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Topic: David Lindley Licks? Jackson B. |
Travis Lyon
From:
From NJ, USA lives in Dublin, IE
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Posted 8 Oct 2012 5:05 pm |
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| What is his secret? I know it's always a 151351 tuning. How does he make such fluid, accurate, and tearjerking lines on songs like "Walking Slow" or "These Days". |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 8 Oct 2012 5:28 pm
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Lots of practice, lots of focus, lots of musicality.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Kevin Brown
From:
England
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Posted 9 Oct 2012 4:16 am
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| As in so many others the reason is his playing reflects his soul, the 'noises' he makes is the musical 'face' of his feelings. He is one of the fortunates who can express himself via audible signals that are fine tuned via his fingertips. When folks say,' gosh Id give anything to play like that' what they actually mean is how wonderful it must be to change the way people feel, that is a great gift, as to how you get that gift I'm not quite sure, Indian nomads who travel with nothing but an instrument and a bedroll claim they had no choice, there were chosen and from thee followed the path. Just my two pence worth. |
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Peter Jacobs
From:
Northern Virginia
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Travis Lyon
From:
From NJ, USA lives in Dublin, IE
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Posted 9 Oct 2012 7:16 am
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| I'm aware Dave is an incredibly nuanced player, but for all intents and purposes of my listening, the hard part of his playing comes from his feel and phrasing. The notes/scales/licks he plays aren't the most crazy fast or technical things on Earth right? Are there some scale pockets I should know about? Does he always tune according to the song so he can use open strings (on "These Days" it sounds like he's in open F, on "Redneck Friend" he's in open E)? |
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James Inkster
From:
Ukee, BC
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Posted 9 Oct 2012 9:47 am
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That's a good question I've wondered about, too... I haven't seen a lot of video footage of him, but I remember seeing his (electric) lap steel capo'd in one...
So yeah, maybe he favors open string licks? |
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 9 Oct 2012 9:53 am
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Unlike many lap steelers, Dave uses mainly major scale tones, look for the pockets around the bar major chord positions, with connections on the top three strings.
He uses a lot of the chord tones, while leaning strongly on the "sweet" major tones 4 and 6.
The album version of "Runnin' on Empty" is a great intro into his style. Here are three you might recognize from that tune, I'm using open E (R,5,R,3,5,R low to high, key of A for this example). Slide up to 1st string 5th fret, then 2nd string 7th fret slide down to 5th, picked again, then 3rd string 5th fret. (Solo opening line). Those scale tones are R, 6th slid to 5th, and 3rd.
He then moves up to the 4chord position (10th fret) 1st string slid back to 9th fret (repeat), 2nd string 10th fret, then jumping down to the 5th fret again, 2nd and 3rd strings. Those tones (A major scale) are the 4th/3rd repeated, Root, down to 5th and 3rd. The next lick (classic Lindley) starts 3rd string 5th fret sliding to 6th fret, then 2nd and 1st strings on the 5th fret, swooping into 2nd string 7th fret, for the scale tones 3,4,5,R, back to 6th.
A lot of his licks do similar things, with a whole lot of movement between 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 scale tones.
I've shown these an octave lower than the recording for clarity and visualization. That part of the solo is played over pedaling Asus-A chords, which implies a D to A feel, but it's all basically A major. A study of just a couple of these solos will give you loads of great ideas, notice the various pockets, like that 4 chord position.
An alternate easier way to play a similar phrase in the 4 chord position : 1st string 10th fret slide to 9th, 10th fret 2nd and 3rd string, sliding 3rd string back to 8th fret for tones 4-3-R-6-5.
If you like Lindley's style and phrasing another great resource is Lee Roy Parnell, extremely tasty fills and solos, again, mostly major in construction.
_________________
Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com
www.musicfarmstudio.com |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 9 Oct 2012 10:21 am
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dave comes from the same school of thought as i do. we figure that the uglier we are physically, the more sensitive and beautiful our playing becomes.
ok...really it's just a matter of taste. |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 9 Oct 2012 10:25 am
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I studied Lindley's playing first when I started--he was the one who got me hooked, just like many others.
When you listen to others play Lindley style, they are missing that element of touch and phrasing. As a multi-instrumentalist who plays many exotic instruments, David has a pretty well developed and interesting right hand. He picks with authority on the right notes and slides at the right time. The only way to really get a good insight is to take that stuff apart piece by piece.
Most people use way too much gain and that kills the dynamics. If you want to get closer to David's thing, keep the gain dialed back to less than you think you need.
As far as tuning, he did tune up to F, but that may have been on a specific guitar (I think his Rickenbacher).
