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Post new topic The Music of Mike Perlowin
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Author Topic:  The Music of Mike Perlowin
Matthew Murdoch


From:
SE Idaho, USA
Post  Posted 19 Sep 2020 1:40 pm    
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I'm 3 weeks into my PSG journey and somehow stumbled onto Mike who has been so helpful in basic advice to a newbie. His recent health setbacks have largely caused to him to cease playing. Today I've been enjoying his music while away from my guitar.

Anyone not aware of what our instrument and perserverence can accomplish need look no further than here:

https://youtu.be/9woO5AL7wko

https://youtu.be/TzKaDmJm1VA

https://youtu.be/WhZnG2mXAi0

And if that isn't your style:

https://youtu.be/WkSnoeTWR4I at 1:45

Or maybe this:

https://youtu.be/AdTVdZnJmRQ

Thanks Mike for the inspiration!

Now back to RH blocking Rolling Eyes
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1982 MSA green lacquer “Universal” adapted to extended E9
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Tucker Jackson

 

From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
Post  Posted 19 Sep 2020 5:01 pm    
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Yeah, man. Mike is the real deal. We're lucky to have him hanging with us on the Forum.

Also, if you message him and ask nicely, he'll send you a PDF he wrote that teaches how to read music notation and apply it to pedal steel.
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Dustin Rhodes


From:
Owasso OK
Post  Posted 19 Sep 2020 5:53 pm    
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Previewed a few Shocked .

Will definitely be giving them all a listen tomorrow.
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Mike Perlowin


From:
Los Angeles CA
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2020 11:49 am    
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Thank you Matthew for calling attention to my music.

The steel is growing in stature all around the world. Players like Travis Toy, Hal Merrill, Lionel Wendling Perso, Christopher Woitach, and so many others are taking our instrument “where no steel player has gone before,” and helping to shed the “hillbilly instrument” stereotype.

I am proud to have played a role in that growth.

I want to discuss my recording of the piece “Gymnapodies.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzKaDmJm1VA&feature=youtu.be)
The piece is based on a G major 9th chord. The notes are G, B, D, F#, A. The bottom 3 notes are a G chord, and the top 3 are a D chord. So, while the total of all these notes is the G major 9th, I approached the piece by breaking the chord into the 2 chords that form it, and played them separately in different instruments, (fretless bass and autoharp.) Thus the steel is never playing the same chord as the others.
Moreover, I played the steel part (in D) with some country licks, which as a rule I avoided doing, but since the other instruments are playing a G chord against the D chord licks, it doesn’t sound country.

I’d like to call your attention to what I, and many others, consider to be my very best recording. The piece is called “Capriccio Espagnol.” You can hear it on my Soundcloud page.

https://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin

The piece is 16 minutes long, and has to be heard in its entirety on one sitting to be fully appreciated, as is builds up to a dramatic conclusion. The last 3 minutes required 109 tracks to record.

As you listen, you’ll hear what sounds like a piano and a horn section. These were actually done with a steel. The way I got the horn section sounds was to record each part on analog tape. Running at 30 inches per second, and leaving every other track on the tape blank. Then I slowed the tape down to 15, and played back each part, one at a time, through a heavily EQ’d distortion unit, and recorded the slowed down distorted parts on the empty tracks on the tape. Them when I played the tape back at 30, the distorted tracks were the original pitches, with none of that chipmunk sound. But the RATE of the distortion was doubled. When combined with the distorted tracks, the result was that horn sound.

This was my “mad scientist running amok in a recording studio” project. And when I started it. I didn’t know what I was getting into. The production took on a life of its own. But I’m really happy with the results.

I hope you guys will check this one out and listen to all 16 minutes, preferably through headphones.
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Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin
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Ron Shalita


From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2020 12:35 pm    
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Thanks for posting that mike got a listen to the whole thing in the morning.
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Been playing all of my life, Lead Guitar, and Pedal Steel, sing Lead and Harmony.. play other Instruments also but I hate to admit to it..
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scott murray


From:
Asheville, NC
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2020 1:45 pm    
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truly impressive and incredibly ambitious stuff. I love what you've done for our instrument Mike, you cracked it wide open. hats off to you sir
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1965 Emmons S-10, 3x5 • Emmons LLIII D-10, 10x12 • JCH D-10, 10x12 • Beard MA-8 • Oahu Tonemaster
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Dave Hopping


From:
Aurora, Colorado
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2020 6:48 pm    
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Subscribed on YouTube!
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Mike Perlowin


From:
Los Angeles CA
Post  Posted 23 Sep 2020 11:08 am    
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The same friend who made he video of my Afternoon of a Faun made another one of a short it very pretty piece called The magic Circle. It's just steel and a little bit of percussion.

It's not on You Tube, bit if anybody wants to see and hear it, send me an E-mail, (NOT A PM,) and I'll attach it to the reply.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin
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