Tutorials

Let me start by fully stating that I am the farthest thing from a musician or accomplished steel player, however, I have made huge strides in that direction by learning these most important basics in a manner that will allow me (and you) to have the best shot at ever accomplishing our goals. Which is one reason why I have chosen to publicize my angle on learning the fundamentals which were taught to me by the greatest steeler and most caring teacher that ever lived, Jerry Byrd. This is simply an attempt to pay back in some small degree what was taught to me by this incredibly unselfish person, to whom I will forever be thankful. I was without doubt his worst student that ever paid full attention and kept at it, so if I can have the miniscule success that I have managed, due to learning the 'right way', so can you.

A second reason for me doing this, is because few if anybody else has delved into the minutiae towards answering newcomer's questions of exactly "how do you do it". This is in no way a substitute to getting it straight from Jerry (or any highly qualified teacher), but you can do almost exactly that by investing in his steel guitar course book/CD and video, asap. They are available at www.scottysmusic.com/byrd.htm Meanwhile, I hope this will help someone with the finer points that may be missed by other instructions and get them rolling asap until the JB material or a good teacher can be had.

At the bottom of this page are some links to videos and more tutorial material, along with a few links throughout to illustrate techniques. Feel free to contact me anytime at - www.msteeln@yahoo.com if you need more info on any matter concerning steel guitar.  ________________________________________________________________________

JB'isms - "Play to express, not to impress" - "It's between the frets that the music is made"  - "If you can't play, it doesn't matter what kind of guitar you have, and if you can play, it doesn't matter what kind of guitar you have"           "Even if you mess up the whole song, really nail the ending, and that's all they'll remember" - "Don't need no pedals"   "This isn't SLIDE guitar you're playing here!" - "Fifty years of doing it wrong and getting it right" - "Because I'm me and you're you. And don't you forget it." _______________________________________________________

A main starting point is TONE. Get your desired tone and all else will follow much easier. This is aided by getting the best instrument and amp you can afford / find.

Get a round bar with a round (bullet nose) end, between 2 1/2" to 3" long and at least 3/4" thick. There must be a recessed indentation at the flat end to accomodate your thumb when manuevering into slanting position. Dunlop is the brand Jerry used.

Picks of most any type for steel are fine. It's up to you to decide on how many fingers to use, but Jerry used his thumb, index and middle fingers. The blades can be kept straight or curved to your desire, but this will define how you hold your fingers. The more curved your blades are, the more curved your fingers will need to be.

As a total beginner, you'll need to find a basic tuning that you'll be happy starting with, or a more sophisticated tuning that you feel comfortable jumping right into. Eventually, you'll settle on one (or more) that covers the range of music you want to play and 'speaks' to you. Here's a few good sites that have a wide range of excellant tunings, with some that you may find personally appealling - www.well.com/~wellvis/tuning.html - www.scottysmusic.com/tunings.html

Position your steel so that your right hand will be at a comfortable / natural position in front of the guitar's pick-up, with your left hand easily able to cover the entire fretboard range. Of course, If you happen to play in reverse as a lefty, transfer this appropriately.

Picking nearer the bridge will produce a tighter / thinner tone, and further away will give a thicker / fuller sound. As you play higher up the fretboard (say, past the 15th fret) you will need to move your picking hand back a bit to keep the sweetest ring from the strings.

Always keep your wrists straight and slightly up, not drooped, and elbows in. Deviation from this rule will be of no benefit, but will simply promote uneccessary movement. Economy of movement is the goal here.

Another important aspect of playing steel guitar is when sliding the bar, don't make it sound overtly as though you are merely sliding the bar, make it more musical and expressionable. When listening to the pro's, you won't hear them sounding like a slide guitar player. However, an exception to this rule is Robert Randolph, who often sounds like a slide guitarist while playing on a steel guitar.

Once you are up and running, it's a very good idea to record your practices and rehearsing of licks and passages. Listening back to what you have done allows you to hear where you need to put more focus towards improving. TABing (if you don't already write music) out your favorite licks and tunes is another good way to save them for future reference, in case you should forget what you discovered.

Tuning up; once you've settled on a tuning with the individual string * gauges as you prefer, you'll need to get it all into pitch. At first, you may want to use an electronic 'tuner' to easily get the notes as close to perfect as they (electronic tuners) are able, then tune more precisely with your ears.

* One of Jerry's secrets in the 1940's was to have the top 3 strings on his 6 & 7 string C6 tuning, all of 16 gauge, giving a more singing tone to the strings as he played closer to the bridge instead of the slightly thuddier sound higher gauge strings could give. His 3rd string in a C6 tuning would be A, and that's about as low as you can go with a .016 without it's tension becoming too soft.

