"You sound professional"

Curt Trisko · Post by **Curt Trisko** » 1 Aug 2014 4:50 am

I don't think of myself as a sensitive, "musical" type of person. I'm sure that most of us know people like that so I think you know what I'm talking about.

In the past week, I've had two friends tell me on separate occasions that my steel playing "sounds professional". Those two friends aren't very familiar with steel and hadn't heard me play before. I was showing them my steel at home. The fact that they both said the exact same thing has me thinking about the comment.

I'm pretty sure that it was their way of complimenting my playing while conceding that they aren't fans of the instrument. My playing doesn't sounds professional, but I do feel that I'm over the hump of sounding like a beginner. The comment I would have like to have heard was, "that sounds beautiful". I'd want other steel players to remark on my cleanness and accuracy. For everyone else, I want them to be struck by the effect of what I play and not how I do it.

What am I turning into that I'm taking a casual compliment and turning it inside out?

Bob Hickish · Post by **Bob Hickish** » 1 Aug 2014 5:54 am

Curt
all the complements in the world and 2 dollars will buy you a cup of coffee just about any where you go -- i found over the years is , you just take it and say thank you . the answer to your playing / or mine -- is in the people your entertaining - if there up dancing and having a good time & cheering you on , your doing it right --

what you think about your playing has nothing to to do with what people hear - most of us are our own worst critics - so you cant put much stock in that either .

just go have fun

Just My 2 cents

Curt Trisko · Post by **Curt Trisko** » 1 Aug 2014 6:34 am

I'm always interested in feedback from listeners who don't already have fixed opinions on the steel guitar. The biggest thing I want feedback on is where my style is at the spectrum of "too mechanical <--------------> over-the-top". I'm still new enough to steel where I'm not set in my ways yet. I've got people who will give me their honest opinion on things like my vibrato. Non-musicians usually can't articulate their opinions very well so it makes me try to read into it. I can't stop wondering if it was just a coincidence that those two friends said the same exact thing and what it could mean.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 1 Aug 2014 6:57 am

Don't over-analyze. Seems to me it was intended as a compliment in both cases. Take it as such and feel good about yourself.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 1 Aug 2014 7:38 am

I would take it as a compliment. Look at the positive side. They were saying that you DO sound professional.

You'll heard all kinds of weird comments from non-musicians about your playing. One time after playing an outdoor town concert we were packing up and a town worker who was cleaning up the grounds came up to me and asked "what do you call that thing?" I told him, and he said... "Oh yeah... some people can really play that thing". The guys in the band got a good laugh out of that, and so did I. I didn't take it as a dig against my playing. I think he was just saying that the steel guitar is a great instrument and there are some masters of the steel out there. Period. Another example: I teach about 40 guitar students a week at the local music store. I've been there for 34 years. Occasionally I will bring in a lap steel or a pedal steel to demonstrate the steel guitar for the students. And guess what? Most of them couldn't care less. Some just glance up at the clock while I'm playing!

My advice is... keep playing and enjoying the steel guitar. When audiences see that you enjoy playing they will enjoy it too.

Curt Trisko · Post by **Curt Trisko** » 1 Aug 2014 8:02 am

Bob Hickish wrote: the answer to your playing / or mine -- is in the people your entertaining - if there up dancing and having a good time & cheering you on , your doing it right --

I'll admit that this part of things gets under my skin. I like the steel so much that it puzzles me when other people get nothing out of it. I know that's just the way people are and I'm the same way for a lot of other things. That doesn't stop me from feeling that I need to try to persuade every listener to find something that they like about its sound. It makes me crave that inarticulate and unusual feedback from non-musicians.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 1 Aug 2014 8:06 am

I get together and jam with a pretty good guitar player.
We sat in on a jam some time ago in a neighboring town and we overhood a converstation between a couple of the other players.
They said: "We were doing fine until the professionals sat in".

Dick Wood · Post by **Dick Wood** » 1 Aug 2014 8:10 am

They always said Dick,I really like what you're tryin' to do.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 1 Aug 2014 9:09 am

I like the steel so much that it puzzles me when other people get nothing out of it.

