I play only one neck and ....

Mike Neer · From: NJ

I swear, itâ€™s a maze that leads to a bottomless pit.

I basically shut down my guitar playing, which Iâ€™d been doing since I was 5, for a few years, just to learn how to play C6. I couldnâ€™t exist in both worlds. I didnâ€™t have any idea what it was going to lead to, I just knew I wanted to play steel guitar.

Anyway, I work really hard at trying to make the neck second nature, but I ainâ€™t there yet.
Truth be told, perfection is overrated.

Lap steel, non-pedal, straight steel, steel, whatever you want to call it, is nothing without a good sense of humor and a good touch. Practice those often.

PS: we played this arrangement of Oliver Nelsonâ€™ Hoedown tonight on a gig, except it was about ten clicks faster on the metronome! No worries, just gotta have fun.
https://soundcloud.com/user-708420441/hoedown-demo-mike-neer

Happy New Year, everyone!
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gary pierce · From: Rossville TN

Great Mike, love the drone string stuff.

Former Member · Posted 31 Dec 2017 6:37 am

Sounds badass Mike!
You can play one more neck than I can.
Thanks for the â€œrelaxâ€, I keep playing basically at the same level, while dreaming of some control, consistency, tone thatâ€™s better. I keep blaming life, but itâ€™s my brain

Bill McCloskey · Posted 31 Dec 2017 6:48 am

Nice Mike, I particularly dug the last 30 seconds. I've also shut down my guitar playing, including selling all my guitars (except an electric that my cousin built for me, couldn't sell that one). My son has my old D-28 I've had since 74 if I ever get the urge. But all I want to play is dobro. 10-12 years ago, I stopped playing all string instruments to focus on jazz trumpet. (Just sold my 1952 Martin Committee).

While we give up a lot when we focus on one instrument, I think it is a need some of us have to go after our own quest, even if that means that the instrument or style that people are used to hearing us playing, and which are like second nature to us, don't do it for us personally anymore.

James Hartman · From: Pennsylvania, USA

Nice one. Were you consciously thinking "banjo rolls" in that later section?

Coincidentally - just yesterday a fantastic SACD remaster of Blues and the Abstract Truth that I'd ordered showed up in the mail. Lost my old vinyl copy years ago and had a hankering to hear it again. Probably one of the best recorded albums of that era, for sheer beauty of sound; not to mention brilliant arrangements and playing.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 31 Dec 2017 7:14 am

Yes, it is one of the classic jazz albums of all time. Right up there with Kinda Blue, A Love Supreme as an iconic record.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Blues And The Abstract Truth was the first record that made me aware of Oliver Nelson. I bought the cassette in 1987, along with More Blues And The Abstract Truth. From Oliverâ€™s first solo on Stolen Moments, I was struck by his completely unique approach and sound and he really moved me. His alto playing is stunning, too. I can easily say that he is my favorite musician, a complete master of the blues form with impressionistic sensibilities. Yet another branch of the Duke Ellington tree. All my favorite musicians/composers/arrangers were deeply touched by Ellington.

Hoe Down is a super hard tune to play on steel, but I started messing around with it a few years ago, transcribing the head and using pieces of it in my improvisation. Yesterday I laid down this version, which seemed like a no-brainer to me. Hoedown, duh! I used a simple Johnny Cash groove. The tune itself is a rewrite of I Got Rhythm, but the changes in the A section are simplified. You could play the standard changes if you want, though. We played it pretty fast last night.

Without all the Hawaiian style playing that I learned from Sol Hoopii, et al, I donâ€™t think any of it would be possible.
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Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · From: Quebec, Canada

Very cool tune Mike!

I feel the same about the one neck thing.

After about 5 year of steel playing I decided to sell all my guitars, dobro, pedal steel and just keep my aluminum cast Clinesmith tuned to C13.

I feel that from the day I decided to focus on one instrument and one tuning I finally start to improve my playing!

Stefan Robertson · From: Hertfordshire, UK

One neck indeed. I love the licks in between. Really nice Mike.
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Stephen Abruzzo · From: Philly, PA

Wow, great playing. Great touch and restraint too!
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Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Very â€œSol-fulâ€ playing indeed, Mike. FWIW, you sound more like you are in an unlimited sky than a bottomless pit.

