How many of you pedal steel players can read?

Chris Morano · From: Rowe, Massachusetts, USA

I got a lot of work over the years on the 6 string guitar playing gigs that required a lot of sight reading. Doing studio or show work often guitar parts (especially solos) are written out note for note. Someone slaps a book in front of you and you're off to the races. Clearly a steel player should be able to read chord charts but do any of you folks have occasion or ability to read music ( written out in note form as opposed to tab)?

Stu Schulman · From: Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)

I could sorta get thru a chord chart these days.Doug Livingston he's a real reader.
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Robert Harper · From: Alabama, USA

I can read for Bass "C" to high "G" on the trble clef. I get lost after that because. I never needed to. What I have trouble doing is relating this to the steel. I know the 4th string is "E" but G# needs lowered half step to be the 3rd string oh well save for another post
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Bo Borland · From: South Jersey -

I can sight read but haven't had to for a while.

I don't do tab...although I can read it and play it, I only use it to learn parts.

Regular charts either chord/rhythm or nashville style number charts are easy.
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John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

I can read, and it works well for my French Horn. But it's never seemed the ideal method to me for stringed instruments. I think the early lute players got it right. Tab makes much more sense to me for guitars. Oh, standard notation works well for fairly simple lines, or two part harmony, but after that it gets tough to translate to an instrument that can play the same note in several different positions. Tab just seems to make more practical sense. If you have the time to figure out the best positions to play in, Standard Notation is fine. No problem. But tab takes some of the impracticalities into consideration. When I write out tab, it kinda looks like piano music. The top staff is Standard Notation, which makes writing the timing easier, and below that will be a staff that is tab.

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

I started taking guitar lessons in about 4th grade and became a good reader on that instrument. Later on I learned to play alto clarinet and tenor sax. I sure can't use much of those reading skills on the steel guitar, though.

Delvin Morgan · From: Lindstrom, Minnesota, USA

I learned to read notes while learning the regular guitar in the late 60's. And now I am learning pedal steel by the notation method. I can read tab, but I'd much rather read notes. I look a couple of beats ahead for the next note, (kind of like playing pool), If for instance I am on the 8th AB down F chord, and want to go to Bb with Bb on top, just move to the 13th no peds same grip. I think it is pretty easy.
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Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I've written a short instruction essay on reading music on the E9 neck, which I'll send for free to anybody who wants it. If you send me an E-mail, I'll send you the file.
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David Doggett · Posted 21 Dec 2007 7:54 pm

There are lots of threads on this in the past. I can read on keyboards and sax, but never learned it on guitar or steel. I probably would work on it if I was a full-time pro. But with no gigs requiring it, there are way more fun things to do with my limited time.

Andy Sandoval · From: Bakersfield, California, USA

I've never seen any steel guitar courses that are in a notational format so I've never seen the need to learn it although when I was learnin six string guitar I did use it in the beginning.

Jim Bob Sedgwick · From: Clinton, Missouri USA

I can read charts fairly well. I can read notation, but I doubt if I'll ever be any good at sight reading. I can take piano parts and apply them to the steel, but I am SLOW at it. Sad

Jim Peters · From: St. Louis, Missouri, USA, R.I.P.

I can read very well on guitar, but forget it on steel. JP
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Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

I'm not a pedal pusher. But I can read. I usually read in order to learn new songs. I can't sight read in tune.
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Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

I can read a bit. I'm not a great sight reader though. I just don't do it enough. The gigs I get (or keep) because of my reading tend to be much more lucrative than most. Also the level of the other players tends to be higher making for a more enjoyable and challenging scene.
Reading opens up some very big doors. Reading is pretty easy and straightforward compared to other aspects of learning to play the steel.
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Skip Edwards · From: LA,CA

I'm surprised that by now no one's come up with the line...
"I can read, but not enough to hurt my playing"...

