Lap Steelin'

C6 is the perfect tuning for breadboarding, no doubt about it. For those of you who don’t know the term “breadboarding,” it has to do with electronic circuits and how experimenters will use a breadboard as a construction base to create prototypes of circuits. Simply moving wires and jumpers around with solderless connections makes the experimentation much easier. In a past life I spent a lot of time with electronics….

For purposes of this discussion, I will be referring to this version of C6, from low to hi (gasp–I’ve gone against my own principles): G A C E G A C E. If you are looking to step outside of the box a bit and play some things that are a bit out of the ordinary for steel guitar, tweaking the C6 can play an important role in helping you achieve the chord qualities you are looking for. The most obvious tweak would be tuning the lowest C (in my tuning, string 6) to C#. This gives you the C6/A7 tuning which, in my opinion is necessary for playing Jazz and even any kind of chord solo work. The importance of the dominant chord in that tuning can’t be stressed enough. Also, contained within the span of strings 4, 5 and 6 is a diminished triad. Crucial.

Another common tweak is to tune string 7 (A) up to Bb for a C13. This eliminates the root for our minor chords, which I feel is pretty important note to have for playing Jazz standards and even some Rock tunes. There are some arrangements I play, though, that are based around this tuning, particularly Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and Yellow Roses.

What if we tweak both the C string and the A string up a half step? I got this little tuning from Billy Hew Len (although he did it with the A6 tuning) and I quickly recognized it as a tuning used by the great Joaquin Murphey. Joaquin used a C6 tuning with a high G string later on, and he would also raise his C and A strings 1/2 step. A good example of this sound can be found on Spade Cooley‘s Dance-A-Rama record. You can hear an example of this tuning (my version with a high E) on this recording of Coconut Grove. It makes use of a lot of altered dominant chords.

There are other places we can tweak the tuning, too: my favorite is to re-tune string 8. I have several variations on it and all of them give me different results. The most common for me is to tune string 8 to F, especially for playing chord melodies. I approach it a little like John Scofield does when he is playing solo–he stabs at individual chord tones just to establish the harmony in the listener’s ears while he plays a melody or improvises on top of it. Sometimes that chord tone will only last for an eighth note. String 8 also serves me well for playing more modern Jazz, such as Herbie Hancock and Eddie Harris, by tuning it down to D. There I have what we call slash chords (a triad over a different bass note), particularly the 11th chord flavor, ie. C/D (C triad over D bass note). A great, nebulous sound.

There are other very useful ways of changing the value of a C6 tuning by changing 1 or 2 strings. For those of you familiar with Speedy West, he occasionally used a tuning (although on a pedal steel) which was called F#9. Essentially what it is is an E6 tuning (low to hi B C# E G# B C# E G#)(arrrgh), with the B strings tuned down to A#. If you look at the C6 tuning that I use (with the E string on top), it is the same structure as the E6 tuning down a major third. So, in this case we simply lower our G to F# and voila!: we have D9 tuning.

I am currently beginning another book–this time on creating block chord arrangements or chord melodies. I will be using my C6 tuning for the basis of the entire book, but I will also be sharing some of my secret tweaks. I am really looking forward to the challenge of teaching this!

In the meantime, I hope you continue to explore and have fun and always remember that lurking somewhere inside of you is you! Let’s give him every opportunity to find his voice on the steel guitar. Always play with the curiosity of a child.

All for now. By the way, it pains me so to see those tunings spelled backwards. You won’t be seeing that from me again.

A Way To Survive: No, I’m not talking about the classic Country song. I’m talking about surviving as a steel guitar player in a steel guitar hating world!

A lot of people have asked me to post something about playing back-up steel guitar and, while I tried to formulate a post describing the process, I realized one of the most important aspects of understanding how to do it: understanding the harmony and knowing how to play accompaniment within that harmonic structure. The art of playing counterpoint with a melody is something that involves a lot of attention and is beyond the scope of this blog–it is a very involved process that really has much to do with individual taste, not only of the player, but of the melody you are countering. Again, as in most other posts on this blog, these are my thoughts and opinions and they may or may not fall in with the popular opinion, but I really do believe that the steel guitar can be a great instrument in the context of many styles of music, many of which don’t currently embrace it. It is up to the players to elevate the level of playing to make it acceptable and even desirable in these other settings. At a time when it is difficult for many musicians to find work, it is often an instrument like the steel guitar that gets cut first, unfortunately. So, if we can find ways to make the instrument as complete as possible, it enhances its value in the context of a working band. Just some food for thought….

