once more

ending another time-out.

For a couple of years now I haven't played much pedal steel­guitar, as the many cut nerves in my left leg have made it difficult to feel the pedals and painful to push them down properly. Now it is time to ignore those “lame” excuses, and start making some serious noises again.

Have taken “time outs” from playing steel­guitar before over the last 35 years, and each time I have picked up again reasonably quickly where I left off. We'll see how it all works out this time.

The hardest part will probably be to train up my picking hand for the necessary precision and speed to play the way I want. Have to practice quite eagerly for quite some time for that to happen.

down to basics.

As a kid I was taught a lot of music theory and played several instruments, but over the years most of that has faded out of my mind. Now I mainly rely on ear, training, and the bare basics for chords to play over.

main chords

The pretty reduced chord sheet presented above may look too minimal for most steel­guitar players, as it only lists the straight chords up the neck with no pedals, and once more with the two main foot pedals on an E9 tuned pedal steel­guitar. But, regardless of whether I play standard E9 tuning, or my own extended E Major tuning, based on this simple chord sheet I usually have it all under control once I start playing.

I have never bothered too much with any particular style, or “school”, of playing steel­guitar, and usually come up with my own phrasing as I play – “of the moment” so to speak.

“Right” or “wrong” notes is all about how they are put together, and I rarely ever know what comes next until I'm about to play it. The main thing, to me, is to make whatever I play sound right and melodic, not that it should sound like how someone else would play it – there is software that can do a better job than me at copying.

should be fun.

The only reason I can come up with for playing pedal steel­guitar, is to have fun. If it isn't fun, then what's the point in doing it … whatever it is.

Not much fun having my leg hurt, which is why I have not played much pedal steel­guitar since the surgery. Now my leg feels kind of OK most of the time, and I'm looking forward to push those pedals in earnest again, and have fun making music.

sincerely  georg; sign

Hageland 31.oct.2015
last rev: 07.apr.2017



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