Tuning with your ear, always starts with the 1st (outer most) string. Once it's in pitch, find another (lower) note in the tuning that is the same (if there is one, or more) and slightly turn that string's tuning key on the headstock until any wavering of sound (beats) has stopped. The beats will be at a decreasing slower and slower pace the closer you come to getting them in total sympathy with each other until the wavering has completely disappeared. This same method is applied to every combination of same value notes in the tuning, if there are any. Most tunings start with an E for a 1st string, so (for discriptive sake) find the next lower E and follow the example just mentioned and once they are tuned together move on to the next same value notes until all are perfectly sympathetic (no beats). Then you can start with the rest of the strings that have no match and turn their respective tuning gear until there are no beats between it and the string immediately above it. Notes that are only 1 & 1/2 steps apart (say, B & C#)will always have some waver, so get it to their optimum. And, notes only 1/2 step apart will always clash and be hard to play together. Always work from the top / outermost strings towards the bottoms lower / fatter strings.

Another good way to finalize your tune-up, is the use of 'harmonic tuning'.

Holding the bar; with the bar laying on the strings (round end out) it is held with the left mid / ring / pinky fingers to the left of the bar, resting lightly on the strings and slightly splayed. The middle finger lays snug against the bar for control, with the bar's tip about 1/4" below that finger's tip so that it will automatically mute the string/s as you come down off of them when descending to play the lower strings. The left index finger is positioned directly over the bar and bent / curved with the finger tip resting about 1/4" to 1/2" from the bar's tip. Don't lay this finger flat or you'll not be able to slant effectively, as JB taught, and slanting is where lot's of the fun and 'magic' is. The left thumb sits at the lower half of the bar to help with control, with mostly just the fleshy part of the 1st knuckle (under the thumbnail) in contact. The fingers / thumb maintain a light but firm control so you can have a nice vibrato but not be stiff in movement and manipulations. It's a very natural positioning and feel, not at all rigid or contortionist. The oddness of having the curved index as a pivot point and smooth movement of the bar may take a bit to get used to, but it's very easy after a short while.

A beginners rule is to always keep the bar on the strings. Lifting the bar uneccessarily is pointless. There are times, such as open string playing, and techniques like left hand muting, that taking the bar off the strings is purposeful, but for now, don't.

It's important at all times to keep your bar (when laying on the strings) perfectly straight / parallel with the fret markers without even the slightest angle, until it's time for a slant.

For playing single strings and notes, lift the tail end of the bar and use the nose.

The right hand; don't rest your hand on anything, always keeping it free and facing forward with your thumb sticking straight out to the left (like hitchhiking) and back far enough to easily catch the lower strings without much overall hand movement. Maintain your favored position, as readjusting is a wasted movement. As with the left hand, it's all from the wrist up. You must also find the best way for you to position the unused fingers, usually being the pinky and ring fingers. They can be tucked under near the palm, or kept out, but don't use them as an anchor point. You may decide to use them as muting and/or chiming tools, so you might change your mind in time. The meaty right side of the palm is to be held just over the strings so that you can quickly drop down on the strings to mute them, which is a near constant thing. Keep the thumb strum motion as simple and effective as possible.

Single notes are picked primarily with the thumb. Fast singles and dbl. string picking are with the thumb and middle, and multiple string picking should utilize all three picks.

Always keep most of your mind and eye on where you're going next in the song and on the fretboard to keep it flowing smoothly and help in setting up the following note/s in good relation to what is being played at the moment. The note/s you are playing at the moment are important to whatever you will do next. You will (usually) also want to keep the tones and string timbre consistant, and this requires that moment of forethought.

Thumb strum; the thumb does all the work without any major movement from the rest of the hand. Just an even stroke across the strings intended at the desired speed. At some point you'll want to skip one or more strings when you strum, and that takes a lot of practice, so get into it as soon as you feel ready. The earlier you get some of these things ingrained into your mind the easier and more natural it comes to your hands. You can also use your finger pick/s to catch the upper strings in perfect time with the end of your strum of the lower strings, using the right amount of attack to make it imperceptable from a regular strum so that it doesn't sound interupted, unless that's what your after.

Muting, or damping; palm muting is done with the meat of the right hand quickly dropping onto the string/s to prevent them from ringing as soon as it's not wanted, and then lifting off the string/s just as you are to pick again. It's generally a fast on/off move deftly done immediately prior to the next picking choice, without much hand movement. You'll usually let the note/s sing as long as possible without cutting them off prematurely, unless that is the desired effect. The songs intended feel will dictate this. It eventually becomes a natural and subconcious part of your playing. Here's Roy Thompson showing basic examples of this technique -  www.youtube.com/profile?user=steelinroy

Bridge muting; this is a more advanced technique used famously by David 'Feet' Rogers of The Son's Of Hawaii fame, and currently by Bobby Ingano. Place the meat of your right palm onto the strings where they pass over the bridge, while still being able to pick the strings sufficiently, and just enough to take the majority of ring out of them, but without them sounding too thuddy, or to the desired effect.

