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Topic: New love for pedal steel |
Scott Denniston
From:
Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA
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Posted 25 Jul 2016 7:16 pm |
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| I guess most of the licks I was playing were getting tired. My ears were getting tired of most of what I heard others play. I chucked it for a long time. Went trucking & played an occasional gig when I got home. I brought a guitar with me on the road (can't fit a steel in the sleeper)and kind of studied jazz for a while. I don't get along so well with traditional jazz instruction and gravitate towards guys like Pat Martino and Robert Conti. Oh, and Sheryl Bailey. The other day I finally got the time at home & sat down with the steel for a few hours. I didn't realize I'm a whole different player now. I've got places to go I never went. Man so many doors to open! It'll take time but I'm going to work work out ways to cross over with what I've learned. I think I'll probably be concentrating on C6 mostly. I'll never catch up with you guys that are light years ahead but it'll be fun tryin. After all these years I guess I'm hooked. |
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Jeff Harbour
From:
Western Ohio, USA
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Posted 26 Jul 2016 3:45 am
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I have noticed over the years that practicing on any instrument instinctively makes you improve on other instruments as well. It's a strange phenomenon.
Best of luck with your new-found motivation. |
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Jeff Harbour
From:
Western Ohio, USA
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Posted 26 Jul 2016 4:11 am
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| Also, I might suggest a better travel guitar... Get yourself a 12-string MSA Superslide (lap steel, tuned to Reece's extended C6). That would be perfect for a truck sleeper, it's much smaller than a standard guitar. |
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Scott Denniston
From:
Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA
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Posted 26 Jul 2016 12:30 pm
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| Thanks Jeff I may try that again now that I'm in a different mode. Many moons ago I was near Nashville and Bobbe Seymour slapped together a board for me with a Sho-Bud heastock and neckplate & I put a Sho-Bud pickup on it. It worked pretty good but I guess I just didn't have this bump to get me going. It was taking up real estate so I gave it to a friend. You know, if someone could get the rights to redo Pat Martino's "Creative Force" for C6 it would be a great course. Robert Conti's stuff too. |
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Christopher Woitach
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 26 Jul 2016 1:08 pm
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If you're interested, I have Martino's 5 activities written out, pedals up, for Bb6 12 string. Most of them can be played as is on C6 10 string, 2 frets lower. Send me a pm with your email and I'll send them to you.
If you search for them in tablature they are posted there, as well
I also work on them with pedals, but haven't written them out.
Jazz on pedal steel is a wonderful thing - glad you're fired up!
_________________
Christopher Woitach
cw@affmusic.com
www.affmusic.com |
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Scott Denniston
From:
Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA
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Posted 26 Jul 2016 2:50 pm
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| Thanks Christopher I'll do that (pm). That earlier course with the activities is really the core or starting place for his much later "Creative Force". In the later course he doesn't so much tie the patterns to their corresponding minor form but to the dominant chord in that position you're playing the minor sub in. Since you've been doing this I'm sure it makes sense. |
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Jeff Harbour
From:
Western Ohio, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2016 3:18 am
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| This is a great thread guys. I too am a fan of the Pat Martino approach. |
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Scott Denniston
From:
Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2016 3:38 am
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| Thanks Christopher I got those in Tablature. Again, I highly recommend his later "Creative Force" where he expounds quite a bit on the activities. Lots of exercise and lines within those "activities". Good thing for me he didn't call them scales. You actually start right off playing interesting minor lines over a dominant Chord. Lots of fun with a looper. I've really mostly only done this with guitar not steel. |
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Jeff Harbour
From:
Western Ohio, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2016 4:07 am
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I have perception issues with the term "scales" as well. It seems like that is all most of the 6-string guitar methods want you to do... play "scales" up and down over and over. All that does is make you good at playing scales up and down. That's probably why I stalled out musically until I picked up the steel.
In reality, I think a "scale" is best practiced mentally as a 'map' of where the notes are, not physically as an exercise. Pat see's it this way too, everything is from a musical perspective, rather than a mechanical one. I also like Joe Pass's teachings for the same reason. |
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Scott Denniston
From:
Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2016 7:09 am
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| I know different people gravitate towards ways of thinking about it that fit them or they're comfortable with. There was a time I worked diligently on scales until I didn't have to think about them. When I'd get on the bandstand guess what came out. That was decades ago and now I only remember a couple of them. I do relate to B E's "pockets" though. They're to play around in not run up & down in order. |
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