When you go to a website to find out what's on a videotape or in a book, you usually get the most perfunctory and useless description imaginable, i.e. "unlock the secrets of technique!" So you search the Forums for hints or scraps of WHAT MIGHTACTUALLY BE ON THE TAPE, or for any value judgement of the contents of some course, and find nothing.

Anyways, here are my two cents--the opinions of a novice steeler:

[u]Part 1 - videos and tapes.[/u]

Bruce Bouton's Learn Pedal Steel video.
I actually don't remember much of this video, I took it out of the library a couple of times. He teaches a simple and pretty version of Mansion on the Hill, but the thing that I got out of this that stuck with me was the stuff on harmonized scales. He shows the harmonized major scale on strings five and six, and at a single bar position. Very useful for a beginner, and probably the most logical presentation of this info that I've seen. His section on blocking is pretty clear, too, and he gives a couple of useful exercises for that. He also shows a few fast country licks that I didn't like and so didn't bother to learn. Oh yeah, and he explains volume pedal use pretty well too, I think. The one thing I would say is that it could be better organized. But I think a beginner would do fine with this video. I don't mind the lack of tab or rhythm tracks so much.

Bruce Bouton's E9 Steel Guitar tapes.
I didn't spend too much time with these--he goes through the solos to a bunch of country songs that I frankly didn't much care for. If you did like the songs on these tapes and wanted to learn the steel parts, I don't see a problem with this. He talks you through them note for note. I think these tapes probably would benefit from rhythm tracks, though. I think the only thing I learned from this was another way to get harmonized scales, this time in sixths instead of thirds, using the A pedal and F lever.

Doug Jernigan's Texas Swing video w/ tab.
Very short. Four songs, a couple of licks, not too much detail. I would have liked for this course to be much more in depth and to have included at least some rudimentary material on soloing in the swing style. He kind of just says, "well, you'll probably use this position a lot in swing playing" and leaves it at that. Actually, I liked this tape if only because one of the songs is "Undecided," which is a favorite of mine (it also has Deep Water, Rose in San Antone and one other I can't recall). There's no rhythm track but I made a couple at different speeds in BIAB so that's really not an issue for me. If you like the songs and have BIAB this tape could be good, just get it cheap because it's not very long. And, like all Jernigan's stuff, it's very cheaply produced.

Tommy White's E9 video.
I really liked this video. Excellent presentation w/ split screen, Tommy isn't as stiff and stumbling as some others are. Beautiful playing, too. I like the way he refers to frets as the 'A' or 'D' fret instead of the 'fifth' or 'tenth' fret as once you get above the twelfth fret the numbers style can get confusing. He basically just demonstrates licks, and I found these licks to be more interesting than the previous tapes mentioned. Also, his section on rhythm playing is interesting and fun to play. The best part, though, is probably the C6 stuff he plays over the closing credits--very nice. You might learn more from watching this and also the E9 stuff he plays over the intro than you will from the rest of the tape. Worth checking out.

Doug Jernigan's Speed Picking video.
I wasn't very impressed. Not very interesting (your mileage may vary). Search the tab archives at the Steel Guitar Forum and Rebel and Ricky's site and save your money.

Doug Jernigan's E9 Intermediate Part 1 video and tab.
This isn't bad at all. Good songs to learn (Sugarfoot Rag, Doug's Melody, some others), and some decent speed picking stuff that's integrated into the songs. He does give all the chords to the songs in the tab so you could make rhythm tracks with BIAB, which is good. Also he does some more stuff on harmonized scales but I haven't touched it yet. I wish he would get more into the theory, especially when he takes off from the main melody for Sugarfoot Rag--why do the various positions and speed licks he's playing work over these chords? Oh well, NOBODY covers that topic as far as I've seen.

NOTE: If somebody would do a course of breaking down solos to songs with both simple and difficult chord changes in major and minor keys and explain why the different solos work in terms of modes, scales etc. so that you could use that knowledge in different songs and make up your OWN licks, I'd buy it for sure. I mean, learning licks is one thing, but learning how to solo over a chord progression is another... back to the subject.

Doug Beaumier's basic speed picking tape.
Very, very short, but also very to the point. A good, simple intro to speed picking. Very basic and again, could go into more theory but if you were a total beginner it would be just fine. Doug is the most professional and comfortable sounding of all the people I've heard. I'd like to see more of his stuff. Just don't pay too much.

[u]Part 2 - books.[/u]

Winnie Winston and Bill Keith's book.
An excellent book which totally deserves its reputation. My opinion is based entirely on the fact that the intermediate tab is excellent. I haven't even read the beginning or end, but I play the version of Danny Boy and Bud's Bounce they give every time I practice. I haven't made rhythm tracks for these songs yet but I will. Worth it for the Danny Boy tab alone.

Jeff Newman's E9 Chord Dictionary.
Kind of interesting, kind of weird. He's got these strange diagrams he uses which are more confusing than anything else. I've only seen the book, I don't know if this comes with a video or something which would explain it better. I do like the fact that he shows how chords can flow together in basic chord progressions. He has charts which show the various ways you can play a I-vi-ii-V7 for example. This was something I was slowly figuring out on my own--because it's essential to know--but it's nice to have it presented in a more comprehensive way. And it's the only place I've seen this info presented (which is odd considering how fundamental it is). So that counts for something. I just don't refer to it that often (maybe I should!).

Scotty's book.
Also good. The first song I ever learned was Wild Mountain Thyme from this book. Lots of good stuff, though, all the basic positions and chords are covered. I like the bulk of the songs better in Winston's book, but this book seems to cover more about the different positions and chords. His Wild Mountain Thyme tab could use a chord chart--not for making backup tracks but just for reference so you can see what chord you're playing.