Regarding Oliver Nelson fandom, I donâ€™t think I had ever heard or appreciated close harmonies until I heard Stolen Moments. That tune was a game changer for me too.

Bill Leff · From: Santa Cruz, CA, USA

I went the other way and went back to guitar with a focus on solo arrangements and chord melody. There is something so inherently satisfying to me to be able to sit down and play an actual song with melody, chords, bass line fragments, etc. I have just gotten to the point where I can play a great arrangement of Stella By Starllight that was from a book of jazz guitar arrangements by John Stein. Also working with some Robert Conti materials for chord melody . Iâ€™m at the point where I have got a few other tunes worked up with a goal of having a least a dozen or more that I can just sit down and play, and also do my own arrangements.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

I arranged Stolen Moments about a year ago and just found the video. Here is a quick take, poor audio and all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p13KpW4j80
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John Hartle · From: Thailand

I swear, itâ€™s a maze that leads to a bottomless pit.

Wow, I have never heard anything more truthfully said. I think I have been falling into a bottomless pit for many years and still falling. But I love it.

I have been doing some reading on this forum in the last few days since I joined. Some times I think you guys are talking about me.

I started in music at age 10 on clarinet. Classical in school studies. Marched in parades, played in concerts, etc. Quit all for a few years. In the 60's I tried organ and loved it. But could not continue because I could not move it around with me. I was in the service. Went on to accordion for a few years along with sax. Then I retired from the military and gave up music altogether.

About 25 years later being retired and living in the Philippines I got bored. My friend was a retired singer and guitar player. Very good at both but retired by force since he drank too much and became a - no show artist. He taught me to sing some, I sound like a frog, and to play guitar. After about two years I added in piano. Fell in love with piano. I only took lessons for 20 months, non classical. Then I moved to Thailand and quit music for another 10 years. Then started back on guitar only to find that I had pain problems in my left hand. So I started DADGAD which makes it much easier to play chords. I still play piano off and on. My thumb started, recently, to hurt so bad I have started having PT and Accupunchture.(sp) Helps some but still hurts. Because of pain I am playing a 4 string tenor that I made from an old guitar and a ukulele Baritone and I still have pain. So I am trying the lap steel, an old 12 string guitar, converted to lap steel. I love it and almost no pain. I should have never tried the lap steel because the love bug has bitten me hard.

I know before I discuss it with my wife that I am dead or soon to be, but I think I will stick with piano and lap steel guitar. Then I will have a new fight trying to explain buying another instrument, lap steel, and not playing the others while they hang on the wall for decoration.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Mark Eaton · Posted 1 Jan 2018 5:13 pm

Mike, when I read the post above, the old eyebrows raised a bit. I'm intrigued why you now want to add a guitar to your band.

My eyebrows raised because it jogged my memory about a thread Andy Volk started in June 2016 regarding the new at the time Lap King lap steel equipped with the Hiphsot DoubleShot device that Jason Dumont built for Jerry Douglas.

Jerry has since added a guitar player back into his JD Band after several years of going without, the extraordinary Mike Seal, with chops for days. I've seen the JD Band twice in the last year or so with Mike on guitar, and he can really bring it.

I commented at the time (prior to Seal joining the band) that I missed Jerry having a guitar player. It was an easy enough search to find the thread, and you wrote this at the time following my comment:

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Andy Volk · From: Boston, MA

The Oliver Nelson-inspired stuff is so good, Mike. I can't wait to hear where the next step takes you.

I've never stopped playing guitar but my evolution on that instrument stagnated thanks to steel guitar. I still really enjoy playing standard guitar but steel opens my imagination ducts fully in a way that guitar doesn't anymore. I played mandolin for about ten years but gave it up completely as it just wasn't a sound that moved me. It took me a number of years to finally stop trying to play guitar on lap steel and accept lap steel for what unique gifts it can offer instead of viewing it as limited.
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Mike Neer · From: NJ

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