Steel Crazy: Getting Started on Steel: Part One: Resonators

By Bill McCloskey
Okay, let’s face it: learning to play Steel Guitar is no job for wimps. Other than the bagpipes, there is probably no more difficult instrument to get started on.  The steel guitarist newbie faces a plethora of decisions before playing their first note: what kind of instrument to get, how many strings, how many necks, what tuning, and where to find instructional materials.  How easy, by comparison, the standard guitarist has it: pick electric or acoustic, choose a price range, and then pull from literally a mountain of instructional materials – everything from Metal to Gypsy Jazz.

No, the steel guitarist travels a confusing and lonely road, grabbing tidbits of info here and there like water to a dying man.  Fortunately, by taking some well worn paths, your way is made easier (but, of course, what is the fun in that?)

Today’s column will be the first in a series on getting started on steel. We’ll start with one of the easiest paths to get going on and then slowly bring up the intensity level till we hit the mother of all learning curves: the lap steel. For while things like Pedal Steel are very complex instruments to learn and master, there is clarity to the path and a breadth to the instructional materials that at least makes the journey clear. Not so the lap steel.

If you’re tastes run towards the acoustic, and you like Bluegrass, your journey is pretty straight forward. Buy a Dobro™ or other resonator guitar (Dobro is a trademarked term, owned by Gibson,
so resonator guitar acts as a substitute name for Dobro-style instruments). While there are some variations as far as strings and tunings are concerned, the majority of resonator guitarists play the identical type of instrument:  6 strings, tuned (from bottom to top) GBDGBD. Notice that the bottom 3 strings and top 3 strings are the same, only an octave apart and that it is tuned to a major triad.

There are many very good inexpensive resonators on the market today starting at around $600 for a very playable, decent instrument and going up to about $3,500 and more for a custom, handmade instrument. Luthiers at the top end include Paul Beard, Tim Scheerhorn, and Carroll Benoit, although you can expect a wait for one of these beauties (last time I checked, Scheerhorn’s waiting list was 5 years long, although Beard and Benoit have a much more reasonable waiting time). I personally play a Beard “Mike Auldridge” (MA) model and it is everything you could hope for in a fine, beautiful sounding professional grade instrument.

Instructional materials are vast for the Resonator guitar, with web sites dedicated to enthusiasts of the instrument: the message board at jerrydouglas.com being a good one to start with.  Some of the better teaching materials out there are provided by Jimmy Heffernan , and Homespun Tapes which has instructional DVD’s by three greats of the instrument: Jerry Douglas, Cindy Cashdollar, and Rob Ickes.

Of course one of the tied and true methods of learning any instrument is the ancient art of ripping off licks, and to do that you need to listen to a lot of the best players. Fortunately, there are a number of great players to listen to and a vast discography. Historically there are three players that stand out as representing milestones in the instrument’s development. Each represents a different generation of playing and each represents a shift in playing style that influenced all the players who came after them: Josh Graves, Mike Auldridge, and Jerry Douglas.

Josh Graves played with the seminal Flatt and Scruggs band and was the first to incorporate Earl Scruggs’s 3 finger roll banjo style into fast lick Dobro Bluegrass playing. Mike Auldridge was the original Dobro player in Seldom Scene and he is credited with incorporating a more sophisticated sound which he enhanced by expanding the range of the instrument through the occasional use of 8 strings and alternate tunings. And while Mike can be credited with expanding interest in the Resonator Guitar, particularly among fellow musicians, Jerry Douglas brought mass appeal to the instrument through his innovative solo work, as well as his high profile projects with Alison Krauss band and the “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack, as well as thousands of studio sessions as a side man.

Besides the rip-off method, other forms of learning include Private Lessons and Workshops. If you live on the east coast you are truly blessed: the great Mike Auldridge gives private lessons from his Maryland based home as well as teaching workshops around the country. If you are near the Jersey area, Jimmy Heffernan provides not only private lessons, but one the best one-day Dobro workshops ever. Near New Haven, you can pick up some private lessons with master player, teacher and writer Stacy Philips.

