The Steel Guitar Forum Store 

Post new topic So much time for steel guitar, no time for music
Reply to topic
Author Topic:  So much time for steel guitar, no time for music
Bo Legg


Post  Posted 15 Sep 2020 3:08 pm    
Reply with quote

Most of us know more about the under carriage of a pedal steel guitar than we know about composition or harmonization skills, analytical skills, aural skills and activities that involve part writing, improvisation, music analysis, sight singing and playing, articulation.
Take off a little time of from practice and learn the language of music
If for nothing more than the pure enjoyment of it.
View user's profile Send private message

Bo Legg


Post  Posted 16 Sep 2020 12:00 am    
Reply with quote

It is just so enjoyable when Stuart ( Stuart Legg , you know the one that is loved by all here on the Forum) and I work together on music projects that without the music knowledge we would not even consider tackling.
Much of which we share here is soundly trashed at first but over time seems to slowly grow on folks like an ugly wart. Confused
View user's profile Send private message

Stuart Legg


Post  Posted 16 Sep 2020 12:28 am    
Reply with quote

Hey Bo. do you remember this project.
click here

View user's profile Send private message

Ian Rae


From:
Redditch, England
Post  Posted 16 Sep 2020 1:16 am    
Reply with quote

I don't get bogged down in the mechanics at the expense of the music, but the PSG is an instrument where you need a little engineering sense to get the best out of it, more so than say the fiddle or the trumpet.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Fred Treece


From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 16 Sep 2020 7:47 am    
Reply with quote

I just assume that abundance of mechanical engineering chatter on the forum is always about a means to a musical end, like Ian just said, although that musical end is often left to the reader as a mystery to solve on his own. Part of the fun.

The forum’s Music section can sometimes be a happy place for the theory and composition nerd, like me. As far as “taking time off from practice” to study some musical concept or nuther, that’s been part of my practice time for so long I don’t know any other way to do it. But, “to know and not do is to not truly know”, so I try to make study time be in the service of something I’m actually going to play.

I enjoyed Stuart’s compositional rule for the m7+M6 chord tone scale. I have played guitar solos using melodic notes from a diatonic scale mode, but every diatonic note had to be followed by it’s b5. Those were some ugly solos...
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Bo Legg


Post  Posted 16 Sep 2020 8:48 am    
Reply with quote

Stuart and I started out with colliding the minor penta and the major penta and then by racking through the ruble we we found only remains of 2 arpeggios.
As we crunched the numbers we wound up dropping the 2nd from the major penta and the 4th from the minor penta leaving minor7 and major 6 arpeggios as a result.
We then discovered in order to make the scale sound major we had to directly resolve the minor7 to the major6 and the rest is history Cool
View user's profile Send private message

Stuart Legg


Post  Posted 16 Sep 2020 9:20 am    
Reply with quote

I really designed the scale for the elderly steel player.

Disclaimer: Elderly may experience brain freeze up and mental shut down due to the dizzy back and forth motion of this scale.
Could make you forget where you hid your Viagra!
View user's profile Send private message

Stuart Legg


Post  Posted 25 Oct 2022 9:16 am    
Reply with quote

a few years back this would have been a fun topic with drive by bash-ers and some folks who would actually try the scale and then make fun off it but no, no no no we gotta stick with anal attentive! Laughing
View user's profile Send private message

Donny Hinson

 

From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
Post  Posted 25 Oct 2022 5:51 pm    
Reply with quote

The "mechanics" of it is where everything starts. I've often heard the phrase "Music is nothing but arithmetic." But without some sort of mechanical science involved, there is no sound, and therefore no music.

Maybe that's why so many of us are are into the mechanics of the instrument. Oh Well
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Bill Duncan


From:
Lenoir, North Carolina, USA
Post  Posted 26 Oct 2022 3:19 am    
Reply with quote

Without mechanics music is not possible. It is just theory, numbers, and alphabet soup.

Even the human voice requires the mechanics of pressure from the diaphram,, and vibrations from vocal cords.

Pedal steel is so beautifully expressive because of the mechanics afforded us by this beautiful instrument.
_________________
You can observe a lot just by looking
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Nick Fryer


From:
Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 26 Oct 2022 3:30 am    
Reply with quote

This hybrid approach to scales is a very common approach used by lots of jazz players. Hexatonic scales are super great and the hybrid approach can be used to create endless colors for improvisation.
_________________
www.fryerguitarpickups.com
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Steve Mueller

 

From:
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 26 Oct 2022 7:47 am    
Reply with quote

Great comment Nick. We can depend on you to cut to the heart of the matter on theory. Also on how to make great pickups!
_________________
2016 Williams D12 8 x 8, 2015 Williams D12 8 x 8, 2023 Williams S12 4 x 5, Milkman Amps, 1974 Gibson Byrdland
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail


All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Jump to:  

Our Online Catalog
Strings, CDs, instruction,
steel guitars & accessories

www.SteelGuitarShopper.com

Please review our Forum Rules and Policies

Steel Guitar Forum LLC
PO Box 237
Mount Horeb, WI 53572 USA


Click Here to Send a Donation

Email admin@steelguitarforum.com for technical support.


BIAB Styles
Ray Price Shuffles for
Band-in-a-Box

by Jim Baron
HTTP