How many of you can play through the changes of a tune on lap steel as if you were accompanying on guitar or piano? This is not something I thought a lot about until I got involved with a group that needed reinforcement in that area. There were limitations on what I could do because of the nature of the tuning I used, but I understood very early on that I only needed to suggest harmonies for them to be apparent. This is where it is really helpful to know as much about functional harmony as you can. With music, as in many other things, not everything is as it appears (sounds). What you don’t know will hurt you. And I’m not going to lie to you: intonation is extremely crucial here! If your intonation needs work, the time to address that is now.

Today, when I look at the C6/A7, E13 or E9 tunings that I use, I see a world of possibilities harmonically. One of the most essential ingredients in a steel guitar tuning for me is a tritone interval–without it, you cannot have a pure dominant chord. As a refresher, a tritone interval is 3 whole tones or 6 semitones, or an augmented 4th or diminished 5th. It is the interval of dissonance. The most dissonant chords in diatonic harmony are the V, or dominant 7th, and vii, or half-diminished 7th. These have to resolve.

So, knowing that I can have a dom 7 chord expands my realm of possibilities considerably. A diminished triad is another essential for me. With C6/A7 I have that. Major and minor are also very nice and, if possible, I’d like to be able to find Maj7 or Maj9 chords. Augmented chords are most likely to be splintered, but that’s fine–if I can have a major 3rd interval, I can move it in whole steps to simulate the augmented sound. It really only takes 2 notes moving in whole steps or to define that sound.

The point is, if you know the essential ingredients of a chord and what you can leave out and still have that chord, then you will have a good understanding of how you can make a steel guitar work as a chordal instrument. Let me show you an example–I recorded the song “Deacon Blues” as an experiment. I laid down the chordal accompaniment on my Clinesmith lap steel. I listened to the song and wrote a chord chart, then I simply read down the chart using simple voicings. I know what I can leave out and what the important chord tones are and I think this track represents the song’s harmony pretty well. But that’s just a part of it. It is also really nice to use voicings where you can hear the inner voices moving, sort of like a choir. Large intervallic jumps are not necessarily a good thing. Have a listen to the intro, first verse and chorus:

Deacon Blues chordal accompaniment

Pretty cool, right? I noticed that on electric steel guitar I tend to play it more like an electric piano or organ when I accompany, whereas on an acoustic instrument I might be a little more guitaristic. One of the things I think is important about the Bebop Lap Steel book is the fact that I spent the time to include the chord voicings so you can play as an accompanist to yourself. That is what you should be doing! By accompanying yourself on steel guitar, you are not only expanding your knowledge of the instrument, but you are also strengthening elements of your playing such as your time feel (read my previous blog post about time feel). Just get out a recorder and lay down the chords to play along with. I’ve often thought of buying one of those Loop Station pedals for doing this. I know a few of the old-timers who don’t approve of the “guitarization” of the steel guitar and I understand that, but we live in a different musical world today. The whole idea is to enjoy yourself and become the best player you can be–nothing wrong with that. Tradition is important and fun, but moving forward is also important (and even more fun!)

Anyway, this is something that is really an important of my steel playing. I like to contribute to the music as much as I can–in the situations I am normally playing in, I am kind of making my own rules. If I was on the road with the Dixie Chicks or someone else, you can bet things would be different (which is also the reason why I’m not on the road with anyone else).

Happy chording!

One of the things that makes my situation here in NYC unique is that have free rein over what I play. I don’t have to learn intros and breaks, and I pretty much spend all of my time improvising my parts. The downside is that it probably costs me a ton of work, but this is New York and there aren’t necessarily many Honky-Tonks or luaus here, so there isn’t much work to begin with, not that I’d be the guy for those gigs.

But what I do have is the luxury of really trying to get inside of a tune and make each tune that is played a unique event. All of my steel gigs for the time being are as a sideman. I really like my job–it’s really like playtime for me. One of the things I enjoy doing most in music is trying to spontaneously write the perfect parts. It is a game that never gets old for me, but admittedly it requires a very trusting and patient bandleader. How would I fare with a Bob Dylan or a Dale Watson? I don’t know, and I doubt I’ll ever find out, but I can be very professional and accomodating, if need be. hint, hint

Playing backup steel means more than just note choices and chords and such sometimes–there is the whole other world of sound to deal with. I love sounds and timbres, and I like the way that certain sounds evince different styles of playing from me. For instance, I sometimes really on effects such as pitch vibrato, tremolo, rotary speaker simulation, echo,and various types of distortion and overdrive. I’ve really tried to come clean with my playing through the years and keep it pure, but sometimes the songs tell you what to do and how to sound. I keep my ears open for things like that; after all, my job is to enhance the music in any way I can, not push my own agenda.

One of the effects that I use effectively, but sparingly, is echo. You know that sound that Albert Lee achieves with his Echoplex–that rapid fire repeat that sounds like really fancy picking? I’ve been doing that since I was a teenager on the guitar, so I’ve got a very good handle on it. The first time I’d ever heard the effect was on the Chet Atkins record, “Snowbird”. Hear it for yourself: Snowbird. I had an Electro Harmonix Memory Man at the time and had a ball with it for years, eventually learning how to control it even further with volume swells.

Here’s how you do it: Set your delay time to about 340ms. Feedback should only be 1 repeat, and the effect level should be slightly lower than the original signal–just slightly. What you are going to do is play quarter notes at a tempo of approximately 220-240 bpm and not let them ring at all. The delay will sound as 1/8 notes. To slow it down, you must increase the delay time to, say 380ms. Just experiment with it until you can hear the effect. You’ve got to get the timing right with this, so practice by just hitting a muted string. I realize how difficult this is to explain without an audio example, but until I can record one this will have to do.

Having the right tone is a very important part of sounding like a pro, and part of getting the right tone is in your hands. Play with confidence. Steel players who play with timidity are already putting themselves behind the 8 ball. It is almost impossible to sound good like that. Don’t over-pick, meaning don’t pick too hard, and find the right amount of pressure with the bar. It becomes like a dance when it is done right. Your left hand should move gracefully, but with as little wrist movement as possible. Part of getting good intonation involves the way you move the bar–the best must move in a straight line. Your arm and wrists will adjust to accomodate the higher and lower fret positions, but the bar has to move in a straight line.

Another thing to be aware of: You will need to be able to peel your eyes from your steel every now and then for cues, etc. If you bring your wife/girlfriend to your gig, you really have to keep your eyes open. Try not to get too lost in your steel, because steel players tend to lose control and start drooling after too long a period of looking down!

More to come…..

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 being.

When I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7 years old, I listened to a lot of music–mostly AM radio and whatever 45s I inherited from my parents. I became fascinated with music and the way every song seemed so complete as a tight little package. Don’t forget, we’re talking about mono records here (I had a cheap record player) and mono radio. I wasn’t yet aware of all the instruments, but I was slowly starting to get a grasp on the elements of sound and what seemed to make each record different from the next. One record that really stood out for me was Stevie Wonder’s “If You Really Love Me”–I could literally sit and pick that song apart and note how the instruments and the voices interacted with each other. It was almost like a 3 minute Soul symphony. Then there was Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Again, every detail was audible to me, yet they all blended so seamlessly to make the song what it was. I always knew the centerpiece of the music was the words and the melody, but I also knew the role that rhythm and harmony played, as well as timbre. I think that was a good lesson to learn early on.

Once I started trying to play guitar, I listened for pitches and quickly discovered the difference between major and minor. The process of learning to play guitar was painfully slow for me in the beginning, but as if a dam broke, when I finally managed to play a few chords the whole world of music just seemed to open up in front of me. By the age of 10 or so is when I started to get hooked on guitar music–Deep Purple replaced my Doo-Wop (Chuck Berry still hung in there, though).

The reason I bring all this up is because I want to illustrate just how far back my awareness of the minutia in music extends and that I have essentially worked my whole life to get to the place where I am able to play freely in many musical styles. I am not bragging–no, I am trying to let you know that if you are frustrated with trying to understand these elements of music you do not have to be ashamed. It is a process that involves a lot of detailed listening to the music of others, and to the music in you. I once remember going to listen to some friends play a gig years ago in a club in NJ, and Bernard Purdie was the drummer. One of the greatest drummers in Pop music history who is also one very likable man. Anyway, I watched Purdie playing and I could almost hear what he was hearing in his head as he played–he was listening to the band, don’t get me wrong–but internally he was orchestrating it. The man was concentrating 100% on the music and he was smiling with his eyes closed. I will always remember that vision.

It is all about context. Every song is different–even every performance is different. But you have to know how to keep things in context, which means you have to know the music, and you have to know what your instrument is capable of. Don’t sell yourself and the instrument short–there are a lot ways to do things that you may never have dreamed of. Keep an open mind and ears. Here is an example of a song I wrote with the Moonlighters, called “Broken Doll”. I was going for something Mancini-esque on it, but I didn’t want to over play on it. I think I found a nice balance and added to the mood of the tune.

I will continue with this as time allows and hopefully the process becomes a little easier for me to explain. For now, I will say listening is the real learning process–elevate your listening and you will elevate your playing.

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 transcribed it before bed. Took me an hour or so–it’s mostly just eighth notes, which makes it a little easier.

Anyway, it is a C6 pedal steel performance, but I transcribed it for C6 with a re-entrant D 1st string, which is what I believe is Buddy’s tuning, so it is D E C A G E C A F C (high to low). There is nothing played below the 8th string and I couldn’t detect any pedals, although they may be there, I just don’t know what they do. The few notes on the 1st string could easily be moved to the E string, so if you are playing C6 (E high) you can pull it off (a little harder, though).

Here is the solo:

Gentle On My Mind solo

And here is the transcription:

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 use” phase as they attempt to integrate what they already know from another instrument in their attempt to play music the way they want to hear it. Most of us latch onto to a tuning until we have a good grip on how to actually play the instrument, and from there we either struggle to acclimate to a new tuning or stick with what we know. If you are anything like me (a guitarist with more years experience than I care to mention), a tuning like C6 boggles the mind. It took me a good 5 years of playing until I was finally ready to succumb to C6. I’m glad I did, because it’s so much more than I ever thought it would be. This is not to say that it is the only tuning I use–it is not, and may not even be my main tuning, but it is the model of all the things that a tuning should be.

All tunings are not created equal! That is a fact. The thing that makes a great tuning is this: How flexible is it within itself?–in another words, how many layers are available beyond the simple root position (for C6, this would be the 12th fret or open strings). All of the good stuff lies elsewhere on the neck. If you are playing a 6 string lap steel guitar in say, G tuning or even D or E tuning, there is a lot of great music there, no doubt about it. However, you are still in some way getting locked into a guitaristic kind of thinking. How would you play a chromatic scale in one of those tunings? In G tuning, playing scales is manageable, but in E or D, it is tough. You may say, “I don’t want to play scales anyway. I want to play music!” And you would have a good point. But the simple fact is, you can be locked into positions to a large degree and this will be a limiting factor on your note choices. There are always exceptions, and where there is a will there is a way (case in point, Steve Cunningham, who gets a lot of sound from the E tuning).

Now, in the Hawaiian style of playing, you are playing up and down the strings rather than across the strings. Many of the great Western Swing players, like Joaquin Murphey and Vance Terry (although I don’t think Vance had studied Hawaiian guitar), learned to play in this way and you can hear the freedom of movement in their playing as well as the ability to find interesting note choices. But the one thing that they had at their disposal was a tuning (or tunings) which contained various intervals that they could effectively exploit–intervals not found in the aforementioned tunings.

Most of tried and true steel guitar tunings contain, on adjacent strings, intervals of a minor 3rd and major 3rd. Some tunings have a 4th as well (E tuning, D tuning, E9 tuning, G tuning). Some tunings have a 5th (D tuning, E tuning). Admittedly, I like the way a 5th sounds–big, fat rhythm chords–but in all honesty (and this is coming from someone who had played in E tuning for years) they are impractical. Is the 5th great for those fat chords and for those Sol Hoopii trombone runs? Yes, indeed it is. But what if you only have 6 strings–surely you can find something to add in the middle register of the instrument, correct? Something which would make it easier to get a wider variety of choices. In the case of E tuning, if you eliminated the low E string and inserted an F# into the 4th string slot, you would now have: E B G# F# E B It doesn’t seem all that interesting, but in one sense it is very much: you now have 3 strings in the middle of the guitar which, when combined, total a major 3rd interval–that is 2 whole steps. For me, that is a bit redundant. I don’t need 2 whole steps right next to each like that, especially since I still have the 4th interval on the bottom strings. I can tighten that one up by retuning string 5 to D. This would now give me: E B G# F# D B. This is called the E9 tuning. It is one of my 2 most used tunings and it is a wealth of sound. On the 8 string version (E B G# F# D B G# E) I am afforded the luxury of a diminished triad on adjacent strings. This is important to me, as it enables me to have a lot of options pertaining to dominant chords, particularly altered chords (7b9). But the biggest bonus is provided by strings 3 and 4, which are just 1 whole step apart.

Having 2 strings tuned a whole step apart is a challenge to play at first, because the tendency is to not pick cleanly enough to avoid playing both strings. This can have some undesired results, but like anything else, with enough practice it can be remedied. Cleaning up your picking puts you in a position to use and exploit that whole step for everything it is worth. Getting back to the mention of the Hawaiian style of playing (up and down the neck): imagine the possibilities of playing those 2 strings up and down, or vertically, and the new-found ability to play scales on 2 strings just by moving your bar to the next position. I refer you to this image, which I posted in an earlier post:

What you see here is a scale played just on strings 3 and 4 in C6 tuning. This is just one way to do it, but the more time spent examining patterns like this, the more possibilities you will see. Sometimes you have to discover these things on your own. You can also play this in any tuning with 2 strings tuned a whole step apart. Much of what I do is based simply on this idea. Try it out for yourself: the rewards can be great.

I don’t want to say that certain tunings are not suitable for playing steel–absolutely not! That is not what I’m getting at. But if you have locked yourself into a tuning because you are having a difficult time computing the fretboard and need something familiar, I will say this: Trust yourself. With time and practice and with your musicality, you will get it. And it will not be like you thought it would be–it will be so much more!

That’s all for now.