Pedal Steel Music

Here is an update we received in an email from Keith Hilton:

Starting in 2013 the tone control will be eliminated on both the original standard pedal, and the original low profile pedal. It can be ordered as an optional feature for an added cost of $10.00. Why am I eliminating the tone control? Most of my dealers feel I should have eliminated it years ago, because all it does is take away highs. I know of no pro player who ever uses the tone control on a Hilton pedal. Pro players get their tone with the many controls on their amplifiers. I have not raised the price of my original standard, and original low profile pedal, in 16 years. Every part I buy to build pedals has went up in the last 16 years. Instead of raising prices, I am eliminating the tone control and making it optional for $10.00 extra.

This is Bob Hempker and I’d like to talk about the two primary ways to learn to play music in general and steel guitar in particular. You have a choice between sight reading music and learning to play by ear. You will find people who will champion one way over the other and argue why they think the other way is a waste of time. It’s one of those subjects where if you ask 100 people, you will get 200 opinions.

It’s hard to argue with someone who says that Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Vivaldi would be near impossible to play by ear. It’s also hard to deny the fact that Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Pig Robbins didn’t sight read and all three created beautiful, lasting music.

If your intention is to play in an orchestra, it’s hard to organize something like that by ear. It’s imperative that you sight read. Certain instruments lend themselves better to sight reading than playing by ear. The piano is a great example of this because you have everything laid out in a line.

Sight reading is something you have to do every day. It’s a skill that you have to hone every day. It’s not like riding a bicycle. I think that knowing how to read music is great, but knowing how to read music and being a proficient sight reader are two different things.

Learning theory, harmony and such is vitally important for any instrument or even singing parts with other people. You can’t learn too much on these subjects. The knowledge is infinite. The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.

Knowing all your different scales, modes and such, where to use them, where not to use them all depends on the type of music you’re playing also. A certain pattern of notes over a certain passage of chords may sound great in one particular song, but not in a different song.

Simple types of music like country music, bluegrass, folk music are based around major and minor triads and many patterns of notes would really sound outside the box. But if that’s what you want, that’s another story all together. Theoretically, nothing is wrong as long as you can explain what you’re playing and why you’re playing it.

Having said that, that doesn’t always mean that what you’re playing is going to be pleasing to the listener’s ear.

I feel that being able to hear intervals and know what notes to play with them to accomplish a certain type of feel in a particular style of music is vitally important. It doesn’t hurt to be able to sight read this stuff if somebody puts it in front of you, but I don’t feel that sight reading is the holy grail of playing music.

Let me explain what I mean by sight reading. What I mean by sight reading is to be ultra proficient. When somebody just sticks a music score in front of you and play it back to them like you’ve played it all your life, then you are a proficient sight reader. And believe me, there are people out there who can do that and do it well.

Being able to read and understand why certain notes are played with other notes is almost a must. We should be able to look at a piece of music and figure out what is meant to be played whether or not we can sit down and sight read it or not.

I’m a terrible sight reader but I do know the two major clefs pretty well and can figure out what’s going on by looking at the sheet of music. But again, I’m not a sight reader.

Back to the original idea, how many people really know how to write and arrange for a pedal steel guitar.

Different situations call for different skills. If you’re in New York or L.A. and you’re called for a studio session, they’ll usually hand you sheet music. If you’re in Nashville, you’ll usually get a chord chart.

As far as someone just learning, I personally would recommend learning the Nashville number system, learning scales, chords, harmony parts such as parallel thirds, communicating with the other instruments in the band and learning to play together as far as who plays the lead part, who plays the harmony part, who plays the third part etc.

Try to develop and ear for intervals so that you’ll be able to pick out a phrase when you hear it. You can go to any music store and by a music theory book. If you sit down and study them, they’re not hard to figure out, but you have to learn where all these notes are on your instrument.

After all, how many arrangers know enough about a steel guitar, the tunings, the range of the instrument, etc., to know how to write and arrange for it?

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This is Vic Lawson. We’ve had such a busy week around here so we thought we’d share some of the replies we got when we asked about steel guitar wife stories. We print them just the way we receive them. Hope you enjoy.

Hey Bob,

another great newsletter, thank you – it’s always inspiring to read about what other steelers are doing with their copedents. There’s nothing too unusual about mine – it’s the Emmons setup, and I have four knee levers, the E-F (RKL) being a favourite of mine for that Lloyd Green vibe – almost as indispensable as learning LG’s classic Third Pedal licks.

