The Steel Guitar Forum

Who do you have in mind when working up music on lap steel?

- Other musicians? (e.g. the folks on this forum)

- The general public?

- Yourself?

- Some other group of folks? (e.g. church, old folks homes, etc.)

I tend to play first & foremost for myself, just because I really enjoy untangling the mystery of lap steel.

Second place goes to the general public, as I play a lot of solo/corporate gigs.

Last place is playing for other musicians.

I only play for ME! I am the only one who can stand to listen!

My main interest is recording original music. I've only released a couple that contain lap steel but I have quite a few more in my library of songs. Some will get released and others will go to production libraries. I also get requests to play lap steel live occasionally. I don't really have a lot of time to just sit and play because I'm generally playing to prepare for something.

I play to my own interests but I feel like I want to put the music out there in case someone else needs to hear it. I don’t have much control over that but I try my best.

Sideman gigs are a different story, though I won’t take the gig unless I can do my thing.

Mike Neer wrote:I play to my own interests but I feel like I want to put the music out there in case someone else needs to hear it. I don’t have much control over that but I try my best.

Sideman gigs are a different story, though I won’t take the gig unless I can do my thing.

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Mike, I really respect how you are true to you musical DNA and not trying to mimic what has been done already. You are a voice and not an echo.

I play for my own pleasure. I have played steel on gigs, but I'm semi-retired these days.

David DeLoach wrote:
Mike, I really respect how you are true to you musical DNA and not trying to mimic what has been done already. You are a voice and not an echo.

I appreciate that David. I spent decades playing lucrative but unsatisfying gigs. I made the best of it, but I wish I’d had the courage earlier in life to take chances. Maybe the truth is I just didn’t have the right stuff then. None of that matters anymore. It was all part of the process.

I have played all sorts of instruments for a living for a long time. The dead presidents are your best audience…

It depends…

I always play first and foremost for my own pleasure, but…

At home, I play strictly for my own enjoyment.

At rehearsal I also play for the band.

At gigs I also play for the audience.

These daze, I play only for myself. But in a previous lifetime, I gigged for years, and played mostly for the audience. It's how I learned to never play a biker bar with a band who didn't know how to play Steel Guitar Rag and/or Sleepwalk.

"Art form?? What are we suppose to be? We communicate with our listener by our art form, which is this instrument. And if you don't do that, you are only making sound and not really communicating.
What are we suppose to be doing up here?...
1). Showing off - for other musicians...
2). or play for the common people?
....or not playing what they want to hear?
We are not playing what the people want to hear!"

This is a REALLY good question! And I've struggled with my answer.

I think I am mostly playing for the swing dancers that will, one day soon, flock to see me. But I am also playing to impress Leon Redbone, the Mills Brothers, Sol, Bix, Jimmie Rodgers, etc - all sources of inspiration.

(I've played banjo for a long time and while it's fun to play any time, when people are up and dancing, That's when it feels the best. So I am trying to make what I play swing.)

But the reality is that I mostly play for my two, very forgiving, ever encouraging, sons as they fall asleep. But some day, they'll be dancing to my music!

I guess, when practicing, or just noodling, I’m playing for the therapeutic time that my guitar provides me, away from the busy world.

As an amateur bar gigger, and side man, I’m playing for the band. I’m essentially dancing with them, looking for that smile, that occasional twinkle in their eye that shows that they’re digging the song and the interplay. If the audience is the right audience, and we’re reading them right, they will give us back some good dancing, cheers, appreciation, which provides a good high for all.

I play just for myself, since there's zero chance of anyone else tolerating it. My music certainly is not a form of art.

I play for myself at home. But when I gig, I play for the people. Unless we're proped up or it's a tough room. Then I play for myself and the band in front of a disinterested audience.

I’m always looking at either live performance or recording for my steel pieces. I play my Stringmaster on about 50% of our live material, with several performances per month. I’m always thinking about how to play for maximum audience enjoyment.

It comes down to who am I lucky enough to get to play for. Usually its just small gathering, and rarely do I find anyone knows the repertoire or genre, and these people are usually over 50. I played in a beach bar once during a rock band's break. The crowd loved it, took pictures and asked me about the guitar, but the front man couldn't wait to get me off.

Myself, in service to the song. There's no way to calculate what's going to please someone else and there's certainly no way to play in a way that's going to please everybody so I play what I think is right for the song and the arrangement at that moment in time. If a given listener doesn't care for what I'm doing then they are free to tune out and/or go listen to something else.

I enjoy any guitar playing but I always play for the band..lucky to have great band mates..here in Hawaii we play the same 20 songs on the Luau band, the only way to get through it is watching the tourists enjoy it!