The Steel Guitar Forum

I heard this funny story that Mike Stern asked Miles Davis on their first gig, how good he did. Miles told Mike to go to "Notes Anonymous". I think we are all guilty of playing too many notes. When I listen to Jimmy Day play a ballad, he never puts in once extra note that isn't needed

Jimmy was a great player, and the stuff he did was simple and beautiful. But if everyone played exactly like Jimmy Day, the legacy of pedal steel guitar would have been a very limited and boring one. I'm glad we had others, like Emmons, Charleton, Rugg, Myrick, Green, Chalker, Jernigan, White, Crawford, Basore, Brumley, Drake, Pendleton, Black, Murphy and others to come along and give us different sounds and styles.

There's more than one way to play this thing!

Variety= the spice of life or in this case music.

Those of us that like the "no more notes than needed" like it because, like me, we don't know how to add the extra notes.
Just playing the simple song is hard enough.

I agree it takes a variety of players to make the instrument come to life.

Sam

Among the sagest adivce I ever received when first starting out was that what you don't play is every bit -- if not more -- important than what you do play.

I am sure you guys have heard Ye Olde Musician say, "The simpler I play, the more money per note I'm making!"

Jimmy was once heard to say after listening to another player burning up the guitar, "I wish I could play like that, then I wouldn't."