Certainly listening to these masters of the instrument, you would never know that the Resonator Guitar can be a fairly limited instrument, chord wise, because for true masters, there are no limitations. For us mere mortals, however, it is important to realize that the standard Dobro tuning does have some serious drawbacks to it. The standard Dobro tuning provides you with a nice triad, but pulling a minor chord out of it can be challenging and in many keys, impossible to get a full 3 note minor triad. Resonator guitarists soon learn to work around these challenges by de-emphasizing the flatted third or hinting at chords and letting the mind (or the rest of the band) filling the missing pieces. Single note work, fast runs, and two note harmonized scales thus play a big part in the Resonator Guitarist’s bag of tricks.  And while the use of slants (tilting the bar or “steel” to pick up notes that are on adjacent strings but not on the same fret marker) is a worthy technique to master, many of the modern players, like Douglas, forgo them for speed.

A key part of the modern Resonator sound comes from heavy use of pull-offs and hammer-ons, one of the first techniques (along with string muting) that a Resonator Guitarist needs to master. It should be pointed out that other forms of steel such as lap steel and pedal steel do not emphasis the same techniques that resonator guitar does and trying to master multiple styles of steel playing at the same time can be a hamper your progress. An acoustic instrument relies on the force of the fingers (and in Resonator Guitar playing, particularly the Thumb) to create dynamics and tension, while electronic instruments such as the Pedal Steel rely on mechanical and electronic  means such as a volume pedal or volume control to adjust dynamic levels and create interest. While some players such as Mike Auldridge have mastered both Pedal Steel and Dobro, other greats like Jerry Douglas gave up playing Pedal Steel because it was negatively affecting their bread and butter techniques.

Another key technique to be mastered, no matter what style of steel playing you take up, is string muting, to prevent unwanted strings from vibrating and to make sure that the note you are playing has a nice clean sound. The technique of String Muting is consistent across all forms of steel playing and separates the good players from the rest of the pack. We will go into damping and muting strings in a future column, but just know for now that there are different methods and proper technique can utilize either hand.

Resonator Guitars can be a great place to start on your steel guitar journey. It is hard to make a bad sound on them, since they are tuned to a major triad, they are portable, and for the most part easy to play. It is exactly how I started to play. The great thing about Resonator guitar, especially if you go to a lot of jam sessions, is that you will most likely be the only resonator guitarist in the room, you will always get a solo, and you will never have to lend your instrument out to the drunk guy who wants to play Stairway to Heaven. If that is not heaven, I don’t know what is.

And you are not stuck playing Bluegrass if that is not your thing. A listen to the Jerry Douglas discography will illustrate just how wide the musical spectrum can be. I play a lot of Irish and American String Band music on the Dobro and it works well with early jazz tunes as well, not to mention country. It also works well accompanying a singer songwriter: if you don’t believe me take a listen to the Jerry Douglas – Peter Rowan duet album Yonder.

Music doesn’t get much better than that.

Next time: we’ll tackle getting up started with Pedal Steel.

Comments

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Bill, I really enjoyed reading your article on starting off with a resonator guitar. You perfectly reflect what happened to me: started off with lapsteel, got bored after 6 months. Purchased a S10 Sierra PSG, got totally discouraged by its complexity after about 18 months of little progress (no co-players around to tap from - the PSG is a rare instrument in South Africa). Purchased a dobro to learn a bit more about 'music' first (the dobro is just as rare as the PSG in South Africa). Fooled around for about 6 months on dobro, then picked up PSG playing again a couple of months ago. This time there was light! I find playing the PSG much easier now and make rapid progress, compared to a year ago. Now it's just a matter of time and practice, practice, practice...!

Regards, Tobie Schalkwyk
(PS: looking forward to your next article)

[Bill McCloskey]

Thanks Tobie.
That is what it is all about. Look for some really cool stuff in the future.

[Charles Cottrell]

I started on lap steelin the 50s then went to psg around 79 for about 15yrs now got my first dobro and trying to get a handle on it love it

[Matthew]

Bill, thanks for the articles, I am just wandering really quickly into the world of lap steel . . . I have been listening to Xavier Rudd and Ben Harper for years now and have become increasingly uninspired with guitar playing; so . . . my first lap steel is being delivered next week and I am struggling to find where to begin. I have already spent many hours searching the net looking for a truly beginners guide to lap steel playing only to be bamboozled by concepts I have not grasped. In your opinion (and you seem like a straight down the line player) where should I start?

I guess i will just pick it up

and

see what happens,

Matthew.

[Bill McCloskey]

Matthew,

I just finished "Getting Started on Pedal Steel" and I'll attack "Getting Started on Lap Steel" next. It should answer a lot of your questions. Congratulations on starting down a great musical path.