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Topic: Methods of slidding from one fret to another |
Don Benoit
From:
Okanagan Falls, BC
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Posted 7 Nov 2003 6:08 pm |
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I have observed on a few occasions how some pro players slide the bar differently from one fret to another. Instead of moving the bar in a straight line, they move in a bell curve fashion or to put it another way, in a semi circle. For example, if they are playing string 5 and 6 from the third fret to the 8th fret, they will move the tip of the bar from the fifth string gradually out to the 4th or third string and when they arrive at the 8th fret, the nose will again be at the 5th string. I have been trying this and seems to improve accuracy and tone. Any comments?
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http://www.steelguitar.ca
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Travis Bernhardt
From:
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 8 Nov 2003 1:37 am
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I remember watching the Bob Brozman Hawaiian guitar video a couple of years ago and one thing he said was that everything in Hawaiian style steel guitar playing happens in circles. He was talking more about stuff like vibrato and the "hula picking" technique, but I suppose the same principle could apply to fret to fret bar movement.
Maybe moving the bar from fret to fret in a bit of an arc involves different muscles which helps to smooth out the deceleration as you arrive at the new fret (or something...). Seems sort of unlikely but I just tried it and you're right it does seem to make a subtle difference... I think...
-Travis |
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C Dixon
From:
Duluth, GA USA
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Posted 8 Nov 2003 5:28 am
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Moving the bar, takes on many shapes, sizes and "movements". Over time from the very first time a person holds the bar until they become very experienced with it, it more than likely will pass through a number of phases.
Some more, some less. Many of the pros are indeed "arteests" moving the bar. And some indeed move the bar in a circular motion, as I too have noticed several times.
Also, holding the bar brings out a number of different distinct ways that various players have exhibited. I will list some of these:
Pete Drake curled his first finger on top of the bar in a tight arc.
2. Tom Brumley has BOTH his first finger and middle finger atop the bar where most just have the first finger on top.
3. Buck Grantham keeps his ring finger high in the air the entire time he is playing.
4. Hal Rugg has a very unusal bar movement action where his fingers telegraph sequentially each new position as though he was moving the bar in successiv steps. Of course the bar moves smoothly but it kinda looks like it is moving in steps by the way his fingers move.
5. An Atlanta local player Tim Hamilton holds his bar ONLY by the tips of his fingers. IE, the entire forward part of the bar is exposed except the last inch or so.
6. Joe Turner has a rythmic and cirular motion of his thumb as he moves the bar.
7. Curley Chalker and Lloyd Green are among the world's greatest artists holding the bar.
And on and on.
Jerry Byrd has the most fluid movemet of any one I have ever seen. His slants paint pictures with "music". And Buddy Emmons (as EVERY thing else he does) epitomizes the greatest artistry of them all. EVEN when he is chiming or tuning with his bar (still in his left hand), it is artful to the nth degree. Just holding it bespeaks greatness. And when he moves it, steel players all over the world eat their hearts out. Not to mention his single string staccato and virtuoso movements; as his awesome bar movements spell bind practically every steel player in the audience.
Buddy Charleton epotimizes absolute accuracy as though his hand was CNC computer controlled; as he moves the bar from fret to fret. It appears in person and in videos that each movement puts his bar dead over the fret. I could watch him move the bar for hours because of its apparent accuracy and fluidedness.
Some, when moving from one fret to the other go from a dead straight (perpendicular to the strings) to a slant to dead straight as they go from fret to fret.
The circular movement you speak of while not real common I have seen on a number of ocassions. Moving the bar says a lot; and there is NO right way. But All the greats prove that much of what we hear eminates from the way they hold and move the bar.
And so it is; like snowflakes, we are all humans, but yet soooo different.
What hath God wrought?
carl
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Frank Parish
From:
Nashville,Tn. USA
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Posted 8 Nov 2003 7:09 am
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You could bounce it off the strings or toss it over to get it there quicker but my favorite is to throw it behind my back while switching my picks to the other hand and then playing everything upside down assbackwards! 
Don't try this on the bandstand as you might hit the bass player and get beat up or the drummer may think you're trying to steal his gig. |
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Don Benoit
From:
Okanagan Falls, BC
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Posted 8 Nov 2003 8:45 am
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It seems to me that it is easier to make a smoother stop at the destination fret by using a slight circular motion rather than making an abrupt stop.
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http://www.steelguitar.ca
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