i had a fight with my pedal steel last night

Brandon Wright · From: Austin, Texas, USA

she's not happy with me. She kinda put me out doors. I went to dranking whiskey to ease the pain. It's kinda like having a girlfriend that pedal steel guitar

It's so discouraging sometimes. I wish that i was good like i am on guitar. You know.....i just wanna be able to kill it. And i don't even play regular guitar anymore. Unless it's like recording something.

Pedal steel is indeed a journey man and i guess guitar is too. But I've already done it so the struggle seems ancient. It's like being a little kid and being pissed off cause I'm not coordinated enough to play. And it's not my pedal steel's fault of course. It's me that cannot perform like i want.

I got the pedal changes, the grips and chords but it's that pick blocking that frustrates me. It's hard to train yourself to do that. To be able make it sound clean.

The right hand is the most difficult.

I think that every guitarist goes through this. Were they've been playing for a while and they think there better than what they really are. You have these breakthroughs you know...and these low points. I've been recording myself and it lets me know just how bad i suck.

so it's humbling

But it's long hard road man. Makes me wanna use the f word...to describe my feelings.

Another thing that kills me is sitting in the same spot for hours while i'm practicing. It's like i need to go exercise.

Anyone else in the same boat. Luckley i got a natural built in outbord evinrude to keep me truckin

Meryle Swartz · From: California, USA

Aw man i'm with ya! And i guarantee you're loads better at PSG than i am. Been learning since Feb of this year but don't have much free time. Mostly find myself practicing in the middle of the night. It's a little bit frustrating-- certainly humbling, so ridiculously humbling-- to go from an instrument where i know what i'm doing to being awkward and lousy at something new. But hey just think- in a few years this will all seem like a strange dream. Buck up! :)

Larry Bressington · From: Nebraska

I defiantly go through that, iv'e calmed down a bit though and i take it better these days, i'm never going to have master chops and i suppose i have come to except it which is a bad attitude Very Happy

But that's me brother.
I cant do 'pick blocking' so i just struggle on with the REGULAR method, but yeah... the highs and lows are just part of it.
I'll bet your a monster when the mood is right!! Very Happy

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Thomas Ludwig · From: Augsburg, Germany

Brandon, Meryle,
I try to learn the PSG since Jan. My right hand blocking is terrible. Now I got me a Jeff Newman video course "No speed limit". After working a few hours with it I think there is a spark of hope even for me ...

Clete Ritta · From: San Antonio, Texas

I feel your pain and frustration.
I can cut it up pretty good on 6 string, but PSG is a challenge unlike any other instrument.
Be patient! The doc said, "Be patient". What else could I be!? Laughing

As if PSG wasn't enough torture, I'm fiddlin around on the violin now too.

Mickey Adams videos were part of my salvation.
I suggest going along with his journey in each lesson.
One lesson a day to avoid overkill.
His pick-blocking suggestion?
Repetitive exercise, repetetive exercise.
I know it is boring, but getting that muscle memory is all it takes.
Once you can pick block without being conscious of it, you'll be able to open other musical doors easily.

Its time to kiss and make up with your girl, and let her back into your heart.

Clete

Eric Dahlhoff · From: Point Arena, California

Me too! Me too!!
I only started this in January, after playing guitar for 40 years. Now I feel like I'm back in kindergarten. But every now and then I hit a few good notes & find myself grinning from ear to ear.
My band mates let me play a few songs on PSG at each practice, and I just try to do minimal fills. Less is more. I'm just going to keep practicing & remembering to HAVE FUN! Very Happy

And this forum has been the GREATEST HELP! Thank you to all of you!

Mickey Adams · From: Bandera Texas

Brandon, come up here and spend a day practicing with me...On the house...Call anytime...214-334-3582
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Brandon Wright · From: Austin, Texas, USA

man i'd love to come hang out with you and get a lesson. It's funny cause i feel like i know you. I've watched so many of your videos. I just wanna be like. This is Brandon Wright in Austin, Tx and we'll see ya back at the pedal steel. hahah

Clete I do everything you said.

