The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm developing an understanding of how reso parts add ornamentation to melody, and how solos are structured. What I don't know is what reso players are doing when they are not playing featured parts/riffs. Comping chords, and the like. Should there be banjo-style rolls or the percussive muted chords like mandolin parts? The reso disappears in the mix so completely that I can't hear what the players are doing while other instruments are soloing.

Are there any instructional videos or audio cassettes/cds that explain what a reso player should be doing when others are soloing?<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Chris Walke on 01 May 2000 at 08:39 AM.]</p></FONT>

Musician's Workshop has a cassette called "Backup & Fills for Dobro" by Dan Huckabee. Here's the description:
This four-hour course will give you the ability to play backup in any situation you encounter. You will gain a large vocabulary of backup material and an understanding of how to apply the licks from both theory discussion and example tunes. Presented like private lessons. No written music is necessary because Dan explains and plays everything thoroughly on cassette.
I find personally that silence is golden, especially if there are a large number of instruments playing.

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Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Thanks for the tip, Brad.

I play lap and bottle neck with another guitarist and a harp player. I'm definitly not the best but I find that during the other players breaks I can play pretty much what I want if I just lay back and play quietly. On lap I tend just to emphasize the chord changes by glissing up to the chord.

On bottleneck there are more options as I can easily comp chords, double the rhythm or add some simple fingerpicking.

What you play for back up depends on what kind of song ie fast or slow and what is going on in the rest of the band. In a bluegrass context if the mandolin is taking as break it's nice to play chops like a mandolin. You can use your fingers to do this.I prefer to do it with my thumbpick and letting the stings rattle against the bar but muting it with the right hand.With this method you can achieve different rythmic pulses to suit what is being played.When the mandolin is playing chops don't play them or play them very quietly.Listen to fiddle back up on slow songs for ideas on what works. It is usually very few long notes. Hope this helps.