So a good example of pick blocking noise ehh?

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Dave Wren
'96 Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; NV 112; Fender Twin Custom 15 ('65 reissue); Session 500s; Hilton Pedal; Black Box
www.ameechapman.com

As for, "I have to believe that if this composition was played on anything other than a steel guitar, most steel players would have zero interest in it.".... that's probably true for a lot of people here too, and I guess might apply to those at a steel show since they're mostly steel players, but I am inclined to believe that most if not the majority of people at Susan's shows are not steel players and she has been doing very well, just returned from a successful European tour.

Also, there are at least a few of us, myself included, that aren't as rabid about the instrument; who like interesting compositions played on what-have-you. Although there are so many in the forum here who subscribe to the "if there's no steel, it ain't real" or some such thing.

I remember Pat Martino saying that he didn't care about the guitar so much as just a way to present his music and reach the people (that's a rough paraphrase but the gist of it). I agree. I love the steel but I don't care what instrument is being played as much as what's being played on it, so your statement I quoted doesn't apply to everyone here, but I'll grant you it may apply to some.

Bob, I would like to believe you when you say the steel guitar show crowd is more open-minded than thought, and I'm usually on the optimistic side but despite that the majority of posters here are supportive and even enthusiastic of Susan's music, these are a fraction of a percent of the membership of the forum... and I'd bet an awful lot of them are from the trad-steel-sound school, otherwise I agree with what you say about Susan.

Maybe if she worked in a little "way to survive" or "mansion on the hill" into it...

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 12 September 2006 at 03:15 PM.]

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In no way is this music, this is noise.

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One of the definitions of music composition is simply, organized sound. When I was in school, we were asked to bring in an example of bad music and explain why it was bad. It was more difficult than I thought it would be because ultimately it was about personal preference, rather than something being inherantly good or bad. Of course, there is music that I truly dislike, but it's still music.

I had the pleasure of doing a concert with Susan, a number of years ago, she did some pieces that had textural and gestural elements to them, and others that were traditionally melodic. All in all, it was a provocative and very enjoyable performance.

[This message was edited by chas smith on 12 September 2006 at 06:28 PM.]

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  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   
  mm   if it ain't got that twang.

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In no way is this music, this is noise.

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As I recall, those same words were uised to descrbe the works of Beethoven, Stravinsky, Stockhausen, and in the mid 50s, Bill Haley and the Comets.

Susan's music is beyond our intellectual comprehension. (It's beyond mine anyway.) But I find myself reacting emotionally to it. I find much of it moving, and isn't that what art is all about it?

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Warning: I have a Telecaster and I'm not afraid to use it.
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My web site

[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 13 September 2006 at 08:53 AM.]

We all have our subjective tastes, and if you don't like her stuff, that's just the way it is. I don't like opera.

perhaps some day your tastes will change, perhaps they won't. It doesn;t matter.

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Maybe if she worked in a little "way to survive" or "mansion on the hill" into it...

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I know it was a wrong note because is was a real note!! Happened about 1 minute 35 seconds into the "piece".

I like it. Very percussive. I thought about b0b's marimba playing actually being applicable to pedal steel. That thought would have never occurred to me had I not seen this video!

Terry

[This message was edited by Terry Edwards on 13 September 2006 at 02:34 PM.]

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I don't think I have the intelligence or hipness to get it.

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I work for several contemporary artists, some of whose work is very "challenging" and sometimes I have to ask, "what am I looking at". My experience has been, that in order to understand something, I have to compare it to something that I already understand, which automatically puts limits on what it could be. Better that I just look at it, listen to it and experience it for what it is, and leave the "baggage" at the door.

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Watching that 7:21 clip sure seemed like I was witnessing the whole hour long piece

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Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6) My Blog

To be fair, or at least less unfair, my taste is traditional country. The most melodic thing I heard there was when she put the bar down a couple of times-- the sound it made hitting the amp. Or maybe it was the tuning notes at the end.

Call me narrow minded, but if this is expanding the reaches of steel I guess I'll never get it. Gosh!

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HagFan

You may not have liked it, but you cannot say that it lacks in creativity and risk. Abstract expression in music is very adventurous and risky and deserves at least a nod for the effort.

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You may not have liked it, but you cannot say that it lacks in creativity and risk. Abstract expression in music is very adventurous and risky and deserves at least a nod for the effort.

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HagFan

Ron, to butcher Voltaire, I might not like the same music as you, but I'll still defend your right to listen to whatever you like.

What we all ought to do is refrain from condemning something just because we don't like it. It's one thing to say you don't Like Susan's (or anybody elses's) work, and another to say it's not music or art, and devoid of any artistic merit.

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Warning: I have a Telecaster and I'm not afraid to use it.
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My web site

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A little while back I came to a conclusion that, as much as I love the instrument and respect many people here, it was probably not such a good thing to post my music, etc. on this forum because it would inevitably turn into a debate on the merits of the music, if it had a right to exist, was it garbage, etc. instead of just concentrating on the music itself and making an honest effort to understand it or to appreciate it.