When playing the higher frets, muting can become less important and you can often get away without much or any muting.

Vibrato; is the slight side to side wavering of the bar and is ultra important. You'll use some vibrato almost all of the time. Start developing a smooth and musically even tempoed vibrato from the start, as it is what helps give your playing it's own personallity and unique voice, and helps maintain string sustain. Vibrato should be timed within the song's tempo no matter how fast or slow you choose to do it so that it fits in nicely and is both a subtle and dramatic effect. Otherwise it will sound silly and out of place. There may be times you wish to have it stand out more, but don't overuse it. Generally, the closer the bar is to the nut the wider your vibrato's travel space should be, and as you go farther up the neck the travel should shorten until you get real high on the fretboard where there is very little vibrato needed. Keep it fluid. As always, your ear developement will tell you when to lay off, when to use it, and to what degree. Jerry was the King of vibrato, and Bobby Ingano is his heir apparent.

Slide in's and out's; these are the short gliss' into or out of the basic note/s. You'll want to keep these no more than 1 fret in length, and more often only 1/2 that much. Again, don't overuse this effect, but it will be used a lot. Out's can sometimes be more dramatic, and long in's are not heard very often. Paradise Isle is a famous use of a long gliss in. The use of volume swells can greatly increase the dramatic effect. Typically, Jerry and Bobby are great at doing volume swells. Listen to them to get the idea. You'll find Bobby doing a few nice vol. swells with his pinky during the tune Yellow Roses at this site www.hsga.org/new_design/video.htm

Slanting the bar; this move is where the bar covers at least 2 strings being played together and is tilted forward at one end and back at the other. This technique is where much of the fun and magic is when playing steel. But it's a critical matter, as you must be on the mark when starting, during, and finishing these moves. The bar's travel during a slant will easily go 'catty' (the sound of 2 cats howling) when in between frets and at an angle, so your ear is very important to keep it sweet. These movements are all done with the fingers, no wrist twisting allowed. This is where the arched index finger comes into importance, and is used as a pivot/control while the thumb and middle finger do the rest of the controling. When looking down on the fretboard, the string and fret meet and create an intersection or crosshairs, and you'll want to keep either the top or bottom of the bar exactly at one of these points during the maneuver, depending on if it's a forward or reverse slant. Jerry likened it to turning a corner in a car, where (for the most part) the front will travel and the rear stays in place. A simple 2 string 2 fret forward slant will often start in line with the/a fret. The nose of the bar will start towards the next fret as the tail end stays completely anchored to the bottom crosshair until the nose end has reached the next fret's crosshair, at which time the bar can slowly implore vibrato or continue in this precise position to the desired destination, where it will land again in perfect position per the strings and frets. Of course, the frets vary in size along the fretboard and you must deftly adjust continually and accordingly to compensate for this, via your musical ear. After you get the hang of this, you can begin using the space between the frets to do some of the moves that make this technique special. As Jerry always said, "it's between the frets that the music is made". When practicing your slanting accuracy, pick only the string that will be the pivot point (see below), and listen carefully while the bar's other end moves. There should be no change in sound as the bar is moved.

Forward slant; subtly drop the thumb a bit more towards the rear of the bar than it normally is, while maintaining the butt end's position (as mentioned above), as the middle finger starts pushing until the bar's top end reaches the next fret. At this point you can maintain that position and start some vibrato or move the bar to the next desired position, fore or aft. The bar's tail will be under at least the bottom of the middle finger and even the ring finger if you have a longer bar, maybe leaving only the pinky to cover the strings, which is needed to keep unwanted sounds from appearing.

In time, you will instinctively know all this and how far to go on the different sized fret spaces along the fretboard and your ear will make sure you've hit all the marks, or not.

To come out of a forward slant, the middle finger which is now curved over the middle of the bar with it's tip at the bullet end starts to drop down to it's normal position along side the bar and onto the fretboard which naturally begins to force the bar's butt to move to the right, and your thumb helps guide it back to the vertical position on the proper fret along with support from the middle fingers upper half, at which point you are already planning your next move.

Reverse slant; start by dropping the thumb to the very end of the bar and hook at least a bit of skin on the bottom edge (if not completely into the recessed area) as you move the middle finger's tip towards the bullet end, all the while maintaining complete stability and keeping the tail anchored at the crosshair, as with the forward slant. There may only be the pinky and some of the ring finger to cover the strings, especially on severe slants.