I been practicing the BEX27 pentatonic scale and i'm really trying work up that right hand dexterity and it's killer. But that one video three moves to master II. I got the first two moves down but that banjo roll at the end where you hit the 5th string A pedal. 2nd and 3rd string with the right knee depressed. Then to the 4th string back to the 5th releasing the A pedal.

You gotta do some serious pick blocking for that to sound right.

I just sit there doing it over and over and it sounds ugly with those strings ringing.

But I'll get it.

Rick Barnhart · From: Arizona, USA

Jon Jaffe · From: Austin, Texas

Brandon,
What's with the kicker talk? You are in Austin not Lubbock. Come out to Ginny's tomorrow (14th). I am pickin' with The Stepsiders, an entire evening of steel, fiddle and 4/4 shuffles. The best of Texas Traditional Country. Come sit in and spell me for a dance.

I left out bottomless Wild Turkey

Jon A. Ross · From: not actually FROM Maine...

Jim Lindsey (Louisiana) · From: Greenwell Springs, Louisiana (deceased)

Brandon Wright · From: Austin, Texas, USA

Jon i guess you can hear my country twang coming through them interwebs. I grew up right out side of Austin in Caldwell county. Growing up there i didn't realize how redneck and podunk it really is. But when i go down to visit my folks. I'm like Got dang...so this is why i sound like such a hillbilly. It all makes since now

Yeah i'll try to make it out to ginny's. I'm gonna go to continental tomarrow but i'll try to make both shows. What time are ya'll rocking it?

Jon jaffe was it you that sent me that message a while back inviting me out to stardust to see ya'll play. Man i totally forgot about that untill just right now.

Jim...Hell maybe we can all get together and jam out when i get up there to Dimebag country. That'd be some rowdy business. I'll get a super double dose of pedal steel guitar. Between you a Mickey.

And Meryle I bet ya i ain't better than ya. But it looks real good on paper. HAHAH

and larry thanks man. I have killed it a few times when the mood was right.

Billy Carr · From: Seminary, Mississippi, USA (deceased)

Be patient my friend. Your trying to accomplish something that has taken players years to do. Repetition was my secret to learning quickly. I started at age 14 and here we are 38 years later and I still learn things that have been right there in front of me the whole time. Study as many steel players as you can. That was another thing that really helped me along. I like to think of PSG as a melting pot. Put everything in it. The most I've picked up in the last 5 or 6 years was from Texas player, Lloyd Maines. He has some real interesting approaches to licks that I liked and still use. Good luck! Gary Carpenter is another Texas picker I've got a few things off of also.

Dave LaSalle · From: Ontario, Canada

Just stick to it. I woodshed with my steel for almost a year before i'd let anyone hear me.and that was on a "Little Buddy" (a beginer Sho-Bud) Now I get call backs at studios because I play steel, and i'm in no way an acommplished steel player. My main instruments are guitar & banjo. I now play a Sho-Bud Super Pro. 8 pedals & 6 knee levers. Enough there for 2 live times. But there's nothing like getting that lick or tune down. Keep on pickin'
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Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

What I "hate" is having a lick down cold one night in the woodshed, and the next night I can't even get near it.

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Or worse Ray, you have the lick down, you remember ti the next day, but when its time to play it on stage or in the studio its like you are wearing boxing gloves. Laughing

as a guitar player myself, i can relate to some of the comments about being disappointed or frustrated that we cant shred on the psg like we can on our "shoulder hangers". One day I decided to just see if you could play my guitar licks on psg. I ignored the pedals and levers and just fumbled around till I found some familiar sounding patterns I was used to from my guitar playing. This really helped set me free. suddenly I could "play" again.
try it.

for palm blocking what helped was EVERY day repitition of several excercises. Mainly that "telegraph machine" picking, back and forth thumb and middle strings 1 and 2 over and over and over palm blocked cleanly..dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo. You can put on the tv and do it on a lap steel for hours if you got it in you. then move it around strings 2 and 3, 3 and 4 , 1 and 4 etc

Pick blocking, one excercise in particular. I dont know how to describe it, but ive heard people here call it the "incredible 2 string lick" (mine, and i suspect theirs too, uses three strings)

So am i good now? as good as on guitar? heck no..never. thats part of the fun and challenge tho right? the journey?

your lucky to be so near so many great players who are willing to share and teach. Not everyone has that Sad

If you are anywhere near Austin, you might wanna get in touch with Neil Flanz and get a lesson from him. super cool guy, great player and excellent teacher.
(oops der duh, i see you are IN austin..shoot, Id be curled up like a dog sleeping on Herb Steiners and Neil Flanzs doorsteps. when they woke up in the morning and went out to get their morning papers theyd trip over me.)

rock on!

