Do these annoying steel things happen to you?

Rich Upright · From: Florida, USA

How many of you, when you are playing a gig, have someone come up to you during the band's break, & say "Oh you're the keyboard player"? Seems to be a Florida thing.

Do you get annoyed when rock players call your instrument "Steel pedal"? Or how about when they tell you their favorite steel players are Jimmy Page, Steve Howe, or Mark Knopfler?

Do you get mad during string changes when you are taking the old strings off, & when the string clears the last winding on the peg, it springs back & stabs you in the hand?

Do you get paranoid when drunks dance to close to your steel?

How about when you are doing a real pretty solo to say, "Look At Us" & the bass player is playing lead? (another "Florida" thing)OR...you pop a G#?

These are just some of the negative aspects of playing steel. How about you?

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

all of the above comes with the territory of being a Steel Player, some of it comes with just playing music in a band setting.. I have grown used to it and have become passive with the exception of one..

bands and artists in town that I have worked with who make public statements about how they love Steel Guitar and how it embellishes their music..then they hire a keyboard player. Sadly , my opinion of course, a couple of artists in the area I live and work in write and perform songs that are CRYING for Steel and yet they hire a keyboard...I record on their CD's and some of the best response they get to songs on the CD's are the ones with the Steel..go figure...

thats my gripe for the day...
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Floyd Lowery · From: Deland, Florida, USA

Back in the 80's, I was playing a huge club just outside Birmingham and had been there a few months. One of the good looking bartenders came up to me and told me I was the best keyboard player she had ever heard. I said "Oh thank You sweetheart, that's really nice."
None of this happens anymore. I've retired.
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Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Rich, when are you going to bring your "keyboard" up to our Florida Steel Guitar Club Jams?

The next one is Wednesday, Oct 8.

Christopher Woitach · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Wait a minute - there's something about steel that isn't annoying?????
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Brett Day · From: Pickens, SC

Back in high school when I'd tell a few of the kids about how I play steel guitar, I can remember a girl looking at her friend, saying, "He plays the guitar", or one of the questions I got in high school, "So, you play it like a piano"? so I had to explain it to whoever was asking. In 2011, somebody asked me if I play slide guitar, I said no, it's a steel guitar, then I went through the explaining process-these things don't bug me, but the one thing that bugs me sometimes is when the instrument's name is backwards, like I've seen on some records-Steel Pedal Guitar. It also bugs me when you go to a music store looking for a pedal steel guitar or equipment for it, and the guy working at the store says, "I don't know what that is". Now there are many people I talk to who don't know what pedal steel is, but they are amazed by it! Then after I tell them about it, they always want to hear me play and that makes me smile

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Pedal steel players should be the first to recognize that not everyone has the same interest and fascination with the instrument that they do, but such is not the case, it seems. We would all do well to remember that the world and it's many inhabitants do not revolve around us and our rather unique predeliction. Cool

David Cubbedge · From: Toledo,Ohio, USA

Having these un-educated bozos make fools of themselves only serve to make that one person who comes up and knows that it's a PSG that much more enjoyable to talk to. Just a couple weeks ago, I played a gig where a young girl, maybe 13 or so, came up to me and asked a lot of really good questions. She knew exactly what it was and was interested in learning how to play. I was more than happy to show her the instrument.

I have a friend who's wife is the principal harpist with our symphony. Through that I've learned that PSG players have a lot in common with harpists. Pedals, mechanisms, and playing select strings, etc... Of course, many non-musical people still won't get that.

Others that give me a chuckle are the ones who think that because I play PSG, then I also should be adept on a Dobro!..... not the case!
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Stuart Legg · Posted 2 Oct 2014 8:49 am

When folks come up to Bo and call it something besides a pedal steel, He just sticks out his hand and says "Hi I'm Buddy Emmons". They won't have a clue anyway!

