| Author |
Topic: Brother Os's "trademark" Trill |
Dennis Saydak
From:
Manitoba, Canada
|
Posted 1 Jul 2009 8:21 am |
|
Is there a video or some information as to how Brother Os's trademark trill is done on the Dobro? I've been trying to learn it myself with zero success so far.
It is part of many videos on the net but I can't figure out which sequence of thumbs, fingers and strings are used to achieve the sound.
_________________
Dennis
Just when you think you're getting ahead in the rat race, the rats get faster. |
|
|
 |
Orville Johnson
From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
|
Posted 1 Jul 2009 8:40 am
|
|
I play that type lick on strings 1 and 2 using my thumb and index going back and forth, thumb on string 2 and finger on string 1.
If you move your bar using a slant scale while picking you can create melodies while trilling. The scale I'm talking about would be (played in C if you're in G tuning) on the first two strings- straight at 5, slant at 6-7 (strings 2 and 1), slant at 8-9, straight at 10, straight at 12, slant at 13-14, straight at 15, straight at 17.
Play around with moving your bar while picking and you'll find some cool Os-like sounds. |
|
|
|
David Venzke
From:
SE Michigan, USA
|
Posted 1 Jul 2009 10:18 am
|
|
As Orville said, Os trills are best executed with slants. Strings 1 and 2 or 1 and 3, using thumb and index or thumb and middle, whichever works best for you. And, lift your muting fingers off the strings behind the bar to get the extra "overtones".
-Dave |
|
|
|
Dennis Saydak
From:
Manitoba, Canada
|
Posted 1 Jul 2009 5:08 pm
|
|
Gentelmen, thank you. At least I now have a "road map" how to get there. 
_________________
Dennis
Just when you think you're getting ahead in the rat race, the rats get faster. |
|
|
|
Eddie Cunningham
From:
Massachusetts, USA
|
Posted 2 Jul 2009 12:07 pm Brother Oswalds "Sound" !!!
|
|
| "Oz" always had his own unique style and sound being self taught and I thought his playing on Roy Acuffs records in the 40s was the best Dobro "Country" sound ever !! Maybe due to the recording equipment in use then but his sound really was more mellow and sweet , not so shrill and metallic as todays Dobros sound , at least , IMHO !!! Oz will always be # 1 to me !!! Eddie "C" |
|
|
|
Dennis Saydak
From:
Manitoba, Canada
|
Posted 2 Jul 2009 1:03 pm Re: Brother Oswalds "Sound" !!!
|
|
[quote="Eddie Cunningham Maybe due to the recording equipment in use then but his sound really was more mellow and sweet , not so shrill and metallic as todays Dobros sound , at least , IMHO !!! Oz will always be # 1 to me !!! Eddie "C"[/quote]
Eddie, perhaps his open A tuning had something to do with that also? http://www.acguitar.com/issues/ag45/gear45.html[/code]
_________________
Dennis
Just when you think you're getting ahead in the rat race, the rats get faster. |
|
|
|
Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
|
Posted 2 Jul 2009 1:20 pm
|
|
| It seems like in listening to some of the old Hawaaian music the this "trill" technique was also used by the early Hawaaian players. If Oswald was self taught, I bet he listened to a lot of Hawaiian music when developing his style. |
|
|
|
Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
|
Posted 2 Jul 2009 3:05 pm
|
|
I have the vinyl album in front of me and am supplying some quotes from liner notes of the album "Brother Oswald" on Rounder which came out in 1972. The quotes are from Oswald, from a conversation with Tut Taylor, the first part comes no doubt from "The Department Of Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention:"
"I was playing straight guitar in a place in Illinois - what they call a nightclub. Right across the street they had a boy playing Dobro, and the man told me if we didn't have a Dobro player by tomorrow night we'd lose our job, Cause all the crowd was going over to hear that Dobro...So, I bought one and I learned to play it thataway, because I had to."
And later - no, he didn't take lessons, but was influenced by one Hawaiian player in particular:
"When I first heard someone play something like my style was a boy in Flint, Michigan, name of Rudy Waikiki. He was playing this thing and I loved it. I watched him, and listened to him play, and then I'd go back to my place and I'd try to learn to play it...I never took a lesson on nothing in my life."
Everyone has his own opinion, and don't get me wrong, Brother Oswald is one of my musical heroes, and one of the main reasons I first took up the instruments in the 1970's. But to me, the older stuff sounds more metallic and shrill than the playing on the newer resonator guitars. The newer ones with the larger bodies, more open construction, sometimes with baffling, instead of soundwells, and often solid high quality tonewoods, have a deeper, woodier, less shrill sound to my ears.
_________________
Mark |
|
|
|
Eddie Cunningham
From:
Massachusetts, USA
|
Posted 2 Jul 2009 8:05 pm Oswalds "Steel guitar heros"
|
|
| In his life story book Oswald does mention how he heard a Rudi Wakiki playing Hawaiian music and tried to imitate his playing. Oswald also mentioned that he liked Jerry Byrds playing !! I guess we all imitate players we admire and try to do what they do !! Hawaiian music was very popular in the 20s and 30s !! His first resonator steel was a National and he got the Dobro after he started with Roy Acuff. I guess there probably are a lot of better Dobro players around now but I still liked Oswalds style and sound and he will always be my favorite !! (IMHO) !!! |
|
|
|
Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
|
Posted 2 Jul 2009 8:58 pm
|
|
Not being contrary Eddie, but I think Oswald was playing a wood-bodied Dobro before he joined up with Acuff.
