all players please read

Calvin Walley · From: colorado city colorado, USA

if you read my last post you can tell that i was ready to give up in frustration then somthing wonderful happened

so many folks that i have never met replyed, encouraging me not to give up. giving me names of people and places to get help. one of them, don ricketson gave me the name of a player that lives only a few miles from me . i contacted him and 1 hour later i was sitting in his living room .i end up spending 2 hours with him tonight and am taking my steel back to his home next saturday for more much needed help . both he and his wife are just wonderful folks . he didn't know me from adam but he invited me into his home and helped a total stranger .i just wish that i could meet more folks like all of you .
i want to thank each and everyone of you that replyed you all really came thru for me . it was just the encuragement that i needed when i needed it most . and a specail thanks to bob for creating the forum with out it many of us beginers would be very lost

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Your very right, Calvin, This forum is MEGA helpful to us beginners!!!! Hang in there.

Yours truly, a Fellow Beginner

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Calvin, listen to what everyone says here, mainly, DON'T EVER GIVE UP! Here it is in its' extreme: Try, and you have at least a chance; give up, and you have absolutely no chance.

I started playing regular 6-string guitar and lap-steel in bands when I was 15 years old. When I started out I did flat-picking in the first position, that was all I could do. Playing live I was learning barrchords and a few simple lead licks from the other guitar players who were really not too good either, their leads were very simple pentatonic-patterns with some Chuck Berry influence and a few really basic country licks. I learned some instrumentals note-for-note but couldn't improvise anything, even the pentatonic pattern. After about a year of it, one night I told myself, "I may as well face it, I'll just never be a lead player." If I'd accepted that, I wouldn't be, either. Luckily I'm too stubborn to give up too easily, don't you give up either! I found a Guitar Player Magazine, practiced some of the scales and patterns in the back and then after getting past the "afraid I might hit a wrong note" fear, began to learn quickly.

Same as you, I was always frustrated that I could never get the same sound, feel, expression as the guy on the record, whether on guitar or pedal steel (traded lap for pedal at about age 17) but you just keep doing it and it will come, I promise!

Not to plug myself, because just about every steel player here is likely better than I am but if you want to hear that at least I have learned to be "a lead player", and if I'd given up and accepted "face it, I'll never be a lead player", I'm sure I would NOT be, and not too rotten of a steeler... you can check the sound clips at my site, in the profile link above this message. There're more clips way at the bottom of the page. Click on Sounds. Sorry the steel clips are all leads from songs, no total instrumentals here, never seem to get them on tape. I'm going to remedy that soon with some studio steel instrumental recordings. Til then this is all that I've got up for now. Anyway...

Take care and don't give up! The biggest difference between the players and the non-players is just that the players kept at it.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 12 November 2003 at 12:29 AM.]

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Some people take the longest time.

It's taken me 24 years of playing to do the instrumental to Blue Bayou "just like the record".

Now on to "Ammarillo by Morning"..

Just kidding (in a way).

You'l definitely find that there's no teacher like a flesh and blood one. Though I don't teach myself, I appreciate those that do.

Record your lessons, as I'm sure your teacher will tell you. Save the tapes.

This forum has been the best for me to get to know people and other players I'd have never met. It's unbelievable how close I've gotten to a bunch of people that I've never met. When a few of them have come to see me at gigs sometimes driving hundreds of miles. I'm taken by the fact that we already know each other.

Great to hear you found who and what you found.

EJL

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Eric's suggestion to record your lessons is a very good one. A minidisc recorder and a Sony Stereo mic would work great.
Also periodically record your playing too.
It sounds different when your not playing, and you have the time to hear what your doing and think about technique problems.

The forum is a wealth of info and contacts.
Oh yeah and a bunch o real nice folks too.

The steel is such an esoteric and difficult instrument and steelers know this, and seem to have a feeling for anybody willing to try. So they are naturally helpful. Compared to other instruments there are not a lot of players, so a new one is encoursged a lot to keep the flame burning.

I suspect the 99% think anybody willing to buy a steel and try to learn is their kind of person, and welcome in their home and practice room, and worthy of strong encouragement.

