Sure the psg is tough, but...

[Gerald Menke]

I have been getting asked to play guitar live and on sessions lately...are people trying to tell me something? And I have to say, as hard as playing the steel can be, I think once you get over the various issues that face a beginner (the first five years) it's easier to play steel on sessions than to do what I have been doing. I've done a few recording sessions where it's just me and the singer (and the click track), playing songs that were put together by a Broadway style arranger... lots of polychords, altered chords and modulations. (I'd forgotten how much easier songs with modulations are to deal with on the PSG!)

I get more nerved by these sessions than any of the steel sessions I have done. Thing is, on the steel if you happen to play a 9th or a b5 major7 by accident it will just sound cool. Screw up backing someone up on guitar in the studio and it is definitely not cool. About the only thing that's easier is that my Santa Cruz weighs about a much as a volume pedal...any of you other session players find this to be the case? Or live pickers of course...

Thanks for reading my post.

[Gabriel Stutz]

Hey Gerald,

I'm still in that first 5 years, and I still have that problem. I've got a couple weekly gigs with a band here in Chicago, and once in a while, when we can't find a sub for the guitar player, I do it. I was once a guitar player, but apparently no more... After all the complaining about our current six string player, Eric Crapton, I played like a vacuum cleaner. I mean worse than I perhaps ever had in my life, so I sat down and just played steel the rest of the night. I just totally choked on six string. I also, shut up about Mr. Crapton.