The Steel Guitar Forum

I am about to purchase my first instructional material to learn how to play this "contraption" (as my girlfriend called it) that just arrived at my house.

Any suggestions as to what material to go after? Everyone here started somewhere, so just let me know where.

Merry Xmas!!

I highly recommend any tab by Buddy Emmons you can find. And you can find it at: http://www.BuddyEmmons.com

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Lots of stuff on this topic in the archives, so I'd check there first.

Also, a couple of hours of searching the archives (and following links to people's websites) for instructional material will also get you lots of good (and free!) stuff to print out--from tab to descriptions of various blocking or vibrato techniques to suggestions on how to practice. You'll have to organize it yourself, but there's lots there.

Two pieces of advice you'll find repeated again and again are to find a good teacher and to practice a lot. Pretty hard to go wrong with either of those ideas.

-Travis

The Buddy Emmons tab I have seen is great
both because of the arrangements and also
the beats are indicated below so you can
figure out the rhythm. (A lot of tab I've
seen lacks this feature, and it is tough
to understand without a recording.)
DeWitt Scott has several Mel Bay books that
are very nice - a Deluxe Pedal Steel Guitar
Course, a Pedal Steel Anthology, and a Gospel
book. These all have both tab and standard
musical notation which I like a lot.
Jeff Newman's instructional material all
seems first class to me - I learned a lot
from it. He has MANY courses.
(Lots of other good material I don't know
about, I'm sure...)

Start with the RightHand Alpha by Jeff Newman. It will not only save you years of effort later on, but when you finish it - anything else you work on will be much easier than it would have been otherwise.

Get Buddy's Expo E9th and learn to play "This Cold War With You".

Expect it to take at least six months but when you're done you will have learned a lot about the pedal steel and the knee levers.

Bob

I suggest you call 540-972-2388 and see if can schedule some lessons in Fredericksburg with Buddy Charleton. It looks like a bit of a trip from Winchester, but I think you'll find it worthwhile. Good luck to you.

I vote for Charlton also ! You will get more out of a one on one with a real master than a truckload of tab. I drive all the way from Brooklyn to see Buddy and it is well worth it.

Bob

Just go slow..any good beginners course from Buddy, Jeff Newman, Joe Wright etc..will get you off in the right direction. Some of the courses are also available in video format so that may be of interest as well.

Whichever couse you do decide on, stick with it..finish it..maybe not in a day or a week, or even a month or two..but finish it before moving along to more materials. One of the biggest issues it seems is that many new players end up with gobs of course material and pretty much don't really complete any.

IF you have a player local that you can get a few lessons from that would also be a great advantage.

Just go slow, there are many mechanical facits to this Instrument which must be conquered at the same time as playing the music.

Good luck..
T

Call Jeff Newman and ask this ? from a master teacher.

ernie

What Ernest said....

I guess no one has the patience that guys like myself and Ray Montee had years ago, when we were starting out, but; through correspondence with Ray, I've learned that we both listened to many, many recordings, and actually still do! However, learning today is a lot more involved than it was in our early-years. But, it's still just as exiting! “BJ”

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“Big John” Bechtel
http://community.webtv.net/KeoniNui/BigJohnBechtels

Corey, Check out the instructional material offered right here on the forum. Just click on "Steel Guitar Music Gifts and Ideas" at the top of this page. The sales made here help to support this great Forum. Have fun!!

Corey, if you have an spare hour ... you can come over and I'll show you everything I know ...

Then, with the remainin' 59 minutes ... we can listen to old steel records and drink some rum ...

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<font size=1>www.horseshoemagnets.com </font>

Scotty has put out some excellent material published by Mel Bay. This material really got me aimed in the right direction when I started mashing pedals. The best investment you'll EVER make is the little Pedal Steel Guitar Chord Chart written by Scotty and published by Mel Bay. I bought mine for $1.95.
Erv