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Topic: My First Steel, First Tuning & First Song. What Were Yours? |
C. E. Jackson
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Posted 28 Mar 2014 2:43 pm |
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I began to learn steel guitar in late 1948 or early 1949. My father was my teacher, and my first steel was a 1949 6S Silvertone from Sears ($30).
The tuning my father used to teach me was A Major: E C# A E C# A (H-L). The guitar came with a study course: THE SEARS HOME STUDY COURSE FOR HAWAIIAN GUITAR, which featured the A Major tuning method.
The first song I learned was RED RIVER VALLEY.
Although I have tried numerous tunings over the years, my favorite tunings are:
A6, E6 (Don Helms), A Major, E, E7
Please share your first steel, first tuning, and first song.
Thank you,
C. E.
_________________
My Vintage Steel Guitars
My YouTube Steel Guitar Playlists
My YouTube Steel Guitar Songs
A6 tuning for steels |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 28 Mar 2014 3:42 pm
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Most of Jerry's students or course learners get many tuning variations of Sweet Lei Lehua, a simple, sweet, and effective tune for understanding the relations of the tunings. I think we started in E, and while I'd had a few steels come and go prior to that I used the little MOTS Maggie he had for emergency tutoring. Soon got my Mag Troubadour 8 and then my Ric 8 Bakelite that he said "feels like an old shoe".
Last edited by Ron Whitfield on 28 Mar 2014 4:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Norman Evans
From:
Tennessee
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Posted 28 Mar 2014 4:25 pm
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| Fender D8 Stringmaster, A6 & E6 tuning, first song those Wedding Bells Will Never Ring For Me. About 40 years ago. |
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David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 28 Mar 2014 7:41 pm
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Aloha Oe on an Augustino dreadnaught tuned to open G with a nut raiser and a Stevens bar. (You know, the bar with the training wheels?) Its called starting at the bottom.
_________________
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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Tony Lombardo
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 12:50 am
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| My first steel guitar was a Magnatone Troubadour from the 50s which I got for $150.00 about ten years ago. The first song I learned was "Aloha Oe" in the key of G. After I learned that tune and a handful of others, I put the instrument away in favor of tenor banjo for years. I'm just lately getting back on my lap steel feet. |
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Tom Snook
From:
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 2:09 am
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My first steel was a copy of a Fender Deluxe 6 that looks just like the Jedson that's on EBay right now.And if Jerry taught all of his students the same course,then it was Sweet Lei Lehua in A major.Isn't that right Ron?
_________________
I wanna go back to my little grass shack........ |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 5:40 am
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Everything's gonna be all right. A major tuning on a Gibson EH-150.
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 7:26 am
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C.E.,
You and I started out at about the same time.
My 1st guitar was a large bodied acoustic Oahu guitar(and I wish I still had it). My 1st song was "Begineers Waltz".
At that time A high bass was THE tuning. |
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Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 9:29 am
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well, i only go back a few years compared to you guys, but my first steel was a 30's Kalamazoo KEH, a lower line Gibson Eh-100, that i bought in a pawn shop for $65!! man i wish i still had that lil jewel.
i don't really remember the first tune, it was probably Steel Guitar Rag as that was all i knew. I soon got the Don Helms book and worked out of that.
_________________
'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
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Dennis Saydak
From:
Manitoba, Canada
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 9:31 am
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Georgeboards 8 string console (a fabulous guitar) C6th - Storms Never Last.
_________________
Dennis
Just when you think you're getting ahead in the rat race, the rats get faster. |
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Jerry Berger
From:
Nampa, Idaho USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 10:45 am
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I got my first steel in 1955. I am the kid on the right.
I don't remember the tuning but the first song I learned to play was I Wish I Was Single Again.