As for steel guitar wives, my wife Nicky is one of the most supportive people I know. She keeps my gig diary at hand and reminds me when I’m playing – because my short-term memory is pretty bad, thanks to a car accident when I was a kid. I don’t get any negative crap at home! She also loves hearing me practice my licks, and rather than being banished to the garage or the bedroom, I can set up in the lounge room and pick away for hours. The kids love it too. I guess I’m lucky!

Thanks again, Bob, for your input. It’s always good to read.

Jason Walker
Australia

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I am convinced musician wives are rare. I have been married 26 years, the living room is the studio, and there are guitars and banjos all about in easy reach and now my new pet, a GFI ultra live in harmony.

She has handled the late nights, occasional tours, offering nothing but encouragement when I get back. I consider myself a lucky person to have her understanding and appreciation of what we are up to.

Although a good folk guitar picker her self she not a fan of show biz and does not suffer fools. She does; however, have a great natural ear and loves playing informally with friends. She is also a barometer of quality music and people and when I am working on a project I look forward to her assessment. Practically a musical historian, I know I have done good if she says she likes it.

Oh, she likes the steel, for I was a banjo player when we met so she was able to live with that!

Thanks for this great news letter you all, it’s been a great reference for a steel newbie.

Bruce Mitchell,
Austin, Texas

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How about steel guitar husbands when the wife is the guitarist. My husband says I just keep him around so he can tote my equipment. Kay Whitesides

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Bob, Thank you so much for your letter today, I really enjoy others sharing the thoughts on this great instrument. Been playing longer than I would like to admit and still enjoy learning more everyday. I also teach students pedal steel and Dobro and they seem to enjoy my methods of teaching, mostly by ear and tabs………I play a Lloyd Green with 3 and 4 and am thinking about changing a couple of my knee levers and am wondering what you might have to offer. I play the Emmons set up and do have the E to F change and want to keep it and I do have the E’s lowered the 4 and 8 down a half step. So I have two pedals open to use that are not being used that much and wondering how Paul make some of his newer sounds with is knee levers. I have not had the time to call him and talk about those but will during the March Convention. I will most likely let Bud make the changes for me if he is still up to it?

I use strings 5 and 6 a lot and 5 and 8 and 5 and 8 bumping the 10th string at the same time which gives me a fuller tone…..I also teach my students to do some of the same but I really try to keep the ABC pedals busy for them and let them move on to other pedals after learning the basics. So my question is for you, do you have any ideas on using or changing the two pedals that I rarely use is the inside left which raises the 7th string a 1/2 tone and my outside right lowers the 2 and 9 string a 1/2 step. As I said I don’t find very many songs to use those changes on . It would be much appreciated if you have any ideas on what I could do with the these two to pick up on Paul’s world?

You also ask about our wives and I am here to tell you that mine has never once shut the door or complained about my playing. I do try to keep the level down , not to vibrate the pictures off the wall but she has always supported my music and think is because playing most all of the good old stuff. We went out to see Ray Price again a couple of months ago and she always enjoys listening to him and Bush, and Willie and Merle and any of the older music. We are both is our 60’s but I do play some of the newer Jamie Johnson songs and Vince and all of that hits the list. So I do have one that really enjoys listening to me play and she has always put me up there with Emmons and Franklin and Reece and I have tried to tell her for years that she is missing a few marbles? I also like playing more of the slower songs of Hughey’s and try not to over play as I once did. Jeff taught me how to play the phrases and stay out of the vocals lines and play pretty and that’s what I teach my students……..Of course half of my students are in the 50’s range and up so they all seem to understand slow??????

I have been asked to add my name to the list of teachers in Texas and you may do so if you like. I do have room for a few more students and now that I have added Skype I can take on more. I would love to have more young guns to add to the list so that we can renew the steel players of the future and with you tube there seems to be more coming along playing this beautiful instrument.

Thank you for your input and keep these letter coming. They are as good as the steel magazines that we once had.

