Pedal Steel Music

October 25, 2012

This is Bob Hempker, let me explain how I approach my relationship with music. I am first and foremost a steel guitar fan and secondly a country music fan. I like any kind of music as long as its performed and executed well. If its performed and executed poorly I don’t particularly like it.

I also think that a steel guitar, in the right hands, can be used on any kind of music. There are absolutely no limitations to our wonderful instrument’s capabilities. The limitations lie within ourselves. Part of the challenge of learning any instrument is opening up our minds to any and all ideas.

It may have been Henry Ford who said, “If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t. Either way you’re right.” Remember that as you’re exploring and practicing your instrument.

There is such a wide spectrum of different styles of players ranging from traditional Hawaiian players, to hard core country players, jazz players, blues players, even classical players. In my opinion we need to seriously listen to and peruse as many of these styles as we possibly can.

There is someone on YouTube who plays great classical music on a steel guitar. You can find many examples of people who have stretched the traditional role of steel guitar and are doing it well. It is a travesty that the instrument has gotten so stereotyped and pigeon-holed into Hawaiian and country music when it is capable of so much more.

That could be because there are more copiers than innovators. I’m as guilty of it as anybody. When you’re playing a gig and the band plays a certain song, it’s expected of you to play that song somewhat like it was originally recorded.

Something to experiment would be to take any standard song, play it the way it was originally played, then try to play it in different styles. It can become very intriguing. Also play it in different timings. For example, play a song that was originally done as a four-four swing and try to play it in three quarter waltz time.

Things like this can keep you aroused in practice and keep you from getting in a rut of your own creation. When you practice at home, approach the instrument as an innovator. You’ll see your playing ability expand much more quickly.

One time back in the early seventies during the time I worked for Loretta, we were out on tour with the Osborne Brothers and I went on their bus one night and Sonny, the banjo player, was sitting on the bus listening attentively to a Pete Fountain album. That really opened up my way of thinking and I decided then and there that I wouldn’t narrow my scope to one or two styles of music.

A song doesn’t have to have a steel guitar in it for us to hear one in it. Let me encourage you listen to all kinds of music with an ear to hearing how steel guitar would fit in it. You need to know the melody, the chord changes and how the original arrangement of the song goes before you start experimenting with changing it.

I’ll give you an example. If you’re going to learn to play White Christmas, learn the arrangement first off Bing Crosby’s original recording. After you’ve done that, you can experiment and expand and arrange it in as many different ways as you can in different styles of music. This can bring new life to the song and also get your creative juices flowing. Can you imagine how stale and boring music would be if we all played the same way?

It’s fun to take a common country music standard such as a Crazy Arms and imagine how Robert Randolph would play it, then proceed with playing it in that fashion. By the same token, take a hard core blues solo of Robert’s and try to imagine how Buddy Emmons or Jerry Byrd would approach it.

I just finished listening to a CD that Mike Daly has released. It consists mainly of seventies rock tunes played on steel guitar and it’s called “Rock of Ages”. It’s very refreshing to examine his approach to performing these types of songs. “Jazz by Jernigan” is another example of what I’m talking about and Doug has a tab book that goes along with the CD.

Bobbe’s “As Time Goes By” CD is a wonderful collection of pop standards and his “Cure For The Blues” CD showcases Bobbe doing what he does best. If these CDs don’t open your mind to new possibilities, I doubt anything will.

Blatant plug: We have all of these in stock at www.steelguitar.net/cds.html

Listening to various categories and types of music can even help us with our day to day country or whatever style of music we normally play because notes are notes no matter what type of music they’re being played in. A “C” note is a “C” note. Period. Now, studying the different scales and such that are common to each genre of music can be beneficial to us in incorporating certain lines, licks, intros etc to our common everyday gig playing.

Do not limit your mind in what you listen to and like. When you do that, you’re taking the soul out of your playing.

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html

www.steelguitar.net
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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
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Hello fellow players,

I know many of you have been wondering about my medical status. In two words, not good. My mind still works up to a point so I’m glad to be able to tell everybody what’s going on. I have spinal stenosis which has pretty well taken away my ability to walk very well and all of my ability to play. I miss not being able to play steel guitar, however maybe things will get better in the future.

Vic Lawson, my right hand man along with able assistance from Bob Hempker, both very able and well known steel players, are taking care of my duties at the store so that I can concentrate on resolving my health issues. I would appreciate it if you would deal with them as if you were dealing with me and allow me the time to reclaim my health.

I want to thank everyone of you that have sent me little notes wishing me a speedy recovery. I thank you for understanding that I cannot answer all of these personally. Vic and Bob both have much steel guitar knowledge to impart to you in future newsletters and I hope you’ll look forward to hearing their views as much as you did mine as they will be handling my newsletter duties from now on. I may occasionally write one, but that won’t happen very often.

I’m turning the rest of today’s newsletter over to Vic.

Well with that being said, hopefully that will answer a lot of your questions about Bobbe. Bobbe has been one of my heroes through the years. I’ve learned a lot from him about steel guitars. We’re here to take care of business while Bobbe is healing and we can answer all your questions just like Bobbe can.

Many of you already know that I’ve been a professional steel player for twenty-five years and that I’ve worked for Bobbe on and off for the last twelve years. Working for Bobbe has been an ideal situation for me because it allowed me to work the road when it was available and work for Bobbe as a steel guitar technician and repairman in the off time.

