Bad Habits

Billy Wilson · From: El Cerrito, California, USA

What bad habits (Steel guitar related only please)did you ever have and then have to get rid of? One of mine was that business of sliding into alot of notes. I like what I sound like better now with out all of that.

Buck Dilly · From: Branchville, NJ, USA * R.I.P.

Excessive or uncontrolled vibrato.

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Playing chords as "arpeggios". Boy did I get beat for that one..

Not pulling the bar back off strings I'm not playing or going to play. Similarly, not playing single note runs using the nose and first quarter inch of the bar instead of laying it flat over strings you aren't going to play.

Others I was mercifully beaten severely out of in the beginning by a very good teacher.

I've come to accept a certain amount of semi- or non-blocked notes short of banjo rolls to be acceptable. I call it "Pick Blocking" like everybody else seems to

.

I have luckily found that "crossing over" is easier for me than the more limited "three finger semi-blocked run" pattern, so I've had no problem with cleanliness in blocking.

Otherwise, I've had a bad habit of depending too much on flaky people.

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 02 December 2003 at 11:27 PM.]

Bob Carlson · From: Surprise AZ.

Because it took me a year to learn I always say this.

Hold your thumb pick straight out so it will hit the string straight instead of on the edge. Also curl your fingers under so your finger picks can also hit the strings straight.

Bob

Billy Wilson · From: El Cerrito, California, USA

I'm diggin the advice on this fellows. Thanks, keep um comin, Bill W

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Lifting the bar instead of blocking. Noisy!!

David Deratany · From: Cape Cod Massachusetts

Ditto. Heavy, tiring and cramp inducing, too. No benefits that I can think of. It took a while to unlearn it. I wasted a lot of time.

George Kimery · From: Limestone, TN, USA

Playing with my right hand flat instead of rolled at an angle to the right.

Travis Bernhardt · From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

"X" vibrato. Where the bar doesn't move smoothly back and forth (or in a circle, as to your preference), but wiggles so that the bottom of the bar always leads the motion. I think that for the most vibrato sounds better when it's straight, not all swampy-like. I still haven't really cured this.

Picking too softly. Again, still haven't totally cured this--lack of confidence in what I'm playing is always the problem, when it happens.

Tension. My right shoulder and both arms tend to tense up while playing, until I notice it and try to relax. Maximizing the strength and control of my picking and bar movements and yet staying relaxed is very challenging for me, probably the hardest thing for me to break (haven't done it yet...).

-Travis

Jerry Roller · From: Van Buren, Arkansas USA

Lazy bar!! I can sound much better if I give thought to moving the bar from one position to another quickly (and accurately),
Allows longer sustain before I move and not so much sliding into the next fret. The bar is there and ready when time to hit the note.
Jerry

Glyn Bone · From: Halifax.Nova Scotia. Canada * R.I.P.

Mine is the biggest `sin` of them all.........moving the volume pedal up and down while i play....can`t get out of the habit of `tapping time` with my right hoof.....maybe a very strong spring under the pedal will help....
Honestly though..it really does sound awful and un professional....even for a rank rookie like me

Glyndwr

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

Cutting off a note too quickly with my mind set on the next note; rather than let the previous note sustain its designated length of time.

If one listens closely to greats like JB and BE, this is one of their major talents. And it is not easily achieved. Particularly if the next note is not really close (physically on the guitar) to the previous one.

Also, because each note must be created first on a steel guitar, our beloved instrument does not lend itself in this area, nearly as well as on many other instruments; such as a piano or clarinet, etc. But when mastered as many of the greats have done, it makes listening to them play soooooooo pleasant.

IE, in musical terms, if say a half note or whole note is called for, it should sustain that amount of time, BEFORE it is muted and the next note is played. Sometimes the amount of time betwen notes is pratically instantaneous; and any time gap is easliy detected by those who have trained ears.

One of the best at this is Lloyd Green. What makes this fact even more awesome, he does not lower his 4th string; making the above requirement seem almost impossible. Yet, he does it flawlessly. Paul Franklin is an absolute genious at this also.