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Joel Bloom
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Posted 11 Oct 2012 3:08 pm
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| Check out Amazing Grace off The Blind Boys of Alabama album. His solo is so sweet and soulfull, with a tone to die for. |
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Marc Muller
From:
Neptune,NJ USA
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Posted 11 Oct 2012 6:26 pm
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Travis, you just need a better steel teacher!  I saw him with Jackson at the Capital Theater in Passaic NJ in 74 or 75. I went home and got a fiddle and started playing. (BTW, all these years later and I STILL suck on fiddle) He uses the same incredible phrasing, feel and sense of melody on whatever instrument he's playing. As melodic as Jackson is you remember Lindley's lines equally, as an intergral part of the song. His acoustic guitar lines on the Times You've Come are just amazing. Learn his stuff note for note. It'll creep into your playing and expand your melodic horizons. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 11 Oct 2012 7:16 pm
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| Lindley has an innate natural musicality that was honed at an early age. As a toddler, he'd sit under the piano while his grandparents played chamber music. In addition to fiddle, he plays several middle eastern string instruments that require one to use their ear for pitch. That definitely comes into play for his intonation on lap steel. And like folks have said, he has great feel for diatonic, melodic playing. |
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Terry VunCannon
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Dom Franco
From:
Beaverton, OR, 97007
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Ted Smith
From:
Idaho - shot of Jeff Peterson, Ted and Smith Curry "Nothing but the taillights tour"
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Posted 14 Oct 2012 8:31 am David
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I've sat with David several times watching him in person and hours and hours of tape playing on our vhs during the NAMM shows and his hands look so loose yet he's right on note for note...don't forget his past, he's played all kinds of instruments including fiddle and very non-related instruments to lap steel...I believe his ear for intonation and pitch are key to his style. Watch his mouth; it's moving like he's singing the notes which I think a lot of players miss. If you are singing the notes and letting your hands become extensions to what your artist side of your brain is trying to produce it completely changes the riffs phrasing. I don't know;just my 2 cents, probably sounds crazy to everyone else.
_________________
old Melobar guy |
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Olli Haavisto
From:
Jarvenpaa,Finland
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Posted 14 Oct 2012 1:55 pm
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There are no Lindley licks as such. He just plays melodies that compliment the song. You have to hear something beautiful in your head to be able to play something beautiful...
I thought that the These Days solo was a carefully planned part of the song, a composition within a composition. But after hearing many bootlegs and video clips on youtube where he plays the solo totally different every time I think the recorded solo is just where the spirit took him that day...
One of my all-time favorite solos, on any instrument.
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Olli Haavisto
Finland |
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Jeff Watson
From:
Anza, CA. USA
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Posted 20 Oct 2012 3:38 pm
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| Like a lot of others, Dave is the whole reason I ended up here. I literally learned to play by spending a couple years picking out every note of These Days and Redneck Friend from a reel to reel back in the day (a lot of it incorrectly as it turned out). I don't claim to know anything but I sure came to believe that he generally used a guitar open tuned (lo to hi root) to the key of the song being played. Once I figured out I needed to be using multiple guitars/tunings the whole thing really kind of fell into place for me. When its like your always tuned to open E and every song is in the key of E it really opened my eyes to a lot of things musically and I could start to see the places he tended to go and the things he tended to do.. He uses a lot of dobro style open string hammer on and off stuff thats a big part of his style. The other thing I just recently discovered that has been HUGE for me is...a volume pedal. Its easy to hear the volume pedal being used fairly heavily on some of the songs from Running On Empty and I messed around with one on lap years ago and just decided that I prefered his style without a pedal. Now after all these years of trying to control the shrieking hi gain snarl that kinda goes with the territory I've come to believe that Mr Dave was using one all along in this period just in a much subtler manner. The swells on the power chords is the biggest give away. On pedal steel one has to learn not to use the volume pedal to hide mistakes. In this case with a strong attack on touch sensitive instruments boiling with overtones the volume pedal does a great job of letting you hear what you want to hear when you want to hear it (no flames, I'm sure Dave can do without one just fine). Check out a recent Youtube video of Dave playing with Jackson at a British festival doing Doctor My Eyes. Classic Lindley licks on a song he didn't play steel on originally and check the use of the volume pedal (left foot). |
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 22 Oct 2012 4:00 am
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| One of the parts to the puzzle that a lot of folks here have overlooked is the fact that David was playing thru Dumble amps when recording and playing these hits .....That helped his style and his tone TREMENDOUSLY !!..... A Dumble amp will allow for a LOT of attack and sustain and are very sensitive amps , which in the hands or someone like David , can excel even further ..... Believe me , I am not down playing his talent in any way or form ....I am merely adding another piece to the puzzle of his all around sound and technique .....Jim |
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Steve Ahola
From:
Concord, California
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Posted 22 Oct 2012 9:02 am
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
| Most people use way too much gain and that kills the dynamics. If you want to get closer to David's thing, keep the gain dialed back to less than you think you need. |
I think that Mr. Dave has the gain turned up on his Dumble amps but that he cleans up the sound by backing off on the volume control on his lap steels. (The Dumble-style amps clean up really well when you do that.)
Using your controls like that you can always "give it a little more gas" when desired thus expanding the dynamics a bit.
Steve Ahola
BTW Dumble has mentioned in interviews that he was looking for the distortion from a cranked tweed Deluxe when he was designing his Overdrive Special amps. Lew Collins used an old B6 and a tweed deluxe amp to get sounds not unlike David Lindley.
Here's a YouTube video of "Runnin' On Empty" from 1978 (B6 on lap but I didn't see his amp.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av3DXCDsABY
_________________
www.blueguitar.org
Recordings on electric guitar:
http://www.box.net/blue-diamonds
http://www.box.net/the-culprits |
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