Post #63966 by Tiki_Bong on Tue, Dec 9, 2003 9:09 AM

On 2003-12-08 20:37, sjarvis wrote:

Tiki_Bong (and other steel guitar players here),

I've been thinking lately about taking up steel guitar (I play guitar and bass and a little uke now), but I'm a bit stymied on where to get started: 6-string? 8-string? vintage? new? which tuning? etc.

6-string SEEMS the most natural place to start since I play guitar already, but I don't know if that's a bad idea, in that I'd just be moving guitar licks to the steel (well, considering the different tuning).

Any advice for someone who wants to start playing steel guitar in a general hawaiian/tiki sort of way?

P.S. Do we need a section just for tiki music (both for musician threads and listening/fan threads)?

Cheers,

Steven

Steven,

I've posted info for members wanting to start playing steel before, but my love of steel is such that I'm always happy to post it again.

I play 6 string steels. I have 2 single neck guitars and a double neck '53 Rickenbacker. 8 string is nice but it's a freaking lot of strings to change!

The tunings I use are open G, open E, and C6th. C6th is a very Hawaiian sounding tuning, but more for chords. Open G and E are better for single note stuff.

Since you play guitar, I assume you have a basic understanding of chord structure. You'll need it. Know things like: Major Chord = Major third, Minor third stack; minor chord = Minor third, Major third stack, etc.

Most chords on steel are only intervals of the 1, 3, or 5.

Above all, Jerry Byrd once said (and I found to be true), if you're going to play steel, you pretty much have to do it 100%. I used to run scales and modes on my standard tuned regular guitar 2 or 3 nights a week. Not now - it's all steel, all the time.

Good luck!