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Topic: Fewest Slants? |
Skip Ellis
From:
Bradenton, Fl USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 10:29 am |
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Which lap steel tuning, if any, requires the fewest bar slants? Seems like I saw a vid awhile back of a guy playing really nice stuff using B11th and he never used a single bar slant?
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2013 Brook Torridge, 2014 Martin 000-18, two homebrew Teles, Evans RE200 amp, Quilter 101R head, understanding wife of 45 years. 'Steeless' at the moment but looking...... |
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Stan Schober
From:
Cahokia, Illinois, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 10:56 am
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Leavitt ?
D
C
Bb
G
E
C#
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Emmons S-8 P/P,DeArmond 40. Slowly drifting back towards sanity. |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 11:30 am What's wrong with bar slants?
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| Playing steel guitar without bar slants is sorta like driving a car but not turning the wheel and/or flying an airplane without any tho't given to 'how to land the darn thing, ain't it? |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 11:57 am
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| I understand that Don Helms never slanted his bar when he played with Hank Williams. |
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Jim Mckay
From:
New Zealand
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 1:02 pm
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Bar slants are nothing to be afraid of, get use to them and practice them until you are accurate without thinking about it.
Different tunings can be ideal for some songs and B11th is a great tuning for some songs, I use it a lot because of the rich strum chords rather than dodging slants.
Slants are pedals and are very useful even on pedal steel.
The chord options are endless.
I would also say that different tuning options require a lot more skill than slants eg; B11th is Ath with 5th string lowered a half tone and 7 and 8th strings tuned to suit strum chords required. So when you play these variations you have learn to play around them eg. being the 5th string on the B11th.
The solution; Work hard on the slants and the rewards are will worth it.
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Canopus d-8
Excel Jerry Byrd frypan
T-8 Stringmaster |
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Tony Lombardo
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 1:30 pm
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| Once, a guy showed me a couple of tunings that didn't require many (or any) slants, but I didn't like those tunings, because they didn't have any straight bar strum options. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 1:54 pm
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It's a trade off.  |
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David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 2:11 pm
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This really is the first question we ask ourselves when we take up steel guitar.
By a process of elimination, you can take any tuning, look at the relationship of the notes, and get fair idea of what you can get out of it. Full strum open strings, and then reduce it down by one note at a time. Figure out what type of chord you can get out of the left over notes. For example, if you have not got any 6ths, (or flat 3rd) in the open chord, you will not get a minor. The bottom line is that straight bar is for pedal steel players, who play with their feet.
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Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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Nathan Laudenbach
From:
Montana
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 4:14 pm
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| Ask someone who plays pedal steel. |
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Frank James Pracher
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 5:55 pm
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| Erv Niehaus wrote: |
| I understand that Don Helms never slanted his bar when he played with Hank Williams. |
I don't think Cindy Cashdollar slants much either..
I play C6th and I rarely feel the need to slant when I play with the band. I'll add a few in when I'm playing by myself though..
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"Don't be mad honey, but I bought another one" |
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Michael James
From:
La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 6:43 pm
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Try this. I just updated this. It had some errors on it.
Last edited by Michael James on 8 Aug 2016 9:48 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Dustin Kleingartner
From:
Saint Paul MN, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 8:34 pm
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when I play non pedal, I play six string C6, and I can get by without many slants at all
a six string C6 with a C# in the bass allows you to play major, minor, and 7 chords without slanting
and those are all you need to play any song ever written, ever 
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Proud parent of a good dog. |
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Ken Pippus
From:
Langford, BC, Canada
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Posted 28 Jul 2016 9:22 pm
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| Not really. |
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John Ed Kelly
From:
Victoria, Australia
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Posted 29 Jul 2016 2:02 am
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Dustin Kleingartner wrote ''...allows you to play major, minor, and those are all you need to play any song ever written, ever''.
Crikey...that's saying something??!!
Here's some numbers to consider then, they are jazz oriented, but recognised tunes none-the-less.
