posted 03 December 2005 04:56 AM
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I knew Noel, watched him play many times and jammed with him several times. He seldom went outside of the usual A6 positions and grips that everyone else used in those days. The things that made his playing stand out above the others on A6 were Noel's execution, attack and originality. He bent his fingerpicks up around the end of his fingers and when he played it looked like he was pulling the strings upward more than horizontally. He pulled the strings quite hard before releasing them, thus giving his playing a strong attack. He used chords or parts of chords most of the time rather than single-string licks. That was the big point that made his playing different from Joaquin's. You can find the positions and partial chords he used on your C6 neck if you keep off of the pedals. Here are some of his favorite positions (I will assume a song in the key of C on the A6 tuning in the examples)
C6........All 8 strings........Fret 3
C Maj........Strings 1,2,3........Fret 3
C7........Strings 1,2,4........Fret 6
C9........Strings 2,3,4........Fret 1
A min........Strings 2,3,4........Fret 3
A min 7........Strings 1,2,3,4........Fret 3
G Maj add 9........Strings 3,4,5........Fret 5
Diminished chords.......Strings 1,2......at appropriate frets, repeated every 3 frets
Augmented chords.......Strings 2,3........at appropriate frets, repeated every 4 frets
These are by no means Noel's entire repertoire of grips and chord parts; just the ones he used most.
I'm doing this from memory as I sit at my computer and not at my steel, so please don't flame me if I made bubu's -- just trying to help. Someone else may be able to shed more light on Noel's playing.
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[This message was edited by Roy Ayres on 03 December 2005 at 10:16 AM.]
The Steel Guitar Forum
posted 02 December 2005 11:48 AM