Get used to it. I've been experiencing this for 45 years. We assume that everyone will be enamored with the sound of our steel guitar and like it as much as we do. Not always. In fact, usually not. The average person has little or no interest in it. That's just the way it is. The answer is to be confident in your playing. Enjoy your playing. If you exude confidence and a positive attitude, people will be more likely to notice and appreciate what you're doing.

I wonder if banjo players ever go through this. "Why doesn't everyone in the world love the glorious sound of my banjo!"

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 1 Aug 2014 9:21 am

I've always thought that pick or palm blocking was invented to make the steel sound less obtrusive and more like a standard guitar. Strange theory of mine?

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 1 Aug 2014 9:25 am

Joachim Kettner wrote:I've always thought that pick or palm blocking was invented to make the steel sound less obtrusive and more like a standard guitar. Strange theory of mine?

No. It was invented to prevent one's playing from sounding like crap.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 1 Aug 2014 9:28 am

True. When everything runs together it sounds like... well, ya know.

Bill Sinclair · Post by **Bill Sinclair** » 1 Aug 2014 9:32 am

I recently sat in with some younger players that have a reggae/rock/ska band and pulled out my lap steel on a couple of tunes just to do some comping and simple solos. (I'm very much the novice). The guitar player exclaimed "Man, that thing is SICK!" I took it as the highest compliment - not particularly toward my playing but just what a cool sounding instrument it is.

Rick Schacter · Post by **Rick Schacter** » 1 Aug 2014 9:36 am

Doug Beaumier wrote:
I wonder if banjo players ever go through this. "Why doesn't everyone in the world doesn't love the glorious sound of my banjo!"

Probably not as much as tuba players.

Bob Hickish · Post by **Bob Hickish** » 1 Aug 2014 9:39 am

Curt Trisko
Quote
It makes me crave that inarticulate and unusual feedback from non-musicians.

Joachim Kettner wrote:I've always thought that pick or palm blocking was invented to make the steel sound less obtrusive and more like a standard guitar. Strange theory of mine?

Curt Trisko · Post by **Curt Trisko** » 1 Aug 2014 1:30 pm

Bill Sinclair wrote:I recently sat in with some younger players that have a reggae/rock/ska band and pulled out my lap steel on a couple of tunes just to do some comping and simple solos. (I'm very much the novice). The guitar player exclaimed "Man, that thing is SICK!" I took it as the highest compliment - not particularly toward my playing but just what a cool sounding instrument it is.

When I jam with guitar players and I get that reaction, I usually follow up by asking in some way or another what exactly they like about it. There have been a few occasions where I'll play a little change or lick in a couple similar ways and ask them which they prefer. I'm always trying to get a sense of what hooks them.

For example, last weekend I was jamming with a guitar player and for the V7 chord I asked him which he liked better: 1) when I'd change into the chord by bending up a half-step into the seventh or 2) bend down a half-step into the third. He didn't have an opinion and I'm not even sure if the difference was all that perceptible to him.

Maybe I need to cool it a bit.

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 1 Aug 2014 6:24 pm

Those comments sound like compliments to me. Just play your instrument, dig the sounds you are making (or not,depending on how you are playing on a particular day) and be happy that you can.

Strange as it may seem to musicians, the rest of the world does not hear music the same way we do. They don't care (nor, I've discovered, do they want to be told) who played a particular steel guitar part, or whether that sound was made by a steel guitar or by a Henway. That's ok, because I don't care deeply about everything that others care about either. Most people only have so much attention to go around.

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 1 Aug 2014 6:37 pm

Steel guitar can sound anywhere on the spectrum between beautifully musical and a menstruating ocelot.

Comments that it sounds "professional" is a nice way of saying that your listeners regard what they are hearing as closer to the former than the latter.

So you've got that going for you. Which is nice.

Dave Hopping · Post by **Dave Hopping** » 1 Aug 2014 7:21 pm

To be told one sounds like a pro is to me one of the highest compliments imaginable.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 1 Aug 2014 8:33 pm

I think that pedal steel is still more commonly heard on records rather than live and in person. By saying you "sound professional", they could mean that what they're hearing is similar to when they listen to the radio.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 2 Aug 2014 7:27 am

that's right. i would consider it a compliment. for many, many years i would set a little cassette recorder on the floor next to me at gigs.
when i finally heard it sound in the ballpark with music i heard on the radio, it made me feel more professional.
the important points to me were tone, placement and not overplaying.