Peter Nylund · From: Finland

The audience around here knows what instrument I play, but they often tell me not to quit my daytime job.
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Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

You can't expect the average concert attendant, and especially those who just turn up at a dance, to know much about music. Can you name all the instruments of the orchestra? Many string instrument players get confused when it comes to wind instruments, especially in South American bands, where there are many different percussion instruments. In fact, can you identify all the strings instruments from South and Central America? From Europe? From the Middle East? From the Far East?
Can you tell the difference between a Trichordia and a Cuatro? Then how can you expect the audience to identify a pedal steel, which they've only ever seen from the front from a low angle? In fact, they wouldn't know it had strings at all unless they were on stage or viewing a video. To them it just looks like the Casio keyboard that their little brother annoys them with. Laughing

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Bud Angelotti · From: Larryville, NJ, USA

I played in a band at one time where the woman bass player, who was well versed in hiawiian music, refered to it as "table steel". Didn't annoy me though.
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Herb Steiner · From: Spicewood TX 78669

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Honestly, I don't know why people get upset about this sort of thing? Are we that insecure that we worry about what John Q. Public thinks, or knows? Truth be told, I'd rather someone remember me as just a good musician, rather than for me to get upset if they don't know what the damned instrument is. A "good musician" gets far more calls than a "good steel player" (though I'll probably never be known as either).

And by the way, Alan, any dummy knows that a Tricordia was that scanner-thingie that Spock always carried around his neck, and a Cuatro is that Audi-car that the (annoyed?) tow truck driver never catches up with. Laughing

"That feller shore cud play that there double-decker table slide!" Oh Well

Bill C. Buntin · Posted 2 Oct 2014 2:43 pm

And when they say, "OH! I'm so glad the band has an electric guitar now"

Or - my favorite is always so clichÃ©

"Play some Gary Stewart, and of course the band only knows "Empty Glass".

Or....Can Ya'll do Silver Wings by Merle Haggard?

Damien Odell · From: Springwood, New South Wales, Australia

yep..you're not alone.

Especially the G# slapping back and cutting your hand. I wind those final few winds grimacing and leaning as far from the string as I can.

Joe Goldmark · From: San Francisco, CA 94131

One of my peeves is when I have a short break between sets with friends waiting to say hi, and somebody comes up to me and asks "how's that thing tuned?" I used to have handouts that I'd give to people with a full tuning chart, but I soon found out that they really just wanted to make contact...

Joe

Howard Steinberg · From: St. Petersburg, Florida , USA

Recently, while setting my guitar up, a very pleasant woman came up to me and stated "I never realized that the underside of a keyboard looked like that." I just nodded and smiled.
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Drew Pierce · From: Arkansas, USA

I've found many folks genuinely curious about the pedal steel, especially since I've been playing in more informal settings in recent years, like house concerts. The most often asked question is "what do the pedals do"? I'm always happy to demonstrate and explain the basic functions and they almost always go away grateful, having learned something new.

When I was young and single and played clubs all the time, my biggest pet peeve was how the pedal steel player was about as attractive to single women as a potted plant on stage. They always went for the lead singers and guitar players. Crying or Very sad

Even the bass players. Rolling Eyes

My girlfriend, Emily Kaitz, wrote and recorded a song some years ago (2001 to be exact) about that lament called Ten Lonesome Strings: "These ten lonesome strings know the way that I feel -- I watched my dreams waltz away while I played pedal steel."

Shameless commerce alert: that song can be purchased for 99 cents at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kaitz4 I'm playing steel under the pseudonym "Drifty Texarkana". I'm also playing steel on another couple of cuts on that album, my favorite being Open Arms.
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chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

different story here. most of my good relationships have probably been largely due to the fact that i play steel. ...not to mention many 'shorter' endeavors.

also, i would prefer to have my real name listed on credits of recordings. i've always been proud of my family name.

Jim Park · From: Carson City, Nv

Hey Chris........ which category was the brunette at the Lakeside in the 80's in ????

George McLellan · From: Duluth, MN USA

"How the he!! are you going to get that case closed on that thing?". I just grinned and said: "it's an electric erector set".

Geo

Drew Pierce · From: Arkansas, USA

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

drew..yeah..my friends and i had some fun 'other' names at one time also.

wow jim! i loved playing around lake tahoe. the lakeside inn was really fun.
not sure who you saw (what night was it? haha)
but i knew a nice girl there once.

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