Interesting the decorum of internet bulletin boards in that people can sometimes write things in a manner more rude than they would in daily life perhaps forgetting that they are talking about someone who may eventually read their words, and that they can so casually dismiss what someone has spent a lifetime trying to develop and what is this person’s heart and soul.

Everyone is different, and that is why we play different music. Ornette Coleman plays the way he does because that is his nature. He doesn’t play like Johnny Hodges, and that is of no bearing to his musical abilities. I have played E9th country, and I love that music. Lloyd Green, Buddy Emmons, Hal Rugg, Jimmy Day, Paul Franklin; And on the jazz side – Juaquin Murphy, Curly Chalker, Maurice Anderson, Tommy Morrell. I have so very fond feelings for them all, but even if I didn’t, what difference does it make? The belief in pedigree is a blind alley for musicians and listeners alike.

I realize that we all have different tastes. If you don’t like the music I make, I can’t argue with you. It would be useless. However if you have an open mind, I could explain a bit to you and give you some background which I will do here.

What was on the YouTube site was a short bit from a much longer free improvisation performance I gave in Paris a few months ago. It was recorded by my daughter on her digital camera using the camera’s internal microphone, so the quality suffers a bit, but on good speakers or headphones, maybe it’s not so bad.

The music:

My approach in France (after a tour with two brilliant percussionists in which we played very few "notes") was to use mostly extended techniques and to get across sometimes very personal musical ideas and feelings without notes. This is, of course, can be difficult because we're used to hearing melodies, etc. to ground ourselves – they can be comforting and not always in such a good way. I also wanted the tiniest and most subtle sounds of the instrument to come through as if the instrument were telling its story (so in this way, it's very "pedal steel" and not simply a “noise generator, though I think that what makes noise and what makes music is subjective).

I was playing through an old bass amp (the house) with two 15 inch speakers, and I had the volume up as far as it would go, so I had to play very lightly. That's why you can hear the picks hitting the strings ever so softly (and making notes) as well as when I would tap the body of the guitar, it would just ring, and it would ring differently depending on where I tapped it and what pedals were engaged, etc. It was the same when I'd tap or run my foot across the pedals. It was like an extra part – sometimes “rhythmic” and sometimes “melodic”.

For part of the piece I "prepared" the instrument with saxophone reeds to get the gamelan and gong-like tones for a different sound quality and a different intonation than is usually heard on our instrument. I weaved the reeds into various strings at different points on the neck, and at times slanted them ever so slightly. At times I used two bars to play very quick melodies sometimes in conversation with each other.

This was part of an hour-long free improvisation performance, and when the video cut off, I was just getting into the note part -- something very simple with a lot of harmonic overtones. Actually I was slowly approaching a quotation of one of my own songs – “The Heart Sutra” [which I recorded years ago but will be released soon on my next album] – strings in unison and octaves played in such a way as to invoke the overtones. Then I went into more melodic things spaced with things that I don’t remember now.

I read a couple comments about the emperor with no clothes. If you take away the obvious reference, there is some truth to that because I think that you have to be naked in a sense – open, vulnerable, and totally without artifice to reach a part of yourself which you can share and communicate with your audience. To me, this is where real music starts. I like all kinds of music, but especially that which sounds like someone speaking from the heart, and that is what I try to do in what I play – to speak what is the deepest, most sincere, and most profound part of myself. I try to play totally for the audience and to hopefully impart, share, share, and with the audience partake of this experience – sometimes very heightened -- of the moment, of what we are discovering, and what the instrument and the voices of the constellations of sounds and sound families between the “notes” have to say. It’s a whole universe – actually it’s countless universes, but you have to approach it carefully, with respect, and (in my humble opinion) discipline – you have to be aware of and get to know your instrument. This takes a lifetime; we all do this in one way or another – just on different paths. This particular path is the one that I take. I take it because this is the one that speaks to me, beckons me, and I try to be musically honest with myself and stay on that road.

If you like the music that I somehow produce on my instrument, then I’m happy. If you don’t, that’s OK too. My only hope is that musicians and listeners (which is a blurry distinction), especially pedal steel guitarists, will in their musical journeys try to be open and try to play from their hearts what is the very best they as human beings have to share with the world.

-- Susan

[This message was edited by Susan Alcorn on 14 September 2006 at 04:13 PM.]

Thanks for posting, Susan.

I bought one of your CDs from the forum a while back just because I was in a mood to hear something different. Enjoyed it so much.

A wonderful example of creativity. All the "tab" jokes are a great example of WHY this kind of thing is needed so badly.

Clearly this music is not the product of someone just "playing around." It arises from years of experience, and from sincere introspection about the nature of music.

Granted: it's not everyone's cuppa tea.

But it does follow a current of experimentation (Cage and 'prepared' piano, Stockhausen, Eno--even Monk) and openness to other cultures' musical traditions(gamelan, for example).

Just my [hopefully] humble opinion.

I have found your work inspirational, thoght provoking and beautiful. This pretty much constitutes the only "fan letter" I have ever written, so it definetly has spoken to me. Anyway, keep on keepin on and thanks for the music.

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This particular path is the one that I take. I take it because this is the one that speaks to me, beckons me, and I try to be musically honest with myself and stay on that road.

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