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Topic: Announcement re instructional materials |
Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 12 May 2020 6:32 am |
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First, I want to thank everyone who has ever purchased my instructional materials. I can only hope that they have helped your development as a player in some way.
I posted this on my website yesterday:
For anyone who has purchased materials in the past, it is still available to you should you need to reacquire--simply log in and proceed to your account.
I'm going to move forward with more of my own content and, while it may not be the type of stuff that people are looking for to help them sound like their favorite players, it will be geared to helping you become a better musician and improviser overall.
I'd welcome any comments from my brotherhood of steel players. Thanks again.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Danny Roy
From:
Calgary Alberta, Canada
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Posted 12 May 2020 8:28 am
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Wow, Mike. Glad I bought all my materials when I did. Looks like I was just in time. I’ll keep following you to see what’s next.  |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 12 May 2020 8:54 am
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Speaking as a relative beginner (started steel in late 2017) I can understand you wanting to get in deeper...teach more conceptual stuff, less "here's a tab to mimic this exact thing on a record", teach people how to find their own voice and make music.
That said...starting out, I wasn't ready for that level of thing, and sometimes the tabs were hugely helpful for figuring out how to use things in a particular tuning. Tabs from my teachers, tabs found online, were pretty helpful as I started making my way around C6, B11, and C13. You start learning common shapes and patterns for useful chords that you might not have picked up on just noodling around. Just the act of sitting down with a "sound like your guitar hero!" tab, and working it out, you can start to pick up on useful patterns and stuff that eventually gets woven into your own playing. Moreso for people starting out, I'm sure.
That's just might first thought, there's a time and place for most stuff, and the basic "here's how to play it" stuff isn't without merit or use even if you never play the song that specific way again. But no reason you shouldn't focus on teaching what you are most passionate about, and the "play it like so-and-so did" instructional market is pretty well stocked already, so will be interesting to see what you come up with in the future!
Edited to add: I totally concur though on the satisfaction bordering on elation when you figure out your hero's tricks on your own...once you get to the intermediate level when you start doing that. Every now and then I'll do something and be like, whoah, I've heard that before, and realize "oh, that's how Jules did that..."
_________________
Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Joe Scherzi
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 12 May 2020 9:21 am
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I can see the obvious value in moving forward into new directions. Not sure how that relates to discontinuing the existing transcriptions but that's your business.
I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing and supporting where you go next. I like transcribing songs myself - now that I'm farther along as a player/musician.(and thanks to some of your transcriptions).
Some people think it's tedious but I find it to be a very creative process. I wouldn't say I'm good at it yet but I'm getting there...
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The road is better than the inn. |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 12 May 2020 9:41 am
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Thanks, all.
| Joe Scherzi wrote: |
I can see the obvious value in moving forward into new directions. Not sure how that relates to discontinuing the existing transcriptions but that's your business.
I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing and supporting where you go next. I like transcribing songs myself - now that I'm farther along as a player/musician.(and thanks to some of your transcriptions).
Some people think it's tedious but I find it to be a very creative process. I wouldn't say I'm good at it yet but I'm getting there... |
At different stages along the way, I’ve felt it important to disconnect from some things that I’ve done in order to move forward. You are easily pigeon-holed as a musician—for me, in the past it used to be old-time tricone style playing of the 1930s and I was ready to move past that, but others weren’t. Today, it’s kind of the same and really it’s just about trying to establish some independence and put forth some new ideas. Whether people want that or not I don’t know, but we are kind of locked in to the past at the expense of the present.
I am definitely a historian (not on an academic level, but in my interest in steel guitar) but there has to be a way forward.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Joe Scherzi
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 12 May 2020 10:05 am
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
At different stages along the way, I’ve felt it important to disconnect from some things that I’ve done in order to move forward. |
Those are words of wisdom Mike. I think I can put them to use with my own current situation. Thanks.
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The road is better than the inn. |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 12 May 2020 10:19 am
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I can identify with some of that. There's parts of my musical history that I wouldn't care to be reminded of (lol), parts of my musical history that I don't have quite the same passion for any more (as well as an abiding sense of guilt for not putting forth the continued effort required by it) like Hindustani classical, and then some things that I do still enjoy but I don't care to make my personal focus. My church orchestra likes my fretless bass playing a lot more than my steel guitar playing, lol. Bass playing is useful to them, but I don't throw tons of additional effort and passion into it because my more zealous interest lies elsewhere...
Honestly, in that I'm kind of new to this crowd, I had no idea you were heavily into 30s tricone playing! In my mind you had more of a reputation for modern adaptation of steel into fusion and jazz stuff, which I guess is your recent focus. So you don't seem pigeon-holed in older stuff to me at this point, anyway. OK, I -guess- people could say Contusion from Key of Life is not exactly modern music but in the nonpedal steel world its feels like last weeks top 40! We're all a bit different in our approach...with the steel guitar I want to get closer to the historical sounds still, the drive forward to modern sounds is where I reach for my bass or guitar, usually. You're taking an otherwise unlikely instrument and using it in modern ways....there's a few doing likewise (Meg Lovell and the amazingly out of place but awesome Bakelite Rick!) and my hat is off to you all!
_________________
Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Gene Tani
From:
Pac NW
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Posted 12 May 2020 5:18 pm
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One of my favorite instructional material is listening to Steelonius 4x/week minimum
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- keyless Sonny Jenkins laps stay in tune forever!; Carter PSG
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew |
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