John Ummel · From: Arlington, WA.

Brandon,
These things need time to work their way into your sub-concious, to become long term memory. Don't fall into the "trying too hard" trap. You're making more progress than you think. (You can't see the grass grow but its growing) Take a day off and go fishing! Smile

Johnny

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Brandon, I'd like to share this video with you. It is a piano lesson given by Jazz player, Hal Galper, to a student. It does not directly relate in any way to steel guitar, and yet, it has everything to do with playing your instrument. It is one of the most insightful music lessons I've ever seen. It is called "Minimizing Emotion".

If you have 20 minutes or so, watch it. If you are having issues with pick blocking, back off and just play a series of long tones like Hal does at about 13:00. Listen to how the note decays. When it starts to change dramatically, stop the note with your pick. Then play another note on another string, doing the same. Change the duration of each note until you finally are playing staccato notes.

About 9 minutes into the video, Hal starts to take about the technique of playing piano, and how jazz pianists stray from the classical techniques in an effort to simulate swinging. Try to relate this to steel guitar. For me, it is a loud and clear message. But for me, some real gold exists about 13 minutes into the video.

Hal Galper lesson -- Minimizing Emotion
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Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

that was pretty deep and cerebral.
I wish I could think about stuff like that while im playing.

interesting and fascinating lesson for sure.
thanks Mike

Bill Howard · From: Indiana, USA

THis is a play on words.
I traded my dinette set (wasn't married:).
For a Fender(Sho Bud) Student model,I made that only knee lever drop 4 and 8 when i got that deal it has a Sho Bud V pedal,stainless bar, and most Important?,
a Winnie Winston how to play book,Remember back in 1980 NO Computers, No Dvd's very few if any VHS tapes about Steel Guitar,I practiced and Practiced believ me put in a few hours a DAY not long you'll see some results, Winnie had a little comment about picking a song apart,get a song that is sort of hard to play take it apart,Play it several ways keep playing it,There is a "Teacher" that Works for Scotty who told me in 1983 that because I didn't block like Jeff Newman with the Donut hole in his hand,That I would never make a Steel player,Years later Mickey Adams told about PICK BLOCKING,I was doing it without knowing WHAT I was doing,After that Guy told me that I thought Well I play pretty good and didn't understand his comment. Keep Playing it WILL get easier,Don't get discouraged by good players ALL of them sat down at a Pedal Steel the first time and were ROOKIES!. Pick on Brother

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Thanks Mike N. for the Hal Galper link.

I was almost gonna quit it a couple of times, cuz I kinda got lost; but I pressed on.

Just amazing what Hal knows about playing a SINGLE NOTE.

I got this one saved in Bookmarks, and will watch again and again. I'll bet after 10 or 20 more 'watches', I'll still be at least 1/2 lost.

He is brilliant.
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Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

yeah Ive been thinking about that lesson alot since i watched it earlier today. my feeble mind has collapsed inward on itself several times as a result.
theres some profound stuff in there

Mike Neer · From: NJ

The lesson was very profound for me, and I especially liked when he talked about the student just skating over the notes and not really playing them deep enough, and later when the student admitted that his sound was thin compared to Hal's deep, thick notes.
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Michael Haselman · From: St. Paul

Could just be me, but I think Brandon may be obsessing too much with pick blocking. I'm assuming you've mastered palm blocking, which most of us that have been playing for some time mastered first. Listen to Lloyd Green and you're hearing almost exclusively palm blocking. After I figured out palm blocking, pick blocking almost followed naturally, without much effort. I was even doing it before I heard of the term. If you find yourself getting frustrated with one thing move onto another then come back.
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