Steel Guitar's Fool's Errand

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Is there a time to accept that trying to master the steel guitar may prove to be a fool's errand? Like so many feats requiring special skills, some may be wise to settle for mediocre levels of playing the steel guitar.

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Each player plays up to his level of commitment. More investment-more return according to the talent and skills of the player and vice-versa.

There are only very very few masters of any instrument at any time in history. One in thousands will accomplish this. In the entire history of the pedal steel there are very few.

John Daugherty · From: Rolla, Missouri, USA

NO !!!! You can always get better. It depends on how much time you can allot to practice. Everything has a price.
Bill, if the passion is there, you will MAKE time for practice. Only you can decide how important it is. Good luck.
_________________
www.home.earthlink.net/~johnd37
www.myspace.com/johndaughertysteelguitar

Mark Edwards · From: Weatherford,Texas, USA

Ah frustration. I was at the Dallas show and got to meet Mr. Jaydee Maness and I asked him what advice he could give a guy starting out on steel. He told me first of all, always know that there will be a level of frustration. Sometimes high, sometimes low but there will always be that level. Second he said you have to practice every day weather it's 30 min. or 3 hours, practice, practice, practice. I have followed this advise and found that my level of playing has increased ten fold.

And yes I have many days when my level of frustration is at an all time high, but I will get up take a rest and get right back to it, and find the exact notes or riffs I had been looking for all along.

Bill hang in there buddy, it gets better.

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

I don't believe the old saying [Practice makes perfect]It WILL make you better.And I don't think anyone can MASTER any instrument.Chet Atkins,Roger Williams,and Segovia[not sure about the spelling]anyway they all said they would practice around eight hours a day,and as great as these great players were I bet they never got to the point that they thought they knew it all,and there was nothing left.I practice almost every day,but will NEVER be a Seymore,Emmons,or Curly,but sure have a GOOD time searching for it.I never give up or get dishearted at my limitations,just enjoy what little I can do.IMO I had rather be a mediocre steel player than a great keyboard player anyday.

Terry Farmer · From: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Bill, we strive for progress, not perfection. It's the journey that counts, not the destination. I smile everytime I see one of your new thought provoking posts. Keep 'em comin". Smile

P.S. - if it's a "Fool's Errand", count me as one happy fool. Very Happy

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Charles is right --practice does not make perfect. It's Perfect practice that makes perfect. If you do not give proper attention to how you practice, such as proper techniqe for instance, you may find your self regressing instead of progressing---and working just as hard to regress. Nothing worse than finding out you have finally mastered bad habits. Evil Twisted

Allan Thompson · From: Scotland.

I will never master this instrument but the fun I have had and the great people I have met have made the struggle well worth the effort.

Calvin Walley · From: colorado city colorado, USA

lets see now.....i have gotten frustrated and sold three steels...
quit about 50 times ...wanted to see what kinda sound it would make after i threw it out the door about 10 times....but nope i have decided to stick it out till the bitter end

just sign me: been there done that...and still at it
_________________
proud parent of a sailor

Mullen SD-10 /nashville 400
gotta love a Mullen!!!

Guitars that i have owned in order are :
Mullen SD-10,Simmons SD-10,Mullen SD-10,Zum stage one,Carter starter,
Sho-Bud Mavrick

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

You don't need to be a master to play something worth listening to. If it's fun, keep going...

Joe Miraglia · From: Jamestown N.Y.

I do just fine, as long as another steel player isn't listening to me. I feel that most steel players are too critical of each other. By taking away the competiveness of playing helps illiminate the frustration of mastering the steel. Steel players always seems to bring up in a conversation who is good and who is not. Just play for yourself first, then the public and then your peers. I will never be good enough for other steel players ,why listen to me when you can hear that the one in a thousand accomplished player. Joe
www.willowcreekband.com

C. Christofferson · Posted 26 Jan 2007 4:45 pm

In one way of seeing it the steel, because of what it is and how it is played, can make beautiful sounds no matter how simple the lick is. If you take it one phrase at a time, chord-gliss-chord, and you can play that one phrase perfectly, then you have mastered the instrument as far as that phrase is concerned. Someone listening might not be able to tell whether it was you or Lloyd who played it.

custom steel / recordings

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Thanks for the readable accounts that reflect the high hopes that can be dashed at times, like a ship on a ledge in a stormy sea. Not to be defeated, as a hopeful may resort to pure logic, by adapting a truth that will restore one to virtually a high level of self-respect. If a high level of gymnastics is required to emulate a master of the steel guitar, try moving away from that fool's errand by concentrating on the pretty stuff, that the average paying audience might rather hear. Good examples are Brumley's "Together Again" ride, slow and pretty, or Hughey's "Look At Us", is a winner that mediocre players can handle. Most country folks like shuffles, and there are a ton of those that can be played without too much difficulty. I've found that the average listener's ears are not receptive to rapid steel guitar improvisation. The key to breaking through that barrier of being turned off, is by playing whatever
uprouses the inattentive, to a new level of interest.