Once in position, you can again add vibrato or continue into another manuever.

To come out of a reverse slant, the thumb will do most of the work as it draws the tail to the left and the bullet end stays anchored and the middle finger slowly drops back towards the fretboard into it's 'normal' straight position along side the bar and aligns it on top of the fret, as you plan the next move.

Eventually, you'll reach the point where you can do this slant excersize - in a continuous and musical motion, slant a radical forward and keep going into a rad reverse and back and forth non-stop, totally without error. Once you can 'spin' the bar like this, to perfection, then you'll be ready to really get into slants. An easy way to know if your efforts are working is to do this excersize and other slanting practices while picking only the string that you anchor on. If you can maintain that note perfectly while turning the bar every which way, then you're making good progress.

As with most all bar handling, smoothness is a key element.

Split string slants; this is an advanced slanting technique that includes 3 strings and is done almost exactly as the other slants except that you will end up placing the bullet end's nose equally between the 2 top strings at an angle, thus splitting them, while the tail is typically positioned to anchor the bottom string. This bottom string can be directly below the top 2 or farther down, usually skipping only 1 string. These slants are mostly forward slants, with few reverses. Some tunings allow for more reverse opportunities.

Harmonics, or chimes; are done very delicately to be most effective. Punching at them will be defeative. They can be produced at all frets, but are more pronounced at just a few. Palm harmonics are probably the most used, and are done using the meaty part of the picking hand by placing it on the wanted string/s very lightly at the desired fret and using the thumb (or finger) pick to pluck / strum the string/s. The varying distance from the bar or nut will depend on where you are on the fretboard and which fret you wish to chime. Multiple string chimes are done much the same, utilizing 2 or more picks. Stay consistant with your style and technique to allow your hand's to move automatically into proper position, and your mind's eye to know the exact distance from the bar or nut.

It's where the flesh meets the string that matters most, not so much where you pick.

If you tuck your ring and/or pinky under your palm, you can use the 1st knuckle, as with the palm, and pluck with either the thumb or finger pick, whichever is preferable physically and/or sound wise, as the different picks can make a difference in tone.

There is almost no way to chime too much. Some great recorded tunes are mostly / all harmonics. It sounds beautiful and is a cool way to get different feelings within a tune, and an excellent way to express yourself.

Here is Jerry using his simple style of finger harmonics while playing Kewalo Chimes - www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEzmJ41NEvY&feature=related ________________________________________________________________

More Jerry Byrd video - www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVG2_R7oJYY&feature=related  - www.youtube.com/watch? v=fAQL4UeI4Ig&feature=related - www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXEP5DFDMM4 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=nudiAFnbYg0&feature=related - www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5KZ1WBKRpY&feature=related

Some Bobby Ingano audio & video - www.hsga.org/new_design/video.htm - www.hsga.org/new_design/audio.htm Just scroll thru the steelers pictured to find Bobby. Chuck Lettes has some fine sounding tunes as well.

Chords & Scales - www.dennysguitars.homestead.com/modes7steel.html

Theory - www.horseshoemagnets.com/_sgt/m7_1.htm                                           Tunings - www.horseshoemagnets.com/_sgt/m8_1.htm                                                  Slants - www.horseshoemagnets.com/_sgt/ma_1.htm 

Slants - www.mightyfinemusic.com/topics/practiceslants.htm 

Slants - www.hsga.org/new_design/instructional_video.htm

Harmonics - www.hsga.org/forum/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1155572924

Tunings - www.scottysmusic.com/tunings.html

Tunings - www.cindycashdollar.com/tunings

Chord finder - www.mightyfinemusic.com/chord_finder.asp

Chord mapper - www.lapsteelguitar.com/chord_mapper.asp

Key chart - www.geocities.com/insp/kEYCHART.bmp

C6 fretboard layout - www.geocities.com/insp/c6NOPEDAL.bmp  

Tunings and a wealth of info thanx to Brad Bechtel - www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html

TAB - in the www.steelguitarforum.com tablature section, you'll find lot's of fine C6 songs and theory to work on, thanx to Greg Cutshaw, and others who contribute.

Tunings - www.bOb.com/tunings/index.html

Theory - www.musictheory.net 

Theory - www.musictheoryminute.com   

Modal theory, and much more in this large forum thread, be sure to check out the 2 links at the top of this page - www.steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/003549.html

Single string playing, by the greatest living steeler - Buddy Emmons - www.buddyemmons.com/pockets.htm

Here's an index of sites that have instructional material that can either be purchased, or usable for free on their web pages -