Hello fellow players,I no longer enjoy my playing.
Something that really makes me chuckle is people that say steel guitar must be the hardest instrument in the world to play. I had said many times before that it is the easiest. I’m going to say it again and give you some examples of why I believe it is the easiest.
One young guy, probably 22, came in the store to buy a steel guitar. I said, “What kind of guitar do you want?”
To which he replied, “I don’t know. It needs to be pretty good looking.”
Then he looked me in the eye and said, “I’m gonna have to trust you.”
I asked him how long he’d been playing to which his reply was, “I’ve never played steel, but I have a road job where I start with Carrie Underwood next Wednesday.”
I then asked him if he was going to learn to play the guitar between then and Wednesday. Yes was the answer.
He said, “I’m the utility player. I’m playing rhythm, mandolin and harmonica, but in order to get the job, I have to play a little bit of steel like what’s on the record.”
Another thing that makes me chuckle is people that get on the steel guitar forum and use the word awesome in describing a steel guitar player’s abilities and talent that I know has only been playing for a month or two.
What is it about people that like to judge something they know nothing about and exclaim how good or even how bad it is? I’ve heard several players describing Curly Chalker’s playing. They will describe his playing as okay, but not equal to Pete Drake, Jerry Garcia or Junior Brown.
I guess this fits the people on the street that don’t know anything about music or steel guitar, but to the good knowing musician, this is not very factual. To the person that does not know music, it’s not how good you are but how famous you are. And there are many very famous musicians that are mediocre at best.
Back 50 to 70 years ago, there was a publishing company in Cleveland, Ohio that wanted to sell a lot of printed paper and make a lot of money. It was Oahu Publishing Company. They sent representatives out to about every music store in the United States with printed material which I would call music but it was really music and tablature.
These representatives would teach the music stores how to set up a small music school, how to canvas the neighborhoods and advertise for students. When the students showed up, they would loan them a $20 acoustic flattop square neck guitar with raised strings and a bar.
Under the guise of playing steel guitar, they would teach these 6 to 12 year olds how to read the music and tablature and get some very good sounds out of these instruments. Many of these young people have gone on to be very famous steel guitar players.
You may ask, “Why did Oahu start with a lap style steel instead of clarinets, piano, ukulele or some other instrument?”
The answer boils down to one simple thing. Steel guitar is the easiest instrument there is to play. It’s the only instrument that I know of that people can buy one week and learn enough to go on the road with a band the next week. If you can’t learn to play steel guitar, don’t even think about trying to play trombone, tuba, French horn, oboe, B3 organ or whatever.
I run across new players every week that have learned enough to hold down good paying jobs. I have also sold many steel guitars to songwriters that do their own demos and just want to put a little steel guitar on each demo.
One of my readers reminded me of a story about Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan, famous recording duo from Nashville, as most of you will remember. Jack bought a ’38 Rickenbacker steel guitar while on one of his road trips, diddled with it a week or two, overdubbed on a track on their upcoming release.
There he was, recording on a number one record after playing steel guitar a week.
Standard guitar is pretty easy to learn to play of course. Pushing the strings down to the frets without making them rattle or touching strings you shouldn’t be touching may be the hardest thing to do, but overall, if it was hard to play, everybody in the world wouldn’t be playing one, which they are.
Many of these standard lead guitar players are now realizing that if they play regular guitar, they are already halfway to playing steel guitar. After all, look at the good guitar players in Nashville that have totally switched to steel guitar. The Randy Travis steel guitar player is an incredible lead guitar player that just switched to steel a very few years ago.
Fred Newell from the Nashville Now Show that played lead guitar so well, has ended up playing with Waylon Jennings, Porter Wagoner and many other high profile artists. Since the Porter job, he and his little GFI are now playing all over Nashville.
There are many other players that I can think of that have switched from their primary instrument to steel guitar right in the middle of a successful career.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if you’re just starting steel guitar or even if you are a player that’s been playing a pretty good while, that suddenly you are going to be playing like Doug Jernigan, Tommy White or some other great player. However, you can sure learn to play beautiful and smooth like you hear on the country records.
Steel guitar instrumentals? Sure. Steel guitar can be played so beautiful that everybody will appreciate it without a lot of time spent doing it.
A good steel guitar might be expensive to purchase initially, but if you buy the right instrument, when it comes time to trade it in or sell it, you may be surprised at the return you’ll get on your investment.
I have been a steel guitarist my entire life in one sense or another. Has it been a good life you may ask? Very definitely. As you can tell by reading all these letters, I’ve had a lot of fun with a lot of people, have hobnobbed with the more famous people in the entertainment industry such actors, professional comedians and even shaking the hand of the President of the U.S. George Bush, the elder one, because of being a steel guitarist with a well known group.
I’ve been on the nation’s biggest television shows, way in the background. So would I do it again if I had the chance to do it over? Well, maybe. But I’d do a lot of things differently. I’m a lot smarter than I was in the earlier part of my career. I probably wouldn’t buy a table saw.
Do I recommend a steel playing career for other young folk? If they love it and do it right, then yes. If you just want to play on Saturday nights with a local group, yes again. If you just want to play steel guitar for your own amusement in your house and truly enjoy it, this can be as enjoyable as any part of a steel playing venture.
If you can sit in your house and learn all the great intros, licks and turnarounds that you hear the so called big boys do, it can put a smile on your face like nothing else. Remember this. The person that needs to enjoy your playing the most is you.
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