Bill Duve · From: Limestone .New York, USA

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Bill. We all need our delusions.

And as a famous man once penned, we ought to respect one anothers'.

I'll dig up my "Are you Delusional" thread when I get a chance. I'll try the old archive.

Wink

EJL

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

Who can say what "mastery" is anyhow? And how can one judge one's own level of "mastery"? Many great musicians (Wes Montgomery comes to mind) were extremely self-deprecating even as the world received them as sublime masters. And there are many who are legends only in their own mind.

I've read various interviews with the players we all consider masters in which they say they are still discovering things on the steel all the time that they never knew were there.

Messrs. Emmons and Green used to play fast, intricate and tricky licks when they were younger, but later and now with many more years of experience play very much less fancily, but with enormous depths of feeling and taste. (I'm not suggesting that either of them lacked feeling and taste when they were younger!) They were great then, and are great now, but which is the greater mastery?

Perhaps it's possible to get to that mature mastery without going through the fast, intricate, tricky stage. I, for one, sure hope so!!!!!

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Whatever level a player is at, they are only "mediocre" by their own standards.

The "greats" that I have known, or like Bud Charleton who I got to sit across from sweating buckets weekly when I was a kid have showed me at least one thing. If you are "satisfied" with your own playing, and don't feel a need to work on one little thing or another, then you are becoming mediocre in your own mind.

In my case of the last year, I was getting generally frustrated at the lack of public paid outlet for the fruits of my PSG endeavors, and figured I'd take up Tele again after 30 years of letting it go to the "figuring things out" corner of my music room with my "wurlitzer fun time organ".

Now I have a DOZEN things EVERY DAY to hone, work on, bring up from nothing, and try my skills at learning licks note for note.

I measure them by playing them in public for money, nearly every weekend.

Thinking that a person is "going to be great" after learning enough new things" is a little foolish.

Now that you mention it, the people that WE consider "Greats" are nearly always those that don't really consider themselves that way, and are as humble, kindly, and ready to plug in their guitar in some basement studio, just like they did at Panther Hall in the 60s or 70s.

Or ones like Maurice Anderson or Buddy Charleton whose crowning glory has been to teach others. Really as much as anything, they imbue their zealous gleeful pursuit onto others on a personal basis. I know that's what Mr Charelton did for me.

Aspiring to be "great" is something that usually goes away pretty rapidly.

It could be like Brad Paisley, and be a kid with a plastic guitar one year, and twenty years later be the Young Master in the Spotlight, but I see in him especially a genuine hunger to compete with himself.

I know Mr Emmons has said SO many times that it is himself that he has been in "competition" with.

In his case, we should and can all be thankful that he has never declared himself the winner.

We should be, but somehow we all still listen to his latest NPR spots to see how his competition is going..

Good post, as always, thought provoking.

Now if you will excuse me I have a Delusion to feed the midnight oats to.

Smile

EJL[/url]

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Eric, I think that you are aware of how dreams are chased by most red-blooded and ambitious people. They chase a dream without regard to the lack of fulfillment, due to a distorted rationality that would otherwise cue the pursuer of the vain endeavor. Suddenly acquiring the ability to emulate Buddy C., would be the equivalent of playing at the apex of a rainbow. In all likelihood, it can't be done. Some become "victims" of a love at first sight, and the dream is set in motion. At least, putting it in milder terms, trying to become better acquainted with what pleases our desires, and to be in touch with some of the better things in life. A steel guitar happens to fall in that category of things that people can be found clinging to. Countless hours are spent gazing at fretboards, shoving the bar back and forth with increased dexterities. At some point, the realization comes winging in with a rude awakening. That which seemed difficult to the beginner in the beginning, comes the awakening of a challenging endeavor, of no equal, in the land of music. At first, the challenge is met with enthusiasm, but as time wears on, the respect for the complexities of the instrument commence to register somewhere between the walls of the cranium. Mediocre is one of those general terms that seems to fit best in describing a player who is striving to improve his/her technique after years of practice. Should it be so difficult to trigger an iota of respect from those who have managed to climb the greased pole? Certainly, that objective is not unrealistic in lay terminology. I, for one, wouldn't mind kicking some derriere after years of chasing an "elusive dream".