_________________
Mark |
|
|
|
Eddie Cunningham
From:
Massachusetts, USA
|
Posted 3 Jul 2009 7:46 am " Oswald sezs " = I quote ???
|
|
| Hi Mark , I really don't know , I just quoted what Oswald said in his life story book !! All the Acuff records playing he did on his Dobro ,( except for a few with an electric pickup lap steel in the mid & late 40s ) as far as I know !!! But he did say his first resonator was the National and he got the Dobro after he started with Acuff !!??? I guess it really doesn't matter !! I still enjoy old Oswalds playing and singing , FWIW !!! Eddie "C" |
|
|
|
Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
|
Posted 3 Jul 2009 9:31 am
|
|
Yeah, whatever...it's no big deal of course. There was a point I believe, in 1932 when National, which was having financial troubles, merged with Dobro, and was called The National Dobro Instrument Co. or something along those lines. Maybe one of his earlier guitars had something to do with National on the headstock, I don't know. The guitar he made famous, and played for most of his life was a 1929 Dobro roundneck with a nut raiser.
I love his playing too. I think there is a tendency among some modern dobro players to dismiss his playing as old-fashioned, but I'm not one of them. I think he was an outstanding musician, and his style has an eloquence to it that you don't hear much anymore. Though I mostly listen to modern stuff because I think today's great players have taken the instrument to places Oswald and Josh Graves couldn't imagine, I put that 1972 solo album of his on the turntable on a regular basis (it's available on CD as well).
And your top modern players like Jerry Douglas, Rob Ickes, etc., I'm sure would be the first to tell you how much they love Oswald's playing. Indeed, Orville Johnson "chimed" (pun intended) in on this thread, and Orville is a great player who chooses pieces on the instrument that you wouldn't expect to hear, for example, Thelonius Monk.
The final song after all, from the Grammy winning Great Dobro Sessions in the mid-90's, produced by Jerry and Tut Taylor, was one of Os' signature numbers, "End of the World."
And another of his signature numbers, with Acuff, was "Wabash Cannonball," which was the first song I ever learned to play on the dobro.
_________________
Mark |
|
|
|
Eddie Cunningham
From:
Massachusetts, USA
|
Posted 3 Jul 2009 11:06 am Acuffs "Wabash Cannon Ball "
|
|
| Hi Mark , You mentioned Acuffs Wabash Cannon Ball , the information I have gathered over the years shows that the original Acuff 78 rpm record was sung by Sam Hatcher who played in the Acuff band in 1938. Also it was James Clell Summey AKA Cousin Jody who played the Dobro on that first original cut . The song got so popular during WW 2 that Roy took credit for it and rerecorded it several times with Oswald on his Dobro !!! I have the original old Okeh 78 rpm record with Sam singing and of course have it again by Roy and Oswald !! FWIW !!! Eddie "C" |
|
|
|
Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
|
Posted 3 Jul 2009 11:22 am
|
|
Cool that you have a 78, Eddie!
Yeah, I knew the story about Sam Hatcher and Clell Summey. In rock music, sort of an equivalent might be how Jimi Hendrix took Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" and made it his own. I'm sure there are plenty of people walking around in the world thinking that Hendrix actually wrote the song.
_________________
Mark |
|
|
|
Gregg McKenna
From:
South Windsor, Connecticut, USA
|
Posted 3 Jul 2009 5:07 pm
|
|
| Mark Eaton wrote: |
Yeah, whatever...it's no big deal of course. There was a point I believe, in 1932 when National, which was having financial troubles, merged with Dobro, and was called The National Dobro Instrument Co. or something along those lines. Maybe one of his earlier guitars had something to do with National on the headstock, I don't know. The guitar he made famous, and played for most of his life was a 1929 Dobro roundneck with a nut raiser.
I love his playing too. I think there is a tendency among some modern dobro players to dismiss his playing as old-fashioned, but I'm not one of them. I think he was an outstanding musician, and his style has an eloquence to it that you don't hear much anymore. Though I mostly listen to modern stuff because I think today's great players have taken the instrument to places Oswald and Josh Graves couldn't imagine, I put that 1972 solo album of his on the turntable on a regular basis (it's available on CD as well).
And your top modern players like Jerry Douglas, Rob Ickes, etc., I'm sure would be the first to tell you how much they love Oswald's playing. Indeed, Orville Johnson "chimed" (pun intended) in on this thread, and Orville is a great player who chooses pieces on the instrument that you wouldn't expect to hear, for example, Thelonius Monk.
The final song after all, from the Grammy winning Great Dobro Sessions in the mid-90's, produced by Jerry and Tut Taylor, was one of Os' signature numbers, "End of the World."
And another of his signature numbers, with Acuff, was "Wabash Cannonball," which was the first song I ever learned to play on the dobro. |
Actually the Dobro you hear on many of Acuff's early recordings with Oswald was his spruce top Dobro (that was later stolen out of his car).
The model 27 Dobro that came later was not a 1929 model but a circa 1935 model.
Much of his signature sound came from his picking the strings up near the end of the fretboard instead of close near the bridge as well as the higher A tuning. |
|
|
|