Joe Wright's Technique Bundle.
Kind of a monster of a book. Lots of exercises. You'll never run out of things to do. Hard to say whether it's actually useful to do these exercises. I suppose in the long run it will be helpful (b0b says they help him), and I do find that doing these exercises tends to lead me towards making up my own licks, which is nice, and no small thing. But as far as pure technique goes, it seems to me that a lot of the time if I'm trying to play a lick from some tab or something, then even though Joe claims all licks are made up of "basic moves", these moves rarely translate directly to the lick I'm trying to learn. So even though I've got my forwards and backwards rolls pretty solid, real licks are more mixed up than that, and I kind of have to learn them from scratch anyways. I suppose his theory is that after enough practice on the various exercises you'll start to develop finger independence and then any lick will come easy--I guess I'm just not there yet...

Also, I wish he included specific pick blocking info in his crossover exercises, if he did this book would really be the complete technique manual for pedal steel. As it is you have to figure out the blocking stuff yourself (or buy his video I guess... :\). I do use this book a lot, probably more than any other, it's just that it's not a quick fix kind of thing, like learning a song is. I'll tell you whether I think the exercises work in a year or so!

Internet.
There is a TON of good material on the internet. Starting with the Steel Guitar Forum archives, Roy Thompson's excellent tab and audio site, Rebel and Ricky's site, and lots more. I've learned tons from stuff I've printed off the internet, from a whole bunch of sources. You have to do the work of putting it together and finding it but it's worth it. Several pieces I found for free on the internet are part of my practice routine.

Anyways, there are some short reviews of the instructional materials I've seen. If you've got more questions on anything I'll be happy to offer up whatever information I can.

Thanks for the reviews.

To everyone,

This is my general outlook towards learning and teaching music.

When I learned how to play there were NO instruction courses. I was forced to put the needle back on the record until the grooves were worn out to learn anything. IMO I wish students would discipline themselves to learn this way for ten years or so. If they did I believe they would be more advanced than the student who never takes this approach for discovery.

The way I learned forced me to increase memory, My ear became more intense for judging intervals and harmonies, and I learned alot more about how things work because the "learning how its done" part was not already transcribed for me. When I eventually saw the patterns up and down the neck, because of my time consuming hard work, they were already burned into my memory.

I am also a professional student. I buy videos by every known Jazz player that has one available. The same critiquing done here applies to those lessons as well. No tab, sometimes not enough info on theory, sometimes too much. Some greats are better teachers than others, but I learn something from them all. God bless them for a willingness to share their knowledge. So, what I learn in the bigger picture makes all of those videos priceless to me.

As a student I accept that even though someone is teaching me, there are still NO shortcuts available, No quick fixes, ONLY time consuming hard work to be done if I want to play at their level. Becoming an accomplished musician is painfully full of time consuming hard work.

Travis,

From reading all of your reviews I would say the teachers accomplished the objective with you. You learned something from every course. I agree with you that some courses hit the spot for your level of musicianship better than others. That is not to say that in a couple of years from now the OTHER courses can't do the same. Keep on learning from them all. It is the blend of knowledge that will help you find your own way. My only advice to you is going to be hard. Force yourself to learn all of the information taught. According to your reviews you are skimming through these courses for what you like. The teachers are trying to teach from a wider approach. Something you may not like may be the very thing you need to learn.

I have always considered that if I learn one usable thing from a personal lesson that it was a great lesson.

When learning from my Jazz videos depending on my level of comprehension some things might just be going over my head, but a few years down the line after I have placed another brick in my foundation, I go back, a light clicks on and I learn something else from the lesson I thought was less useful.

Paul

[This message was edited by Franklin on 29 August 2003 at 07:04 AM.]

I was roped into doing some teaching a while back, but became frustrated by the pupils' lack of commitment; they wanted me to dissect specific phrases from recordings and then simply learn them by rote, making no attempt to fathom the theory that was the bedrock of all music. When I would see them a week later, it was clear that very little studying had been done.

Unless one is motivated by that passion, there's little hope for success, in my view.

While I'm prepared to admit that I probably lack the proper temperament for teaching, I do feel that the student should, at the very least, bring unbridled enthusiasm to the project!

Some of the people I learn from are steel players, some of them aren't; whoever they happen to be, they're all better musicians than I. What a joyous gift music is, and how bleak life would be without it....

As for learning from records, I agree that this is an excellent way to learn. One thing I've found, though, is that part of what makes it possible for me to transcribe what I'm hearing is that I get used to what the different sounds are that the guitar makes. By learning songs and licks from tab or videos or whatever, I learn the characteristic sounds of different pedal and knee changes. Also, it trains my ear so that I can start to hear what different chord changes sound like. Then, when I sit down with a record, I can figure out what's being played more easily, because I've played it before, or something like it. So I would totally agree with learning from records, but I think that being taught songs and licks (and theory) as well helps speed up the whole learning process by developing your ears. But yes, any learning program for any instrument should include figuring out songs just by listening and playing along (and should probably be weighted more heavily towards this process than towards tab etc.).

As for "picking and choosing" what to learn, that's a tough one. Without a teacher whom I trust to talk to directly, I kind of just have to accept that what I'm being taught in a given course will be useful. It's a judgement call, and sometimes I just don't think that something looks very relevant. I don't really have an answer to that, though.

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Whip Lashaway
Sierra E9/B6 12 string
Sierra E9/B6 14 string
78' Emmons D10 P/P

cheers,
Drew

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