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Topic: Western Swing Instruction Material? |
Brennan Mangan
From:
Vermont, USA
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Posted 7 Feb 2017 6:00 pm |
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I realize my best bet is to pony up for some lessons but I'm curious if there's anything out there that picks up where the Cindy Cashdollar dvds leave off (steel guitar rag). I'm playing with a band (or making some steel guitar-like sounds, at least) so while songbooks are helpful, is there anything covering a more general approach to pockets/scales/chords?
Also, I've been watching the Eddie Rivers "Western Swing Rules" videos on youtube—any other recommend channels/performers? Or perhaps concert footage/dvd's with good steel guitar coverage?
Last edited by Brennan Mangan on 7 Feb 2017 7:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Guy Cundell
From:
More idle ramblings from South Australia
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Posted 7 Feb 2017 7:50 pm
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Those Eddie Rivers videos really are excellent!
The book of JoaquÃn Murphey solos transcribed by John McGann and published by Andy Volk must be the most valuable resource for deep study currently available. It is for C6 and is mainly single note solos.
There must be more here and there. Mike Neer has some transcriptions and there may be material by Herb Remington available. |
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Jim Newberry
From:
Seattle, Upper Left America
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Posted 8 Feb 2017 1:05 pm
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Herb Remington has instructional materials available in A6 and C6 tunings. Check out http://www.remingtonsteelguitars.com/.
_________________
"The Masher of Touch and Tone"
-1950 Fender Dual Pro 8
-1950's Fender Dual Pro 6
-Clinesmith D8
-Clinesmith 8-string Frypan
-Clinesmith Joaquin
-~1940 National New Yorker
-~1936 Rickenbacher B6
-Homebuilt Amps |
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Paul Seager
From:
Augsburg, Germany
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Posted 10 Feb 2017 5:48 am
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I started with Cindy's videos and return to them about every 6 months. There are nuances there that you miss first time around. However, after those and Eddie River's valuable advice, I've not seen anything for the steel player on Western Swing music specifically.
I will say that listening to the other "Western Swing Rules" videos taught me things, particularly the guitar player from Hot Club of Cowtown. He talks about comping technique, inversions and so on.
Please share if you find something new!
_________________
\paul
Bayern Hawaiians: https://www.youtube.com/@diebayernhawaiians3062
Other stuff: https://www.youtube.com/@paulseager3796/videos |
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Brennan Mangan
From:
Vermont, USA
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Posted 11 Feb 2017 3:01 am
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Thanks for the tips and leads so far! Makes me wonder if it's worth delving into traditional six-string jazz/swing material which must be more widely available.
That said, I learn best by ear and find YouTube's half- and quarter-speed playback settings a godsend for working out stuff from recordings, especially on some of those older "telescription" clips of Leon and the like. |
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Norman Markowitz
From:
Santa Cruz, California
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Michael Lester
From:
Illinois, USA
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Posted 11 Feb 2017 9:35 am Western Swing
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All of the suggestions offered here are correct...and they can be useful kickstarters...however, in my opinion, Western Swing is accurately called 'Cowboy Jazz'...it's quite free-form and fairly sophisticated. Chord structures, changes and melody lines often lean to 6ths and 9ths. I've found that concentrating my 'listening' on players that I respect taught me a lot about how others use the fretboard - and how they make tunes their own.
If I had a student that I was helping, I'd advise them to learn every scale they can memorize in their chosen tuning and then use those scales to walk around common melodies like Panhandle Rag, Steel Guitar Rag and Steelin' Home.
It's a lot of fun to make a version of a melody your own. Some of mine are really wacky - but they're still mine.
I'd suggest acquiring a fretboard scale map from one of the sources on this forum - search youtube - acquire a youtube audio capture to mp3 player (there's a lot of free versions out there) and build a file of tunes from other players that you can listen to over and over. There's also several 'slow downers' available that you can use with the tunes you capture to help understand exactly how the licks were played. Sorry this got so windy...just thinking about what I wished I'd had when I started... |
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 11 Feb 2017 11:50 am
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| Brennan Mangan wrote: |
Thanks for the tips and leads so far! Makes me wonder if it's worth delving into traditional six-string jazz/swing material which must be more widely available.
That said, I learn best by ear and find YouTube's half- and quarter-speed playback settings a godsend for working out stuff from recordings, especially on some of those older "telescription" clips of Leon and the like. |
Try downloading the demo of an app called Slowhand. It downloads Youtube videos and lets you set up loop points, slow down etc. It has a panning function that really lets you zoom in. Demo available for Mac and Windows. By far the best app I have used, and i am a longtime Transcribe user, which is great, but I like Slowhand much better. Simple to use and elegant design.
They are are running a Kickstarter to enhnce the product that i have contributed to and ends in 15 days so check that out too.
I have no affilition with the product. Just wanted to share this with my fellow players. Go to slowhand.com to check it out. Thank me later! |
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