Tabbing/Translating Steel intros, leads and fills off CD's

Jack Jones · From: Kinston, NC, USA

Hey Folks:

Any new ideas out there on best practices for isolating steel guitar intros, leads and fills off an Artists CD for easier/faster learning. Any way to isolate the steel or to separate it from the other tracks, instruments, and sounds off a CD? Thanks! Jack

Bo Borland · From: South Jersey -

I use an IPOD and a custom EQ setting to bring the steel up out of the mix. While you can't slow it down, you can rewind and play it over and over and over ...
If I need to slow a lick down I bring the track into Windows Media player and slow it.. it stays in key.

Jeff Garden · From: Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA

Jack, here's a post I wrote a while ago (with a few updates) - this method seems to work for me....

Get a CD of the tune you want to learn.
Get some kind of recorder that can slow down sections of the song - this really helps for figuring out fast steel parts. I've got a TR-1000 digital music study recorder. You can break passages up into only a few notes, several measures, or up to 1 min 30 secs and slow things down incrementally without changing the pitch.
Make up a chord chart of the song to show chord changes and different sections (verse, chorus, bridge, etc.) You can use the Nashville numbering system or write out the chords in the key they're actually played in. For some reason, I seem to be able to pick chords out from a recording better on a six string guitar and then transfer the chords to pedal steel.
Figure out how to play the chord chart in several different positions on the pedal steel neck (pedals up/pedals down, etc.) so you can play "pads" in different positions for a little variety on subsequent verses. Write down on the chord chart the "tab" neck positions for the chords when you figure them out - i.e. under the G chord write 3 or 10AB etc. Jeff Newman was real big on just playing two notes of the chord as opposed to three - letting the rest of the band "fill in the holes" so things don't sound too cluttered.
Mark off on your chord chart where the steel fills and steel break are in the song.
Use your "slow down" recorder to break down the fills and break on the actual recording. With a basic knowledge of the chord structure you can figure out where a lot of the licks start and finish.
If you're concerned about learning a passage note-for-note print out a page of blank pedal steel tab paper (available here on the Forum) and write down the fills and break as you figure them out as a memory aid until you learn the tune.
Then practice it a lot!
Once you're comfortable playing along with the recording, try things out with your band.

Dick Sexton · From: Greenville, Ohio

Jack, I've used several, but the one I keep going back to is "The Amazing Slowdowner". It is a simple computer program that is in fact "Amazing". It will work right off of a CD or a computer file. Slowes down a song or any part of a song, even one or two notes, stays on pitch, loops at any speed. Allowed me to change pitch to practice for a singer who sings in another key. Once you slow it down you can save it to reuse. This is there web site http://www.ronimusic.com/ Might be worth a look. Not sure what it costs these days. DS

Joey Ace · From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

I use a program called TRANSCRIBE!

Have been for over 4 years. I really like it.

Info at:
http://www.seventhstring.com/

robert kramer · From: Nashville TN

I have a Tascam Guitar Trainer (CD GT1 MKII) and I highly recommend it. You can transcribe Charlie Parker solos (phrase by phrase) or isolate and loop a single Curly Chalker chord. Learning off records is a great way to learn the exact phrasing and dynamics of your favorite players. Sometimes you can't hear this from sheet music.

Here is the newest version of the Tascam GT:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Tascam-CDGT2-Portable-CD-Guitar-Trainer?sku=242037

Dean Salisbury · From: New York, USA

I use two programs. First I use Digital Music Mentor. This program will analyze the song telling you what the chords of the song are and the key! You can use any mp3 or wave file. I have tested this program loading up over 300 songs and it appears to be 100% accurate. Once I have the chords then I use amazing slow downer to slow the music up to practice with.

DMM has saved me countless hours in trying to figure out the chords to a song and countless hours of downloading tabs just to find that they are not in most cases the same as the original song! Since I don't play in a band, I just play to original mp3's. Now if they would come out with a program that would analyze the notes, I would have it all

I have also used this program to analyze many steel songs as well. Its great and a real time saver

program costs around 50 bucks def cheaper then paying for tabs that are incorrectly written if you want the original chords! all ya have to have is the mp3 or wav of the original song and your in business and who doesn't have the mp3?

Dean from NY
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I'm new and just learning - I know nothing!

Steve Roberts · From: Richmond, Texas USA

I use a program called Riffster - slows the part down, keeping it in key - easy to determine what is being played - much harder to figure out how some of the licks are played, even a a slow speed!

John McClung · From: Olympia WA, USA

It would be great if everyone referencing software would, if they can, mention whether it's PC, Mac, or both.
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David Pinkston · From: Hendersonville, Tennessee, USA

Amazing Slowdowner works great. There is a trial version online. I have PC not sure about Mac.

Joey Ace · From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

TRANSCRIBE! is available for PC, Mac, and Linux.

Free 30 day trial.

If I were to tell you more about how I feel about this program, you'd think I'm on their payroll.

Read their website.

Derrick Mau · From: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Dean,

I find your comments about the Digital Music Mentor being 100% accurate very puzzling.

I've just purchased this software and it is far from being accurate as you say. Even when toggling between the three different modes after analyzing the music, it produced more chords (and most of them wrong) than there should be.

Further more, the chord changes above the measures are not even in time with the music. I ended up spending more time moving chords to the correct measures and deleting wrong chords.

To see what I mean about wrong chords; try loading in a song that you have the music for, then after analyzing, match the results with the chords from the original music.

According to Sienzo, you can expect an accuracy of 80-95% correctness on Pop and Rock songs. So, I loaded in my CD of Paul McCartney's "Band On The Run", and compared the chords in all 3 modes with the original music. Not even close.

Even with Hawaiian music which has very simple chord progressions, the software just could not get it right.

After scouring the web for reviews on this software, I found others who have experienced the same problems. One reviewer even saying he could not get through to Customer Support and was convinced Customer Support didn't exist, so I got on to Sienzo home page and tried writing to the Support Team; couldn't get through to them. Couldn't find an direct number to Customer Support either.

John McClung · From: Olympia WA, USA

I gotta do everything around here? Digital Music Mentor, whether great or garbage, is for Windows only.

Is there a music analyzer like that for Mac?

Another strong endorsement for Amazing Slow Downer from me, it's great for my own learning needs, and very handy when I teach steel lessons, I can change the key of a song to check that students can adapt to various keys on the fly.
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▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net

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