May Jesus continue to nurture the talents of the above greats, as well as other greats, and all of you,

carl

Perry Hansen · From: Bismarck, N.D.

Lifting the bar off the strings to mute. Also, instead of raising the volume, I just pick harder, which distorts the notes.

Drew Howard · From: 48854

Is this Billy Wilson who played the Bigsby guitar with Johnny Dilks? If so, we saw you in Michigan a couple years ago and enjoyed the show. What's new?

Drew

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www.newslinkassociates.com
www.drewhoward.com

Scott Henderson · From: Camdenton, Missouri, USA

when i was learning my teacher charged me a quarter each time he caught me using my thumb and fingers incorrectly( in 1982)two more payments and that nightmare is over.

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Steelin' away in the ozarks and life,
Scott
www.scottyhenderson.com

Michael Haselman · From: St. Paul

Not finding the right pedal at the right time, especially the BC pedals for me.

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Marrs D-10, Webb 6-14E

John Davis · From: Cambridge, U.K.

Mine is playing bum notes!! I always put a few in, just so they know its me playing! but just lately I`ve been going over the top a bit. This is a hard one to break>>>>>>>>>>

Joerg Hennig · From: Bavaria, Germany

Eric W.,
I don´t understand why playing chords as arpeggios should be considered a "bad habit". Doesn´t it all depend on the musical context where you use it? Maybe it´s out of place in the real traditional country tunes, but in the country-rock stuff like I play, I do it a lot and nobody has ever "beaten" me for it, but then, of course, I didn´t study with Charleton and probably never will have a chance to, which is sad because he´s one of my favorite players also.

Regards, Joe H.

Travis Bernhardt · From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

On the arpeggios thing, that's another bad habit I think I've almost broken. Although for me, the issue isn't really playing arpeggiated chords (there's nothing wrong with that, per se), it's more like I unconsciously play chords with a little bit of a finger roll--so that it sounds more like a strum than a distinct, plucked chord. It's not something I would want to NEVER do, but it's annoying when it happens practically every time I play more than one note at a time. Definitely a bad habit.

-Travis

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Well it's pretty simple. I caught myself doing it early on. There ARE times when arpeggiating chords is called for. Many more are the times when for some reason it is though of as an "embellishment". Now that you are aware of it, you'll find that you do it more than perhaps you ought to. If you play with 3 picks of course like I do, you are "arpeggiating" any 4 or more note "sweep".

I play plenty of "cross over" stuff like Bobby Caldwell, Eurythmics, Santana, Steve Miller, etc that IS good steel guitar fare, and find it the same way. Very seldom do you hear horn sections "arpeggiating" chords, or for that matter pianos.

When I studied classical guitar in the 60s my teacher told me in his thick cuban accent that if they wanted an arpeggiated chord, they would've written it that way. (It's a bad habit common to classical guitar too.)

I should clarify that there were no real "beatings" from Mr C, and that he is probably the kindest of all the people I've met. He'd simply take his picks off cross his legs and arms, looking at me with a kindly worried look, and that was all it took.. I was in the service at the time practicing 8 hours a day, and he would wonder out loud why I'd practice doing something wrong for such long periods of time... I'm sure others he just " watched the clock" for, It just seemed that he knew he could "get to me", and listening back to the tapes, I did pick stuff up surprisingly quick.

Running into him was pure dumb luck on my part. I'm not sure he viewed it that way ( hhehehehe...)

I'd be interested in knowing how many others here had similar experiences with him.

In a further explanation, Most of MY personal reason for not "giving lessons" is that it puts a horrible burden on one's self image. Somehow mistakes you make when doing complicated pieces that you might be "teaching" would be magnified, and therby not only doubting your qualifications to teach it, but your ability to play it. OR you'd get in front of a SGC "audience" and hit a row of clams, use a crappy PA or have a bad day and blow up at somebody onstage ( or off..). Just to have one person mutter "And he's teaching?" would do me in..

