I need to make a correction to the last newsletter. I mistakenly said that the George L company was out of business. They are not. We still carry the George L products at the same players discount we have always had.
Twas the day after Christmas and not a creature was stirring except for the steel guitar player. I sure hope he wasn’t disappointed and got everything he needs to have made Christmas a wonderful time.New Year’s Day is going to hit us and I’m sure 90% of you are going to be playing somewhere New Year’s Eve. If you can put up with the audience haha!
New Year’s Day is going to hit us and I’m sure 90% of you are going to be playing somewhere New Year’s Eve. If you can put up with the audience haha!
I was playing in Norfolk, Virginia one New Year’s Eve. I had a new white leather Standel amp and used it to drive a Fender Bassman quartet of speakers in addition to the JBL that was in the Standel. No, I wasn’t playing steel guitar, I was playing bass. I believe this was a VFW in Norfolk.
About three quarters of the way through the night, just after midnight, a fight broke out. So all of us in the band just stopped and watched. It sort of moved around the room and came closer and closer to my side of the stage. The two main combatants were getting after it very well when one of them fell into my amp setup and pretty well covered my new leather Standel with blood.
All I said was, oh no and waited for them to clear the stage. This was a hard thing to forget since my amp was marked up for the next six years. I loved the amp but hated working New Year’s Eve. As a matter of fact, I haven’t worked New Year’s Eve since that I can remember.
It’s been nice to see such great players come by. Mike Johnson is in here now and several wonderful players have been here since I’ve been back part time. A new player from Raleigh, North Carolina named Cyrus Gill came by to say hello last week. That’s a name that’s kind of hard to forget in the country field. He said he was not related to Vince Gill or Billy Ray Cyrus. It sure is nice to meet new players.
After New Year’s and the hubbub dies down, it’s a wonderful time to get equipment ready along with your practicing to make you sharper for the spring and summer seasons. When I was young, I used the off time to woodshed and try to be a better player.
I would go through my equipment and make sure everything was ready to go. Check the effects in your pack-a-seat. Do they have fresh batteries? Do you have a Dobro simulator? Spare strings, picks, bars, tuner, even spare right and left tuning keys is a good idea. A little screwdriver, tuning wrenches and such small items can save the day when the need arises. How about an extra volume pedal pot? Anything you can think of that might go wrong is something that you need to be prepared for.
In addition to your equipment being ready to go, you need to make sure that you are ready to go. I just my flu and pneumonia shots. I also got a tetanus shot. Keeping your health is very important.
Practicing with a metronome is a good idea because it’s a good discipline for your timing. If you find a metronome boring, I have plenty of tracks CDs to play to and again my tracks CDs were done in Nashville’s finest studios with Nashville’s “A Team” musicians. That makes a major difference between my tracks and other tracks.
If you’re using computer generated tracks, they don’t have the feel and soul that real Nashville tracks have. You don’t want to sound like a computer when you’re playing, you want to sound like a soulful person. Remember, you’re playing a very soulful instrument.
I can’t encourage you strongly enough to woodshed. Practice makes perfect.
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
info@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
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Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Second and Third Saturday each Month Open 9AM – 2PM
Closed Sunday