Here there are even fewer steelers, but I am lucky there is one experineced player 15 miles away.

Michael Lewis · Posted 12 Nov 2003 4:12 am

Calvin,
I'm really thrilled the way things are turning around! I didn't add to your first post 'cuz I could only be redundant and I'm pretty much a 2 year green pea steeler myself! I've played 6 string for 45 years before I got my first steel!
Steel is such a wonderful instrument and the Steel Community, the members of all Forums, have been nothing short of wonderful.
As you get some guidance and time behind the steel you will reap the rewards of your efforts and laugh about the frustrations! There's always going to be frustrations, but when you climb the next hill you will feel like King of the Hill!
You will find yourself making friends all over the world. The wealth of information from Forum members includes all levels of players, from green peas like us to the greats we look up to. I can't tell you how much I appreciate being able to communicate with Buddy Emmons or Paul Franklin, and so many greats! Steel icons that bless us with their contributions.
Keep pickin' and HAVE FUN!
I'll look forward to more posts and your progress!
Mike

Gene Jones · From: Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)

Keep up the good work Calvin.

.....and to my friend Jim Phelps, Welcome back!

www.genejones.com

Pee Wee Rogers · From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA * R.I.P.

Calvin ... I'm almost 70 and am still trying to get it right.

But, I enjoy every minute of it.

That's what life is about ... enjoying what you do.

Only God gives us this or that much talent.

Pee Wee Rogers

Bill Ford · From: Graniteville SC Aiken

Calvin,
Go back to your original post and read what Brett Day had to say,print it out and hang it where you can see it often.

This young man is such an insperation to all who have got to know him and his family.

Everybody needs a hero and Brett is at the top of my list......

Hang in there Calvin,and keep us posted...

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Bill Ford

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Calvin, It's amazing the support from this forum!!! Everyone is standing up and cheering you on!!! BUT, it also cheers me on, and many other beginners!! When I practice, I look for minor improvements from how I played yesterday, and the day before, and the day before---------. A lot of this is "training" your hands, feet, knees, and especially your mind, to do a physical move, a co-ordination to actually produce a "set of moves" to produce a certain sound. The theory that keeps me encouraged is this: If you want to "take" a foot, do it one inche at a time. If you take an inche 12 times, you'll acomplish the foot. Our biggest frustation is we hear the songs that drew us to steel and we want to play those cool tunes NOW. It's hard, because we tend to take on more than we can chew. Bricklayers only lay the next brick AFTER everything is level and "correct", or the finished "house" will look terrible and not hold up. Proceed with your basics to make them correct, and eventually, you will turn into a SOLID PLAYER. That's what you really want, and it takes much time and patience. You don't want to have to go back and "fix" what you may have skipped. Just take one inch at a time, and be proud it contributes to your overall solid foundation. Once the foundation is layed correctly, you will be able to get the sound that you want. Someday, you will have the personal pride, that you can play an instrument, that most people are in "awe" about, an instrument that makes most people "weak in the knees" at the thought of attempting to learn!! WINNERS DON'T QUIT, AND QUITTERS DON'T WIN!!!

Fellow Newbie---(10 months at the steel now--Ya Hoo!!!) P.S. Most important: Don't forget to have fun, and pat yourself on the back once in a while!!!

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Don't applaud, send money.

Seriously, I'm happy to hear that this Forum makes such a difference in the lives of struggling new players. The instrument can be so intimidating. We all went through those periods of frustration, and many of us had to tuff it out alone for the first few years.

Now, with this wonderful global resource of the Internet, that isolation has become a thing of the past. What a wonderful invention!

thanks for sharing your story, Calvin.

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Bobby Lee
-b0b- quasar@b0b.com

System Administrator

Al Marcus · From: Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)

Yes, Yes! Thanks b0b for starting this Forum!.....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Scott Henderson · From: Camdenton, Missouri, USA

Glad to hear you're still hangin in there!!!
Best of luck to you
play it from the heart!!!!

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Steelin' away in the ozarks and life,
Scott
www.scottyhenderson.com

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