At The Mardi Gras - F+
A Kiss To Build A Dream On - Co
Blue Blood Blues - Ao
Because Of You - Ebo
Blue And Broken Hearted - Go
Blue Skies - A+
Blue Hawaii - F+
...and so on...and I'm only up to ''B'' in my chord book.
P.S. How would you go if the bandleader called (say) ''Love Letters''? This was made famous by Ketty Lester has an Eo and an Ao plus an F9. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 29 Jul 2016 7:13 am
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Every tuning has advantages and disadvantages depending on how one defines those advantages/disadvantages. I would echo that slant bar playing is an important part of lap steel playing and that you should embrace rather than avoid it. Not doing so is like only using gears 1-3 when driving a manual transmission car.
It's true that some exceptional players like Jerry Douglas, Cindy Cashdollar and Mike Aldridge seldom use/used slants. JD because he doesn't usually want that sound. CC because she doesn't want to hit out of tune notes in the heat of battle. MA because it just wasn't a salient aspect of his style. Exceptional players can always make the music sound great regardless of which techniques they embrace or reject.
For most players, slants greatly add to the sounds, chords and phrasing possibilities on the instrument. One just needs to put in the time and effort to master them to the extent that they're second nature. On a standard guitar, it takes time to fret a bar chord without buzzing or learn to flat pick with alternate picking but the rewards are well worth it. Same thing with slant playing on lap steel.
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Scott Duckworth
From:
Etowah, TN Western Foothills of the Smokies
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Posted 29 Jul 2016 8:33 am
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I play D6 dobro, and do slant sometimes, for example, 2nd string fret 1 and 1st string fret 2.
And sometimes I just fret.... 
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Amateur Radio Operator NA4IT (Extra)
http://www.qsl.net/na4it
I may, in fact, be nuts. However, I am screwed onto the right bolt... Jesus! |
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Chris Bauer
From:
Nashville, TN USA
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Posted 29 Jul 2016 9:31 am
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Slants dramatically increase your voicing options, not to speak of letting you do play a variety of bends with the bar not possible otherwise.
That said... I'm not proud that I don't use them but I don't. In my case it's because I can never seem to play them fully in tune and I'd waaaaaay rather play more simply in tune than with more depth and out of tune.
However, as long as a simple approach doesn't offend you - and it obviously doesn't offend me - I have yet to be kept from making my way through a full night of music on a six string C6th guitar.
I usually play a D-8 or T-8 because I like having that range of tonal/chordal colors available to me but, if the question is what's needed without bar slants, a six string 6th tuning will get you there for most kinds of music and a 6 string G or E tuning will get you there for the rest. |
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Eric Gross
From:
Perkasie PA, USA
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Posted 30 Jul 2016 3:07 pm Re: What's wrong with bar slants?
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| Ray Montee wrote: |
| Playing steel guitar without bar slants is sorta like driving a car but not turning the wheel and/or flying an airplane without any tho't given to 'how to land the darn thing, ain't it? |
Well said Ray! |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 31 Jul 2016 6:07 am
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One of the reasons for multi-neck non-pedal guitars is the ability to change necks to do a better job on a song.
If it is too difficult to play a song on one neck, just try another neck. That's what I did when I played a three neck Fender Stringmaster.
I would even change necks depending on the key the song was written in. |
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Dana Duplan
From:
Ramona, CA
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Posted 31 Jul 2016 12:38 pm
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| Erv Niehaus wrote: |
| I understand that Don Helms never slanted his bar when he played with Hank Williams. |
I hear and play a slant on the Cheatin Heart solo tuned to Don''s E13--is another way to play it? |
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Thiel Hatt
From:
Utah, USA
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Posted 31 Jul 2016 1:59 pm
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| Jerry Byrd's C diotonic tuning allows a lot of chord voicings with fewer slants. But without pedals some use of slants are almost a necessity. |
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Stefan Robertson
From:
Hertfordshire, UK
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