Not only have I worked here, but I’ve worked alongside Buck Reid, Terry Crisp, Bob Hempker and others who’ve been able to fill in their off time working here. It’s really a unique shop and no other place like it exists. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best blankety-blank little steel guitar shop in the world.

Bobbe has done a lot for the steel community and I’m glad he has the confidence in me to deal with the day to day operation of all aspects of the business. As always, I will do my best to stock the best guitars in the best condition and offer the best service.

While I’m talking about the best guitars in the best condition, I don’t know if all of you know what a guitar goes through before it goes on our floor. Usually I’ll start by cutting the strings off immediately and thoroughly clean and lube the guitar. I put a new set of strings on it.

Then I start doing adjustments and make sure the guitar is doing what it’s supposed to do. I replace any parts that show wear and aren’t up to par. I set the guitar up to standard Emmons setup per Bobbe’s specifications. If you buy one of our guitars, we set it up according to your specifications if you want anything different.

After playing it ourselves for an hour or so to make sure everything’s as perfect as can be, then it goes on the floor. As a technician, I pride myself on doing the best job possible and won’t let any guitar go out the door in substandard condition. When you buy from us, you know the guitar is right.

I would also like to mention that if you buy a guitar privately or on eBay, you can send the guitar to us and we will go through it thoroughly and put it in the best possible condition so you can enjoy your guitar for years to come.

For any of you in the Las Vegas area, I’ll be playing at the Silverton Casino for the PBR after-party at 10:30 Friday night. Stop by and say hi if you can.

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html
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

Hello fans and fellow players,

This is Bob Hempker with today’s newsletter. Let’s start this newsletter out with a good old road story.

One time, when I was working for Roy Clark, we got a new bus. We immediately left and went on a four week tour. About two days into the tour, we noticed the bathroom was flooding on the floor of the bus. We emptied the holding tank, put a new wax seal on the commode, filled the holding tank back up, but that didn’t stop the flooding.

We made numerous calls back to the company that Roy had purchased the bus from trying to isolate the problem so we could fix it. Nothing seemed to work. We couldn’t go back home because we were committed to do the dates on the tour. As a result we were forced to travel without a functioning bathroom for almost four weeks.

We stopped at a Walmart and bought a plastic bucket. We sat it in the bathroom and used that when the need arose. Everybody took a turn at emptying the bucket. Even Roy took his turn. The bucket filled up faster than what you’d think it would.

When we finally got back to town after all this time, our bus driver took the bus back to where Roy bought it. What they found was totally unbelievable. The carpet layer who had laid the carpet in the bus cut his little scraps off and threw them in the commode. That’s what caused the toilet to stop up.

So the point is, working in the entertainment business and traveling on the road is not as glamorous as it’s made out to be.

Whether we like it or not, our personality, mood swings and attitudes come through in our playing. You can play a real aggressive sounding blues solo when you’re a little hacked off about something. When we’re sad and melancholy, our ballad playing seems to excel. When we’re happy and upbeat, we’ll probably want to play up-tempo tunes that make you want to dance.

Conversely, if we’re sad, it’s harder to play an up-tempo tune with any real conviction. As a professional you need to be aware of this tendency and not let it affect our playing in a piece that we’re not quite in the right mood to play.

On a familiar note, if you’re in a proper mood to play a certain piece, allow your emotions to flow. This can enhance your solo. In normal playing circumstances, we end up playing a cacophony of all different types of songs. We have to do this to hold an audience’s attention and to entertain them. We can’t just play whatever we’re in the mood to play song after song.

Sometimes one band member may be in a jovial mood while another band member may be going through some personal problems and not be up. We have to jell as a unit and come together and play all the songs with the emotion they are meant to display.

Along with the mental aspects of our mood coming out in our playing, it also comes out in our body language and you don’t want that to spill over into the rest of the group. You can’t allow that to affect the hue or color of our music. As a professional, it’s our job to sell the music no matter what or how we feel at the particular moment.

Going out on the road for extended periods of time can be even more difficult to restrain our moods. We’re housed in a tin can rolling down the road for hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles at a time. One person with a real sour attitude or disposition can make daily life really difficult for the others around him.

Also whoever rooms with that person when we get hotel rooms, is really put through their own hell. Working the road even when things are at their very best, is extremely hard work. Personality quirks and conflicts are bound to arise. The best we can deal with them on a one to one basic with whoever we’re having problems with, the better is it on ourselves and everyone else around us.

Traveling in such close proximity can bring out both the best and the worst in people. We need to resolve our conflicts as quickly as possible. We don’t want the cancerous sore to bleed into the other members of the group.

It’s hard to go onstage and play when there are personal conflicts going on in the band. We have to remember that we’re trying to work as a team and leave those differences outside before we enter the venue we’re playing. If we bring them onstage, it can ruin a show because it subliminally affects everybody.

Let us always remember, no matter how difficult it is to put our best playing hat on when we go on the stage, it’s what we have to do to be a professional. We don’t always get hired for our playing ability. Our ability to get along with everybody in the group is a big factor as well.

Through the years, I have encountered musicians, some of them top-notch players, who never quite grasped this end of the music playing business and as a result had problems trying to work and never achieved their potential because nobody wanted to work with them.

This can be as harmful to one’s self as having a drinking or drug problem. The end result is the same. They either get the gig and end up being fired, or they don’t get the gig in the first place. I’ll quote Bobbe Seymour, “The best players don’t always get the best gigs.”

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html

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