'll be 60, never played an instrument other than tuning my daughter's violin and my son's many guitars, all but 2 which I made.

Now that my wife and I have the house to ourselves, I want to learn to play, not regular guitar, just lap steel. Music has always been my drive, focus, at times my therapist, but I've always wanted to create the sounds I love, not just hear them.

I knew nothing about the instrument itself until a couple months ago, just that I like the music it creates. Now that I'm invested, I see what you mean about the inavailability of learning material. I bought a few packs of C6 strings for my guinea pig LSG, one I'm modifying as I go, only to find the book I bought to get started is teaching all in open D. I had no idea that could even BE an issue. (Thankfully, my wife just bought me a lap steel with the features I want on my next LSG, which I was going to build after winter, it will be here in a few days)

I'm hoping that, between reading old posts, asking questions when I'm clueless, and playing a lot of YouTube videos, that I can get over the bell curve without too many stumbles. It gives me hope seeing the quality of players on both ends of the spectrum that inhabit this forum. 1

As far as creating outside the box, I can't wait to hear what your mind envisions!

Andy Volk · From: Boston, MA

Friends forever. Musical inspiration forever. Follow your path wherever it leads..
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Mark Mansueto · From: Michigan, USA

Mike, I just see it as an evolution of the instrument. You are using the lap steel in new and innovative ways and I think that's pretty awesome.
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Mike Neer · From: NJ

Wow, thanks for all the responses! I read them all and was very moved by this. I agree with Allen, this is a great community.

Some of these things have been brewing in me for years but the realization of them was only possible once I made commitment to learn a lot more about subjects that were once esoteric and foreign to me (and still are to a large degree). MIDI, synthesis, looping and even working in a live DAW environment rose to the top of the list. But more importantly, so did composition and orchestration. The recording of my last album really opened up doors for me on a technical level, and also a musical level.

So, let's see where this goes.

Craig Stock · From: Westfield, NJ USA

Cool what you are doing Mike, a question to you is were you a fan of Larry Fast?, he lived very close to you at least many years ago, I liked what he was doing back then.
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