Bar Hand

Robert Thomas · From: Mehama, Oregon, USA

Just my thoughts!
There seems to be so much reference to the great importance of acquiring tone or as some refer to as picking or pick-blocking etc. I don't believe that we should forget the importance of the bar hand. The bar hand accentuates what we are trying to accomplish with the pick hand. The bar hand can make the PSG cry, moan, laugh and so many other expressions that are totally impossible with just the pick hand. There are ao many subtle tones and sounds possible with the bar hand that I feel it is as important and even possibly more important then pick hand. Just my feeling.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

The bar hand is also how we stay IN TUNE.

I have always thought that the development of the bar hand through many years of lap steel playing before I got to the PSG had a lot to do with my PSG approach, particularly as I played for some years afterwards with no knees at all.

Remember, that left hand is what makes it a STEEL guitar, folks.

Brett Day · From: Pickens, SC

The bar hand is important to any steel player because you use the bar to make the steel guitar produce that cryin' sound it's known for. You can also use your bar hand to make the steel sound like there's dread in a song by putting the bar on the third fret, pressing the A & B pedals down while picking the two or three lowest strings on the steel if you're playing pedal steel Brett, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel, GFI Ultra D-10

[This message was edited by Brett Day on 07 April 2005 at 12:44 PM.]

Howard Tate · From: Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.

Brett, it's good to see you're feeling good enough to post. Wonderful! After laying off for so long I'm striving for control of the bar and intonation.

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Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum S12U, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3
http://www.Charmedmusic.com

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

Practicing scales and licks with as little bar movement as possible is a good technical exercise to lock certain possibilities into your head, but one gets good only at what one practices, no? I think it's goofy how little most players move the bar, even very good & famous pros. Standard guitar players spend years, even decades, learning to bend strings to achieve just a tiny fraction of the expressiveness that's available on a steel guitar with a flick of the wrist.

Listening to the Indian lap slide masters Debashish Bhattacharya and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and the pedal steel mad genius Dave Easley, has really altered the amount of time I spend on bar movement exercises. Running scales and patterns two octaves up and down a single string has become just as important a technical exercise to me, to lock some of the other possibilities into my head.

I had always thought of BE and Doug Jernigan as the "gold standard" for speed, but very much of it come from picking rolls. If I'm counting the time right (big "if", at that speed), Bhattacharya in particular is moving the bar four to five times faster than any pedal steel player I've ever heard to get his notes. A lighter bar helps a lot, 4,5,6 ounces. Getting locked in a closet with your instrument for a decade as a child, like they do over in India, probably helps too, but alas, I'm just a lazy, late-starting white boy.

Try this on one string starting at the 3rd fret: 1 3 5 8 10 12 15 10 12 8 10 5 8 3 5 1. It's hard, of course, but violinists do this kind of stuff all day long. One gets good only at what one practices, no?

Howard Tate · From: Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.

Those are very good points, David. I have the book "Technique Bundle" by Joe Wright. It has some very good exercises for bar movements and right hand coordination. I struggle with it thanks to osteoarthritis in my hands, but it still helps immensely.

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Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum S12U, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3
http://www.Charmedmusic.com

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