Ken Byng · From: Southampton, England

Glenn Womack · From: Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA

Many years ago I read something attributed to Tony Matola. He came up with what he termed the "law of diminishing returns", which brings on the frustration. Don't give up, but consider taking a break and trying it a day or so later. Worked for me when first learning thumb pivking on the old six-string of my youth. I went into a fit of disgust and put the thing in the closet. I picked it up again a couple of months later, and I have been thumb-picking ever since.

Many years later I acquired a Maverick. I don't know if the law would have worked with it Maverick or not. It burned up. I guess God doesn't like Mavericks either.

Glenn

Ernie Pollock · From: Mt Savage, Md USA

I think we could say "you get out, what you put in", no more, no less. PRACTICE MAN, PRACTICE!!

Ernie Pollock Laughing

http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75/stock.htm

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Ken B., My interpretation of the capabilities of those players who are "bound" to an endless journey, through what I term as mediocre levels of playing steel, could, I feel, imitate Hughey, or Brumley. The copies may have a few rough edges, but these effects are discernible; only to a connoisseur of musical appreciation.

Ed Altrichter · From: Schroeder, Minnesota, USA

Would it help to make a point by using plain language ? Rolling Eyes

Just askin' . . .

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Well Bill. Actually reading your posts I might be sensing something that others aren't, or maybe that you yourself aren't.

In my case, what I believe I got from Bud Charleton and have tried to continually hone is the glee of playing, and competing against my own wall of muscle/nerve coordination in playing my own music.

It was severely tested in the first part of my 30 years playing by many things.

I don't think but maybe one in ten songs I actually played were songs I had learned any specific licks for, nor did I try to play them with any little "BC" signatures. Oh, some of them helped, but I was always trying to fit in with, or rise above "The Moment"..

Much like Public Schools, the key thing was not to aquire knowledge, or prowess in music as much as being able to keep my verve, vigor, and attain enough momentary glee to help me through an endless string of misfits, bad checks, hack guitar players/bands and like in Public Schools, being able to Cope in a world of Mediocrity.

If what I sense is your possible questioning if it's possible to lose not only ones' dreams of becoming great, or even to play better and better, but one's long held and long suffering Zeal...

Then my off hand answer is: Yes it is.

Every part of us wears out, and is mortal.

A lifetime of accomplishments, satisfactions, knowledge of successes within one's own musical clan, or even memberships in eclectic cabals or Halls of Fame can go away instantly. Things like a rear molar going septic, or a stroke, arthritic attack, or a thousand other things can erase all ability to "bask".

Whether it transcends death, I don't know. My guess is that it does not.

That's a different department.

In the later part of my thirty years, I realise that much of my pursuit was to keep awareness of mortality at bay by my continual daily/weekly endorphin fix. Public Playing for Money being the "Uncut Product."

Maybe musical endorphins eventually run out. I don't yet know..

Adrenaline wears the body out much like man made stimulants. I know it doesn't keep you from needing root canals..

Myself, I found that any satisfaction in being a leper with three fingers in surroundings where the median is two, is short lived. or at least can subside greatly in thirty years.

The timelessness live players seem to achieve by being able to tap into at our gigs even goes away after a time.

Maybe like the sedative influence of The Sea on the Pirates of Old, Neptune's Musical Opiates keep those of us transfixed to a more spiritual plane that would othewise "get into trouble" "on The Shore".

Whatever the Goal, how "Musical Striving" affects your Life, is the thing to be weighed.

Losing it should not bring on an effort to discourage others from having it.

Otherwise, maybe a guy that would have spent the morning learning the intro to Jukebox Charlie, might go out and rob a bank...

Just a passing thought while I fire up the Tele..

I don't remember where I left my ski mask and .45 anyhow...

Thanks Bill for your posts and consideration of fringe thoughts without castriagation..

Once in a while I learn new words.

Or make up one..

Smile

EJL

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Ed A., It certainly depends on who I'm addressing. I try to shun stereotyping just for the sake of amusement. That is the shortest route to becoming highly offensive. Many of the forum's members speak English so well, that I become a bit uneasy conferring with them, realizing that they have a better command of the language than yours truly.

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