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 11:22 am
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| Tom Snook wrote: |
| Sweet Lei Lehua in A major.Isn't that right Ron? |
That and maybe a couple of others before E, I'd have to look at the book, but E was where it started clicking and for the stupid to clear. I related to E and it's very Hawaiian, plus easy to extend to an 8 string killer tuning/s which is what I've kept after tossing C6. |
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Robert Allen
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 12:22 pm
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| 1948, high bass A tuning, cheap Stella guitar with raised nut. Some of those Stella guitars were so bad they didn't need a raised nut. Whatever song came first in the Oahu lesson book. |
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John Mulligan
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 12:46 pm
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| I got my Chandler about 7 years ago,used, in a Guitar Center. I had a lap steel 30 years ago that I liked but didn't keep. Started out in dobro tuning on the Chandler because I thought I would get a dobro. First song was St. James Infirmary. Bought two more lap steels since then, switched to Don Helms tuning on the Chandler and open E on the Tremblay. Dobro tuning on the no-name. Still no dobro. |
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Joe Snow
From:
Argyle,Texas, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 2:00 pm
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| Home on the Range (Oahu book Emajor). Fender champ (after a few lessons on the teacher's oahu acoustic and a flat bar). |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 2:42 pm
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My first guitar was a student model furnished by Harlin Bros. in Indianapolis Ind., in 1948 when I was 10. They used the Oahu method of teaching and started us with a 6 string A maj.low bass.
High to low- E,C#, A, E, A, E.
The song was- Nearer My God To Thee.
I still have the sheet music in tab. |
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Myk Freedman
From:
Brooklyn
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 5:56 pm
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Mother of toilet seat National, E G B E G B and a tune I wrote myself called Lullaby for Naughty Children.
_________________
http://mykfreedman.com |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 29 Mar 2014 9:13 pm
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Only about a year ago, but my Dads old 37 Gibson EH100. Steel Guitar Rag from George Boards C6 DVD lesson.
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GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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David Knutson
From:
Cowichan Valley, Canada
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Posted 30 Mar 2014 10:27 am
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The guitar was an old, black Stewart arch-top with criminally bad action. I believe the tuning was Dobro G, and the song was "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes".
I still go to that tune sometimes when I'm just sitting around noodling.
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David K |
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Paul DiMaggio
From:
Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 30 Mar 2014 12:39 pm
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| Joe Morrell not so Pro six string, an Ebay blem and second. Faded Love, learned from a YouTube video by Cindy Cashdollar. High Bass G. |
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Gary S. Lynch
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 30 Mar 2014 3:27 pm
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My dad is 87 and still going strong on his 72 Fender D 8 StringMaster.
He taught me the first song he learned "We Live In Two Different Worlds", Straight E, on his National Dynamic over 45 years ago and I am still learning! |
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Les Anderson
From:
The Great White North
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Posted 30 Mar 2014 6:09 pm
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My first steel was a D8 Guya. First complete song was Cindy Cash Dollar's version of "Cold Cold Heart". After that I started picking out melodies on my own and the first full tune by ear was "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again" (strangely, that was the first song I learned to play in the late forties on my old 6 reed, Marine Band harmonica, the first song on my acoustic, first real song on my steel guitar and the first song on my pan flute) I guess there is just something about that ageless old classic that stays in my mind.
My first tuning was C6th, followed by E13th. I also use those tunings on my Remington D10.
_________________
(I am not right all of the time but I sure like to think I am!) |
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Sam White R.I.P.
From:
Coventry, RI 02816
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Posted 31 Mar 2014 7:09 am
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My First Pedal Steel was Emmons push Pull D-10 back in 1977.The tunin's were E-9TH and C-6. My first song was Mansion on the Hill. My First Lap Steel is a 8 String Dynalap Lap Steel.Back in 2005 I built two S-10 Steel Guitars and one was With Formica with a Aluminum neck and the other one was All wood with a wooden neck and it was stained Mahogany and the wood was Maple.It had some great sustain on it.I had them for about two years and decided to sell them and got $500.00 for each one.I'm going to try to build my self a 6 String Lap Steel and tune it C-6.I have one I started but I'm not happy how it came out yet.
Sam White
_________________
Dynalap lap 8 String Lap Steel Fender frontman 25B speaker changed Boss TU-12H Tuner.Founder and supporter of the Rhode Island Steel Guitar Association Founder of the New England Steel Guitar Association and the Greeneville TN Steel Jams and now founder of the North Carolina Steel Guitar Jams. Honorary member of the Rhode Island Steel Guitar Association,Member of The New England Steel Guitar Association.
Member of the Florida Steel Guitar Club,and member of Mid Atlantic Steel Guitar Association
Last edited by Sam White R.I.P. on 1 Apr 2014 2:27 pm; edited 9 times in total |
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