Could Musical Expressions Reveal Personality Differences?

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Have you ever had the feeling that you've met a player by listening to subtle differences in musical expressions played on the pedal steel guitar?

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Yes people who think they know it all play out of tune Laughing

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Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Sometimes aggressive people play aggressively, and mellow, easy going people play mellow. I think it's far more interesting when a quiet person becomes a monster on stage or vice versa. We won't mention any names! Winking

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Les Cargill · From: Oklahoma City, Ok, USA

You'd have to start with a whale of an ego to have any left by the time you'd learned steel.

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

I once knew a spirited fiddler who was known as "RICK" by other band members. One day he remarked to me about the playing style of a guitar player known as "Howie". Speaking of his wide knowledge of chords, he replied,"Yeah, he'll "SUB" you to death." I had some knowledge of Howie's habit of promoting his "Chords for dummies" depending on his moods for the day.

Don R Brown · From: Rochester, New York, USA

Tom Gorr · From: Three Hills, Alberta

I think there's a lot that can be determined, not with any certainty, though. I'm sure musicologists will get a few thesis on it over time, if they're not all over it already.

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

Bill, I don't think someone's playing can make you feel you KNOW them, but it CAN give an insight to their personality.
Not so much so with the people who need to play it just like the record every time: I can't understand that. There's a local player who can play Lloyd or Paul parts with feeling (this should not surprise: people play Bach with feeling every day), but feel lost trying to make up their own.
I'm sure THAT'S a glimpse into their personalities as well.
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Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Ralph Mooney never had a problem creating images of a player who could take control of an instrument much different than all others.

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Lane,
"this should not surprise: people play Bach with feeling every day), but feel lost trying to make up their own. "
My Sister plays Classical flute just beautifully, but can't play a note with out music in front of her! Me? I'm a very calm quiet guy, but put my Tele in my hands and I'm an aggressive Punkabilly! On steel, it's about an even mix.

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

I remember one of Faron Young's front musicians telling me that, "All he needed to hear was two notes played on a fiddle, to tell him if the player was from the south or the north." Of course I didn't fall for that comment. It's just something that is hard to forget. You'd expect to hear those words from a gloater, not a road band musician.

Jan Viljoen · From: Pretoria, South Africa

Sure, many things in life show what kind of person we are, like handwriting, building something, driving, singing, clothes, body language, hand signs etc.

So, it stands to reason that playing an instrument will show something of your personality and approach.

Many people play guitar with either a soft of hard plectrum in different ways.

Ditto on pedal steel. Many players use only certain combinations of notes/chords to create tension or a series of chords. Many use only iii and v to imply i.
The pedal steel even helps with this by not playing the root in jazz chords, leaving that to the bass or keyboard player.

Many composers use a few notes to express themselves while others use a flurry of notes.
We have some traditional folk music composers here in South Africa whose music can be identified immediately by the key, tempo and type.
Some try to be funny and compose songs in Bb, C#, F# etc on concertina. Bb is particulary difficult as it uses mostly outward pulls.

A beginner musician's style will be erratic, but as the person gets experienced some specific moves and/or licks can be identified with that person.
It can also be seen in instrument building, the way people use their tools and finish are reflective of their way of doing things.

Even in breeding over the ages, certain traits, colour, etc were bred by breeders of all kinds of animals so satisfy their novelty craves.
Thats how different dog, cat, horse, fowl etc breeds developed and each has their own supporters.

I remember when I heard of The Stick instrument, many people jumped on the bandwagon and very soon there were professionals.
Lets hope pedal steel will become more and more popular. Doug just received zillions of endplates for new ironing boards. The demand is there.

Let the games begin! Do your thing!
Wink

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Dick Sexton · From: Greenville, Ohio

Sometimes it may seem that a players musicality is just the opposite of their perceived personality. Inside Herby, I believe, was a Cheetah ready to run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svj5QnnoTCg

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Musician's names seem to play a large part in the characterization of self-styled steel guitarists. When "Chet" and "Les" turned on their talents back in the fifties, thousands of musicians were stupefied. There was a mad rush of players attempting to resolve the secrets of playing styles that they hadn't heard before. From those early times we've found ourselves looking for a new generation of musicians that might create the excitement that "Chet" and "Les" did 70 years ago. I believe that they've merely scratched the surface in terms of pedal steel guitar musical possibilities.

Tom Gorr · From: Three Hills, Alberta

I think it's pretty obvious that lyrics reveal a whole lot more...i recall listening to a very talented gorgeous voiced good looking gal at a festival, great tunes, but her lyrics were basically a stream of vitriol. I was considering making an offer to back her up until I considered the place the lyrics were coming from.

Then there's guys who deliver cheeseball cliche of non-authentic mostly ripped off ideas - and that runs deeper in character than what meets the eye, and other songwriters that are 'so artsy' that maybe they get a little too deep for commercial following, but otherwise a pretty high artform.

I suppose Merle Haggart-ish stories of real life are what I prefer overall - not pompous, not unfun, just give the feeling of having learned something important

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

Dick, some people portray who they ARE and what they would say in words (I suspect Lloyd, Joe Wright, and more of us than not).
Some of us are Walter Mitty, hiding behind a steel as they give flight to ideas they only can express in notes.

Bill, there's an interesting way point in people's development musically when the recklessness of youth hasn't receded, the mature master hasn't yet come out, and the reckless youth is reaching out to genres they don't necessarily play. And dammit. I DID have a thought that followed your Chester and Lester thought, but composing that run-on sentence made me lose the thread. Kinda like playing a 32 bar solo and running out of ideas at bar 26.
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2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Back in the thirties of the last century, the drudgery of scrubbing work clothes while listening to the soaps on makeshift radios was a bummer. Many mothers didn't own anything with the exception of a good imagination. They listened faithfully to the "soaps" with nothing more than voices to draw from day after day. Today the color television makes forming opinions about actors and musicians many times easier.

Jack Aldrich · From: Washington, USA

IMHO, players who play directly from tab sound like the creator of the tab, more or less. It's kind of like sight reading a score. I always strive (a lot of times, failing) to make what I play my own. I do this on jazz piano and on steel guitar. I have been working with Alan Akaka on weaning myself from his tab (comment: "Oh. That's an Alan Akaka arrangement") and making the song my own. It's not easy. I, like others, began by learning from tab I got from books and Jeff Newman sets, but, playing pedal steel 5 nights a week in a country band gave me the experience necessary to make songs my own.
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Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Now and then we are apt to meet a student of the steel guitar who hungers for new ideas and techniques as applied to the instrument. When you do, there will be no guessing as to whether or not the individual is truly the "real deal". Few people in life are more rewarding than a good student of the pedal steel guitar. Some musicians are naturally inquisitive, allowing for those who find music in general to ease their cares and worries. That would be a group who conveniently set aside a few moments of time, as all reckoners habitually have been observed doing between "practice" sessions. The pedal steel guitar demands a constant uninterrupted
prolonged study spanning many years of concentration. Those who choose to think otherwise,
eventually fall into the category of players who progress so little to notice.

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