Word: steeles
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...Playing this monster is a quadraphonic version of rubbing your stomach and patting your head, and that's just coordinating the movements. The real problems start when you try to find accurate intonation on the neck with a 7.5-ounce stainless steel bar while simultaneously damping the strings to avoid sounding like a pack of seasick cats...
...rarefied ranks make the sense of tradition all the stronger: At least two performers appear on stage with their fathers, and much is made of one of them, a 19-year-old who plays old-style non-pedal steel guitar. There's something touching about this awkward youth smiling uncomfortably behind his guitar, playing 50-year-old tunes note for note while his father, playing rhythm sternly behind him, reels off a spiel that was corny in Lawrence Welk's day, but I find it vaguely creepy too. Keeping the genre fresh and alive is going to take more than...
...least on an even playing field. Videocassettes and the Internet are two more tools for learning that I didn't have back then, and in no time I'm immersed in instructional tapes and transcriptions downloaded from various online sources. Difficult though it may be, the steel is totally addictive; hours go by as I tackle songs and exercises, and I am continually amazed at the power of muscle memory. The learning curve is steep and exhilarating, and when times are tough there are plenty of kindred souls to commiserate with online...
...pedal steel is the kind of specialized area of interest that is perfectly suited to the Internet, and the Steel Guitar Forum is a collegial environment where players from all over the world exchange information, swap stories and try to help each other decipher licks. It's an incredible resource: Someone will post a query about how to play a particular passage, and the forum's participants will descend on it like a pack of wolves, each trying to top the other with the accuracy of their transcriptions, so that often within minutes it will have been stripped bare like...
...pilgrimage to Norwalk. My seminar is conducted by Joe Wright, one of the more cutting-edge players on the scene, who looks like a cross between Austin Powers and Joey Ramone, and who takes the group through drills emphasizing the importance of the right hand. Isolating problems on the steel is a little like trying to decide which one in a school of piranhas is hurting you more, and Wright's method provides a solid grounding that's all the more welcome in that I can actually understand most of what's going on. I have the feeling that some...