The Steel Guitar Forum

After reading the article by Jerry Hayes about the steel sound being desired by many, what answer do you all give to an interested person when they ask, 'is that hard to play?.? My answer is, if you really want to produce that sound, it does take many hours and you need to take it one step at a time patiently. Just like when you learn to drive a car. One step at a time. With all the new valuable courses given by tab and video, it's a lot easier now than the way I and many others had to learn. I wore out a lot of needles and records on my record player (you youngsters may have to look that up in the dictionary - record player) to learn the licks. Again, what answer do you all give to a curious, interested person asking, 'is that hard to play?'?

I give them a symmetrical answer:

<i> "Well it's hard to play well"

I don't bother with a long, drawn-out explanation. I just tell them "it's the hardest instrument in the world to play." With as many as six or more coordinated, independent actions going on at once, how could it not be hard?

-Garnett

I don't consider it hard to play. In fact, it's probably the easiest, most natural thing I do. But......I started when I was ten years old, and have been playing 55 years. So, I would say it's not hard to play, but it's hard to learn to play.

I think it's harder to stop.



EJL

I tell them: "Every instrument can be hard within it's own Means".
Ricky

Well, I've been playing guitar for 42 years and steel on and off for about seven. While there are some similarities in the techniques, I find steel to be a much more precise discipline and there is way more finesse involved in getting a good sound. Its not just a right hand and a left hand making music. Like violin, one has to have the pitch right on. Then there are all the pedals and knee levers to move at the right time to get the lick. On top of that, when to use the volume pedal and when not to is a whole separate art. Bar technique is much more involved than the guitarists fretting hand--all kinds of options there. The right hand can make you sound great or like a klutz.

Yes! Its hard to play--well, as previously stated. The addiction is that each time you get something down correctly, it sounds so fantastic! I think its about as hard to play well as violin, so yeah, I'd say it demands more from the player than guitar or piano. Its definitely hard to play well, IMO. Still, I keep working on it--getting a little better each time I practice. I figure by the time I'm about 256 years old, I might catch up with Paul Franklin...give or take a hundred years!

I just tell them it's impossible.

I think Andre Segovia once quipped about the guitar - "It's the easiest instrument to play poorly, and the hardest instrument to play well".

In one of Jeff Newman's classes, I asked "Is it just me, or is this thing hard to play?" Jeff said it is one of the most difficult instruments in the world to learn to play well. I agree, "well" being the key word.

I tell them to ask someone that can play.
J.P.

I usually tell them that the basic idea of the pedal steel, is to make the playing easier. If you learn a song in one key, it is very simply to play it in most of the other keys, unless you happen to need open string notes. I also tell potential students that is real easy on the left hand, unlike standard guitar, you need not cut your fingernails, or suffer with sore fingers. Lets face it, to sell the steel guitar to a new player you have to at least attempt to make it sound easier than it is. It does require a great deal of time, as Jim above says, "to play it well".

Ernie Pollock - Steel Lessons in Maryland

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Same as Ricky says. All instruments are hard to play well.

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Jeff's Jazz

but ..

they are very easy to buy ...

t

<SMALL>At first, grasshopper, all things are difficult.</SMALL>

Master Po

I just tell them when I figure it out, I'll let them know!

It's like Backgammon, 5 minutes to learn the rules, a lifetime to learn how to apply the rules.
Also:
There's a lot more ways to do it wrong than to do it right. <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 07 April 2005 at 11:33 AM.]</p></FONT>

As stated, the hardest to play WELL, but one of the easiest instruments to make nice sounds on if one knows one's limits.

"It's a piece of cake! Come up here and give it a try while I dance with your girl friend."

Any instrument is difficult to play well. But that having been said the pedal steel has a steeper learning curve than say the piano and others. If you have a true desire to play coupled with a stick to it attitude and don't let being discouraged at times get you down than a beginner can flatten that learning curve considerably.

This is shaping up to be a great thread! In a way it depends on the mindset one approaches with whether the pedals and knees make it more or less difficult to start to play, but I agree that any instrument is difficult to play really well. That being said, every time I turn my steel over in the case to pack up I'm reminded of how weird this instrument is!

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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

Thanks for the response. I mentioned before that you can take almost any city block, and you'll find at least one guy that plays guitar or piano. How many steel players are there in an average small city? So, my attitude is the same as what you all stated. It's hard to play it or any instrument well. But I don't want to discourage any possible potential, good picker. That's why I mention taking it one step at a time to them, to make it seem a little less complicated to venture into. I'm not sure what answer was given to the pro's if they had have ever asked that question when they had that curiosity about the steel.? I personally didn't care how hard it was, I just wanted to play it.

<SMALL>How many steel players are there in an average small city?</SMALL>

Levelland, TX. Population 12,000, give or take. Two steel players. So, I'd say, one out of every 6,000 Americans are steel players. Oh wait. That'd mean there were 50,000 steelers in the U.S.

-Garnett

I alway liken it to beginning to wear contact lenses...you REALLY have to want to have them!
Yours,
Jo Ann

I always liken the process to that of beginning to wear contact lenses...you have to REALLY want them
Yours,
Jo Ann