Sincerely, J Eddie Bates

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in 1968, i was dating my wife. i was playing guitar at the time. i paid off a bill then i told her, i can either buy a new car or buy a steel guitar & learn to play it. she said why don’t you buy the steel guitar, so i bought the guitar & married her & have been happy ever since. 44 years. i visited some friends in nashville a while back & sat in with them at the stage down town. the guys in the band asked me to move to nashville & work with them all the time. my wife said, “you can go to nashville & pick if you want to. but i’m through moving. it’s hard to blame her after all these years of playing & moving around the country. she’s a great musicians wife. she minds her own business & there’s never any drama. how great is that? i hereby nominate her as the world’s greatest non singing musician’s wife.

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Hi Bob,
My wife is very supportive. In 35 and a half years, she has only missed 3 gigs with me. She is my driver, roadie, string changer when they break, in other words she is my rock. If you’d like to see me in action, check out, ray ward and friendship band , on you tube.
Tony

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Bob,
The BEST kind of wife to have when you play steel is: one who plays Keyboards/Bass, sings, uses a harmonizer, has a music degree and tells you when you are not playing something right (wrong voicing, chord or whatever). This has been working for us for 51 years now. Yes, a TRUE KEEPER!
Barbara Jean Lang.
Thanks,
Neil Lang
Albert Lea MN

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I had two wives that said they can’t compete with my love of the steel guitar so they divorced me.

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Wife story…….I’ve been playing for about 3 years now, so I’m not a great player by any means of the word. But when I bought my first steel (sho-bud maverick) I’d work at it for a while. When I’d come out of the “music” room. She asked me one time if it was dead? I said “Is what dead?” She said the cat or dog or whatever poor creature was in there. I just laughed…… and purchased a Mullen. I could tell I was improving when she went back to reading and not using her headphones.

Earl

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Of course we can’t print them all but we had fun reading them. It seems music has both the power to hold a couple together as well as the power to break them up.

Vic Lawson

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This is Bob Hempker with today's newsletter.  Something we haven’t really touched on much is studying other players copedent. This can really help us in figuring out how different people play different things. We have the two common pedal setups, the Jimmy Day setup and the Buddy Emmons setup. But people set their knee levers up differently.

Some people have some changes that wouldn’t be considered standard. Basically all it takes is for someone to use a particular pedal change on somebody’s hit record then the popularity of that pedal change takes off and the next thing you know it’s being used by a lot of different players.

One example would be the E to F knee lever. Lloyd Green was the first to use it that I can recall. He played it on the Tammy Wynette song “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.” Hal Rugg used it on Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ With Lovin’ On Your Mind.” Those were some early recordings the change was used on. The F knee lever is pretty much a standard knee lever now. I really can’t imagine playing without it.

Another change that’s pretty much a standard thing now is lowering the sixth string a whole tone. Many players, myself included have split tuners on their guitar which enable us to use it with the pedal that raises the third and the sixth to get a dominant seventh with the pedals down or an Em with the knee lever activated and your second pedal down.

Some guys have changes on their guitar that are somewhat unique to them. Ralph Mooney lowered his third string a half step and some guys are doing that. Many guys have picked up on the idea of raising the first string a whole tone. A lot of guys today are using what they call the Franklin pedal which lowers five, six and ten each a whole tone.

I’ve got it split to where I lower five and ten a whole step with my fourth floor pedal and I lower six with my left, left knee lever. That way I can use them together if I need to, but then there are other things I can play splitting them up.

I was looking at somebody’s copedent the other day and I noticed them raising their fifth string up a step and a half. I can see the uses for this change, but personally I don’t know where I would put it. My guitar is loaded up pretty good the way it is.

I have a good friend that started raising his ninth string up a half step on the same knee lever he lowers his sixth string a whole step with. There are some nice things that can be done with that.

I know another player that instead of lowering his fourth and eighth strings together, he raises the seventh string a half step on the knee lever that he lowers the fourth string a half step with.

It’s also interesting even if we play a D-10 to study some of the changes that guys do with a single neck 12 or single 14. We can get all sorts of ideas by studying other people’s copedent. Don’t be closed minded about doing things a certain way. There is always something you can learn from anyone if you watch what they do.

Let’s talk about steel guitar wives for a bit. I’d like to hear from you guys about your experiences with steel guitar and wives or girlfriends, if they are supportive, unsupportive, encouraging, discouraging, can’t wait to hear you play or scream, moan and groan when you do. Let me hear your stories.

Again, I’d like to thank everyone who let us list them as a teacher and encourage new players who might be interested in lessons to check out our list at Teacher Listings

www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday