How many weeks, months or years before you were in a working

[Ray Montee (RIP)]

How many weeks, months or years before you were capable of holding a spot in a local working band?

I started taking lessons at age 7. Played on an amateur weekly radio show at about 13, played on stage in high school programs, and got my first job at 14-15 and played steadily from them on.

How old were you when you finally got started? I'm not referring to kids garage bands but actual paying gigs.

[Bud Angelotti]

One of my first paying/playing gigs was at a Ground Round. That was one of those big family restaurants with stuff for the kids as well as adults. As I recall, they had beer, (no hard stuff) for the adults, music, (my band) for the teens, and games and big screen TV for the kids.
So me and my mates are up there all serious playing our rendition of 70's hippie rock and I notice the people are not looking at us (me). They are looking at the TV. So whats on the TV? A cartoon of a moose getting clobbered by a crazy bird or something.
#1 Lesson learned - Don't take yourself too seriously.
Another time I was playing solo guitar and really doing well. Had 'em in my pocket. People were screaming and stomping.
It was then I realized they were watching the basketball game on widescreen TV. March Madness.
#2 Lesson Learned - see lesson #1.

[Clyde Mattocks]

I got my first lap steel for Christmas when I was fourteen. A few weeks later a guy came by and said, "I hear you play the steel guitar". I said "No, I've GOT a steel guitar" The following weekend I was playing with him at the VFW dance, because in those days, most people couldn't tell whether you were playing a steel guitar well or not. I am still playing for the same reason.

[Bill McCloskey]

Well, first paying gig was when I was two but I don't count that because I really hadn't found my voice until I turned 6. By that time I was touring the chitlin circuit as Little Willie and his rag bottoms. At the time I was playing with just a old rail road tie that some hobo had lobbed in my bassinet My nanny, an old Spanish cowboy named Jibby Cotton taught me how to slide it across the bars of my crib to make a sound. On the road, between bottles of Yoohoo, I sent money back to the folks at home. I got my first tattoo at age 8. It just said Marie. I was 7, she was 43. Enough said.

By the time I was 12 I had been through rehab 4 or 5 times but could never get off the pablum. I lost most of my money in an ill conceived plan to open a Steel Guitar Museum and Casino in Waterbury, Ct.

Eventually I hit rock bottom. Hawaiian music. And I've been living skid row beach ever since.

[Mark van Allen]

As impossible as it seems, I heard a record that made me want a steel, bought a ShoBud Maverick and joined a band the same day. They had a gig that weekend, and were soon playing 5 nights a week. Frankly, if it hadn't happened that way, I don't know if I would have had the motivation to learn to play. I was 21 or 22.

[Clyde Mattocks]

Ray, I don't want to overstay my welcome in this thread, but an observation: Mark's comments (similar to my situation) make me believe it is quite likely that because of the relative scarcity of steel players, a lot of us were simply thrown into circumstances in which there was no way to go but up.

[Bo Legg]

I was in my Forties when I first started playing steel (not very well) in a working band.

[Joshua Gibson]

Well Skip, I was 14 when I started playing out on guitar...I'd been playing for about three years then, and You already know how long I played steel before I started playing out ,

[Bud Angelotti]

Hey Bill -

[Chris LeDrew]

I basically learned pedal steel on stage. I was the only guy in town with one when I was asked to join a local country band. So no matter how bad I initially was, no one complained. (Of course I kept my parts very simple until I got better.) That band lasted over ten years and I made a good few dollars as I learned. The stage is the best place to get your chops up in real time...way more valuable than sitting in front of a DVD instructional video.

[Doug Beaumier]

Two months for me. I was gigging with a local band two months after buying my first pedal steel guitar, an Emmons student model.

[John Billings]

3 lessons/3 weeks for me on pedal steel.
Had played banjo since '59, and 6-string starting a couple years later. I was already an accomplished finger-picker, so the right hand on steel was a piece of cake. Good teacher, who taught me the guitar, not songs/licks etc.,and showed me how to relate what I already knew on 6-string over onto steel.

[Lee Dassow]

Started in 74 with a single neck fender 8 string,
no pedals, Was playing out in about 6 months.
I had been playing regular guitar since I was 10 years old, so I was just doubled on the steel. After a couple of years I went to a sho-bud maverick.
worked with Patty and the Buckskin Chaps some where around 78, she played rythym guitar and sang. I would play regular guitar on the verses and bring the steel in on the bridge parts. Nice contrast for a four piece band. In those days we always got paid, usually about $40.00 a piece. I stopped playing steel in 1980. Played bass in a 50's band. I went back to playing steel 3 years ago. Tennessee Lee

[Les Anderson]

I had been at it for no more than six weeks. I was asked to sit in with a local country band that asked that I play only the chords that I knew and felt confident playing. With daily practice, twice a week jam sessions, an understanding and very helpful band leader, I ended up playing with this band for near two years. I was 63 years old at the time.

[Stuart Legg]

Mr. McCloskey
It seems you went right straight from infancy to adultery.

[Jack Stoner]

My first gig with a pedal steel was 3 months after getting it. I worked with that band on and off for a couple of years.

However, I played lap steel years before and then went to guitar and bass so even though I was a newbie on pedal steel, I had played in bands for over 10 years before that.

Funny story about that first gig. The guy (Oscar Shields) called me about steel and I told him I was just a beginner. He told me that was OK, just put in some chords and a couple of licks as the lead guitar player he had was the lead guitar player from the old Jimmy Dean TV show in Washington DC. When I got to the job I again reminded him about being a beginner and he acknowledged that. First song, first break, they looked at me and I had to take the break!

[Ben Lawson]

I got my first Emmons P/P at 25. I was playing bass in a trio and after three months I would bring in the steel and play a few songs each set. It took a few more months to go full time on steel. I wasn't good but there were only a few other steel players in the state and a lot more bass players. I got lucky but I never got good even after 40+ years.

[Clete Ritta]

I didnt start performing professionally till my late twenties, though I was a very accomplished guitarist by my late teens. I started earning a living with my own little recording studio when I was around twenty. This was when MIDI first came out in the early 80s, and I had become a techno nerd of sorts. I've thoroughly enjoyed both the recording and performing aspects of being a musician ever since. I started learning pedal steel in 2006, and started getting paid to play it after about a year of daily practice.

[Bob Carlucci]

As impossible as it seems, I heard a record that made me want a steel, bought a ShoBud Maverick and joined a band the same day. They had a gig that weekend, and were soon playing 5 nights a week. Frankly, if it hadn't happened that way, I don't know if I would have had the motivation to learn to play.

Same here.. bought a Maverick, and within a couple weeks was working steadily on weekends .. Within 5 months I was working 4-6 nights a week with better bands.. I could play Panama Red pretty close after a month, and it was all downhill after that... I owned a pedal steel, which meant of course I was automatically IN the band.. thats just the way it was in the 70's.. actual talent optional... bob

[Nick Koff]

Ray, I don't want to overstay my welcome in this thread, but an observation: Mark's comments (similar to my situation) make me believe it is quite likely that because of the relative scarcity of steel players, a lot of us were simply thrown into circumstances in which there was no way to go but up.

There's a lot to be said for them big screen teevees.

[G Strout]

Purchased a "Maverick" back in 82. I was already playing guitar in local and road bands so it was an easy switch. I have since settled on playing "non-pedal" steel.... although I am thinking about going back to pedal. The only reservation I have is the tight string spacing. I wish someone could make a pedal that had 3/8".