The way it is, I'm just another hack player that has good and bad nights. I show people what I know on the bandstand at breaks, so I'm actually getting paid, and I go home knowing that I'm a good guy and I've not implied to anybody that I'm something I'm not. I dont look at it as being "selfish". I don't think it is.

Like I said, I bless and admire those that do it. I'm just not one of them. My fragile "self image" is not something I'm as comfortable with "farming" out..

YRMV

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 05 December 2003 at 12:12 PM.]

Jim Bob Sedgwick · From: Clinton, Missouri USA

I had a very bad habit for years. Do not overblock. As Carl stated Buddy Emmons glides everything together effortlessly. Solution (Also ask Bobbe Seymour) Do not block the strings.. And for you new guys: A very fast run is not blocked note for note. Nobody's brain can block each note that fast. IMO Blocking is necessary, but don't fixate on it. It can ruin your playing.

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

I might here opine that what Mr Emmons does is NOT "effortless. I re-read Mr Dixon's post ( I call him Carl

) and I read how this is MORE difficult. He is correct IMHO.

I think he might have been talking about not letting chords or two noters ring long enough. Kind of like cutting things of with the raise of a bar or volume pedal to cover bar movement.

What's difficult is to work on "it" so hard where your lifting of your bent little finger or ring finger is a near subconsious. It is mind boggling what the mind can to with the hand with hours days and years of unbending hard work and discipline, and then in the end it "looks" effortless.

I sat and personally watched Bud C work on a lick to block it perfectly like a couple little tags in Troubador Stomp, for HOURS. This after he'd already played it for a decade. Similarly Mr E has been seen working on "effortless" harmonics for a similar number of hours "backstage".

For those that do "palm blocking", I have to hand it to you. It is a lot harder to lift all that meat fast enough to block every note on a 16th note run at 100bpm. Lloyd seems to do it faster than anybody.

I still have yet to hear a good explanation of "pick blocking". I've tried again and again to rest the pick back on the string I just played to cut off the sustain, and lift it again to play the next string, and I have to call a provisional BS on it.

It's refreshing to have somebody say that "no blocking" is acceptable. It IS. Leave us not call it something that it's not, however. Non blocked three finger rolls have a limit of doing three nonblocked notes at a time before they are sloppy. I don't care if you lift your bar, drop your palm, or play them again, they are only what they are. Non blocked three ( or four with 3 fps) runs.

I'm sure "we" are in the class where "Cold Rolled Steel" "Indian Killed the Woodcock" "Cool it" "Earls Breakdown" or even the "B Bowman hop" are tunes we can play. Anybody ever tried these classics without blocking every note? The word SLOPPY comes immediately to my mind.

Lloyd very seldom "goes without blocking". PF somewhat more.

I can tell you that of the fifteen jillion notes that Bud Charleton has played in his lifetime, I doubt that more than a hundred thousand have been done without blocking, though probably 14 jillion don't sound like he's "conciously doing it".

I'll have to review the figures I suppose.

The only guy that I have to say made "playing look effortless" was

Jerry Garcia...

( ducks...)

BTW Carl, I agree with you as I do a LOT.

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 05 December 2003 at 06:17 PM.]

John Steele · From: Renfrew, Ontario, Canada

Two I've been working on lately:
Don't lean on, or balance yourself with your volume pedal, and
Throwing away notes; Being so obsessed with actually hitting a note that I forget that what you do with that note after you hit it is just as important as getting there. Milk it.
-John

joe wright · From: Jackson, Michigan

Thanks to all who've informed me of all the bad habits I've developed...joe

1. Lifting bar to block
2. Chords as arpeggios (believe he meant not hitting the notes in unison)
3. Not using the tip of bar for single strings.
4. Flat right hand
5. Picking soft
6. Picking hard
7. Fast vibrato
8. Slow vibrato

All of the so called bad habits I read about can be developed as techniques and utilized in your playing. You control it all...joe

David Doggett · Posted 8 Dec 2003 10:14 am

Joe said it. And man does he know.

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