- Clinesmith Instruments
Quality American-made instruments,
built one at a time
NEW from Steelin' From The Masters!!
Speedy West's "Wild and Woolly West"
Bebop Lap Steel GuitarBuddy's Boogie
by Buddy Emmons
Gabby Pahinui's "Chloe"
Gabby Pahinui's "Yellow Roses"
Subscribe
Category Archives: Lessons and Tips
Speedy West’s “Skiddle-Dee-Boo”
I don’t know about you, but any time the name Speedy West comes up I am all ears. What I wouldn’t give years ago to play this music….at that time when I first got a lap steel, I was also … Continue reading
Playing backup steel (or life in the real world), pt. 1
Yes, the real world–the world that wants to hear the steel guitar as sweetening, or an ambience enhancer, or a color (at least until the solo comes). This is the world I inhabit and embrace with every fiber of my … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips
1 Comment
Buddy Emmons “Gentle On My Mind” solo transcription
Someone on the Steel Guitar Forum posted a link to this great solo by Buddy Emmons on John Hartford’s “Gentle On My Mind.” I’d never heard it before, but it knocked me out, so I sat down with it and … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips
2 Comments
Unravelling the mysteries of steel guitar tunings, part 2
Warning: I spell all of my steel guitar tunings from high to low. After several years of playing (the first few being laden with frustration and confusion), I’ve arrived at the point where it’s all starting to make sense to … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips
Tagged c6 tuning, C6/A7, E9 tuning, lap steel guitar
3 Comments
New tab/notation package for Bud’s Bounce!
I’ve just completed a transcription of Bud’s Bounce for E9 Non-pedal steel, the great steel guitar standard by Bud Isaacs. This is a great arrangement because it uses behind the bar string pulls to great effect…not to mention it has … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips, News
Leave a comment
Unravelling the mysteries of steel guitar tunings, pt. 1
One of the most intimidating things about playing the steel guitar, besides the physical act of actually playing it, is trying to wrap your mind around the tunings. Just about every player has gone through the “what tuning should I … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips
4 Comments
Bebop Lap Steel Guitar book now available!
I have completed the Bebop Lap Steel Guitar at last and it is available beginning today. The package includes the book itself (36 page .pdf) and 5 Tabledit files (tab/notation and MIDI, which you use to listen to the playback). … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips, News
Tagged Bebop, lap steel guitar
Leave a comment
Understanding Harmony, pt. 11 (Secondary Dominants)
OK, I hope everyone enjoyed his/her holiday. It’s time to add a few more logs to this fire. I am close to wrapping up this introduction to Harmony. I hope in some ways it has made some sense to you … Continue reading
Sol Hoopii’s “Twelfth Street Rag” now available as tab/video package!
I am so excited about this one! One of the greatest performances ever captured is Sol Hoopii’s 1938 Decca recording of Twelfth Street Rag–the electric version. Surely this is his tour-de-force and he exhibits such a mastery of his instrument … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips, News
Tagged C#min7 tuning, hawaiian steel, lap steel guitar, sol hoopii
7 Comments
Understanding Harmony, pt. 10 (A Mid-term Exam)
In this post, I am going to let you see if you really understand the concept of dealing with non-diatonic chords and test your ability to determine where the chords are leading. Since we’re about half-way through a month (remember, … Continue reading
Understanding Harmony, pt 9 (How To Approach Improvisation)
In previous posts I’ve touched on diatonic and non-diatonic harmony. The reason for spending so much time on harmony is because this is where we will find the guidelines for everything we play, from chords, to partial chords, to improvising. … Continue reading
The Art of Transcribing–Just Do It!
This is a reprint of an article I originally posted on the Steel Guitar Forum in February. I hope you find it helpful. Forgive the pedantic tone of this long essay–it was meant to be a Blog, but I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips
Leave a comment
The Joys of Transcribing!
When many people hear the word “transcribing”, they don’t necessarily equate joy with it. It is a laborious task to many, and a Sisyphean chore to some. To me, it is pure joy and discovery and is something I am … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips
Tagged sol hoopii, transcribing, transcription
Leave a comment
Understanding Harmony, part 8 (Improv with Pentatonics)
OK, let’s take a step backwards to try to avoid some confusion (there was some confusion about some of my choices for pentatonics, so I will get down to bare essentials first). We are going to use all minor pentatonics … Continue reading
Understanding Harmony, pt. 7 (Improvising with pentatonics)
I’d like to continue looking at the song Colour My World, this time looking at how we can improvise over it in a more simple fashion than using scales and their modes. The non-pedal steel guitar (I realize there may … Continue reading
Posted in Fresh baked thoughts, Lessons and Tips, Understanding Harmony
Tagged improvisation, pentatonic scales
2 Comments
Understanding Harmony, pt. 6 (Non-diatonic Chords)
Over the next 2 or 3 parts I’d like to take an in-depth look at the song “Colour My World” by Chicago. I chose the song because most will be familiar with it (unless you are some young whippersnapper) and … Continue reading
Understanding Harmony, pt. 5 (quick note on Resolution)
I had a question posed which asked: “How can you predict where a chord will resolve to.” It is a simple but important question that does have an answer. Let me direct your attention back to the major scale (C): … Continue reading
Understanding Harmony, part 4 (Minor keys)
OK, so we’ve looked at some of the basics of diatonic major scale harmony and we’ve even forayed into dealing with non-diatonic chords (much more of that to come), so now we’re ready take a look at minor tonalities and … Continue reading
Understanding Harmony, Pt. 3
OK, we’re going to take a quick look at identifying non-diatonic chords in a song and how to deal with them. This may take 2 or 3 installments to make it stick, or maybe more. We’ll see how deep we … Continue reading
Understanding Harmony, pt. 2 (Identifying Chords)
OK, so we’ve laid down some fundamentals here. We spelled out the harmonization of the C Major scale and ended up with CMaj7, Dmi7, Emi7, FMaj7, G7, Ami7, B-7b5 (half-diminished)*. We did this by building chords from our scale tones … Continue reading
