I'm not sure at this point a lot is expected of pedal steel guitar.

Even without considering all the screwey ways they are sometimes tuned.

From the top down I guess.

"Besides, I figure if somebody can get away with tuning 9 cents flat to every other instrument, then I’m home free. -Mystery ETer-"

Now. Go do the right thing..

Yep.

I'm sure you can

I have relatives in Trondheim, a place I visit more or less every year, where Terje is a very common name, and a name with local history too. Wasn't the same in my home town of Uppsala I can assure you that.

When I use the term 'flat flatted third' I don't mean in the sense of a double flat. I mean that when a flatted third is played flat in the sense of bad intonation, ie: out of tune.

I still maintain that when bending from a 2 to b3 or from b3 to natural 3, it's important to reach that destination tone.

In the case of TRIAD bar slants, some folks think that that middle note doesn't matter. IT DOES!

Oh, and you think Terje gave you problems in school? Try Martin!

[This message was edited by Marty Pollard on 25 June 2005 at 02:06 PM.]

I'm sorry too man, I came on too strong. Wasn't necessary at all. I'm used to the style of another forum where we slam each other on a regular basis and half the crowd are nazis. I get carried away easily.

When I use the term 'flat flatted third' I don't mean in the sense of a double flat. I mean that when a flatted third is played flat in the sense of bad intonation, ie: out of tune.

I still maintain that when bending from a 2 to b3 or from b3 to natural 3, it's important to reach that destination tone.

Hm... no, I still don't agree with you here. Or maybe a little. If you are bending from one specific note to another then it's mostly important to hit that target note but... you're not really doing that when you play the blues, if we're talking strict blues and not bluesy notes in a rock, pop or country context.

The 3rd in the blues scale is a note that's in motion. It starts somewhere around a quarter tone below the b3 and goes on to about a quarter tone above the b3. It can reach the 3 but it doesn't have to and in fact I think it sounds much better if it doesn't. Most of the time anyway, depends on the context. There's a lot of emotion happening within that space.

The same is true for the b5. It doesn't have to reach the 5 to sound good and again it often sounds better if it doesn't. Listen to T-Bone Walker or Tampa Red. They'll bend that note out of shape and very often not go anywhere else with it. It's a rough sound, really sour. It's a grown up sound too, not for the kids who wanna play rock and roll.

Even jazz players... Lous Armstrong for instance. I realized a few months ago how much more he would bend the b7 in a gblues than I normally would... and how much cooler it sounds when you play it his way. He bends ti almost up to the major 7 but not quite. Realy intense note if you play it that way.

I think it's an often forgotten aspect of blues playing these days and I think it's very important that we as slide players (I don't play steel guitar actually, I play slide on an elelctric balalajka) don't forget this. Rock players are too chicken to do it right. They think of the b5 as a passing tone while in fact it's something you can dig into and lean on if you're playing a blues.

In the case of TRIAD bar slants, some folks think that that middle note doesn't matter. IT DOES!

Now that's something else and here I agree with you completely. I do some sort of slant on my balalajka too with my slide, mostly 6ths but also 10ths and yes, you need to watch your intonation when you're doing that.

Oh, and you think Terje gave you problems in school? Try Martin!

How bad could that be?

When I look back at my school days I now realize that the others didn't have it that easy either although at the time I felt like I was the school clown.