And yeah, I can read, but steel is kind of in a world of it's own when it comes to written music. Given the complexity of the instrument, and the multitude of different ways to play a given line, it presents it's own set of problems for writing and reading.
When you're given a basic melody, on paper or not, it's becomes sort of up to the player on how to play it as far as positions, etc.

Don Sulesky · From: Citrus County, FL, Orig. from MA & NH

I can read and learned to in the 3rd grade of school.
I find it helps me when I tab out a piece to play.
I read notation better on guitar than steel only because I've been doing it longer on guitar.
Once I learn a song though I put the music away as you can't find the feeling on the written page.

Tamara James · Posted 22 Dec 2007 5:45 am

I learned to sight read while taking piano lessons years ago. I learned tab about five years ago. I havn't done much else since then. When I started Steel lessons, we threw the paper away all togeter. I like it. Some things need to be tabbed out so I can learn them, but then I put it in a box and forget about it. I am a firm believer that a beginner in music should learn to read music, but not so much it hurts their playin'. Very Happy

Danny Naccarato · From: Burleson, Texas

My dad started me reading music before I could read words, as he taught me 6 string guitar. That was when I started kinderegarten. He did the same with each of my sisters as they turned 5. It's come in handy ever since.

Now, if only I still had those guitars and amps. I would get a new one every year, as he would sell the one I was using. That was 1961 and Dad was a Fender dealer.

Micky Byrne · From: United Kingdom (deceased)

I can't read a note of music, although I will be 61 on the 29th December. It's never stopped me being a professional steel player since 1970, and on the sessions I've done I've been a quick thinker and always managed to do the session no problem. I have met several good Classical piano players that have played for me in their homes, and when I've gone up and playfully removed the piece of music they were reading, they could hardly play a note...not even one Smile

just relying on the music in front of them!!!! I think a happy medium that would be best is....to play by "ear" and also read some music Smile

If you think of people like the late great Jazz Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt....I bet he'd never seen a sheet of music in his life Smile

.....not saying I'm in his Kalibre by any means, but just that some players do ok without reading.

Micky "scars" Byrne United Kingdom

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Micky, my sister is the perfect example. She plays the flute, and very well. She's never played a note without music in front of her! I started playing some chords on guitar and told her, "Key of C, Chris. Play something." She just stared at me!

Micky Byrne · From: United Kingdom (deceased)

Lol John....a perfect example for sure. I started playing Piano as my very first instrument when I was 10 years old....never read a note. I think it depends on the individual player. Some can cut it, some cant Smile

Mick "scars" Byrne East side of Atlantic pond Smile

J D Sauser · From: Wellington, Florida

I can't (anymore). I was sent to a school to learn it when I was a kid. I was not the music I wanted to get into (classical), so I never got any good at it and actually managed make sure I was deemed talentless (which I do not imply I may not be) by the teacher who made me the favor to recommend my parents not to waste their money.
I don't regret that move. In my opinion it's not much more than tab for a piano (yes, sure you can play violin from it too... actually most any instrument)...

... J-D.

I just realize, I shouldn't have posted here, I somehow read the subject as "... who can't read".
Sorry... J-D.

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

You don't need to make reading hard or complicated. If you can play by ear that means you can hear something and then repeat it. The dots on the page represent notes. You look at the dots, hear the notes in your head, and then play them. No need to struggle with positions or pedal combinations any more then you struggle with it when playing by ear. Plus it is more easy to read because you don't need to worry about remembering it right. It is written down. All this talk about how complicated reading on the steel is seems weird to me in that the hard part is the rythem.

Improvising, playing by ear and reading are different skills that all take practice to learn. They don't conflict with each other in any way and all are valuable. In the same way that a classical player may never know the joys of improvising a non reader has no access to some of the most beautiful music on the planet.
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Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

'Not enough to hurt my playing' is a 'pat' little line that many fall back on, but I never heard of any musician who didn't became a better one when they learned to read.

I'm no sight-reader, but a few years of TV jingles and West End shows convinced me that I'd be better off if I acquired at least some of the reading skills shown by the professionals that surrounded me.

RR

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

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