quote:

---

One publisher has ask me to expand/modify it for all melodic instruments--which I intend to do.

---

But the theory training was well worth it. Now I jsut use it to learn the lead line and chord so I can add the harmony as I wish. That is IF the sheet music has the guitar chord symbols. If not I can get somewhat lost.

may be very true. But a 1000 times MORE correct than if left up to me.

God bless all like you (and many others) that know what they should be. Would to God I did. But that is NOT one of my talents.

We have electric violin, sax, drums, guitar, a pianist I haven't met, and me on upright and 6 string bass. No rehearsal at all.
We decide on a set list while the students are playing and then just go do it... as the example of how it's done. Should be fun good players all.
Today I go to a traditional music festival in the Minervois / Montagne Noir regeon. I will play with a friend, and whom ever we find in the afternoon, and at the ball in the evening with a band I have never met.
Some with charts, some just ear work.

Hugh, to some extent Bobby is right. The idea of a huge book makes less sense than a PSG specific book. There is more of a need here.
Do another for the other insruments.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 10 May 2003 at 12:13 AM.]

I would have to work on it for steel, but in the end, it would probably force me to learn more of the notes.

------------------
Bill Fulbright
Mullen D-10 8x7; Gibson ES-165; Peavey Vegas 400;
ICQ# 2251620 My Music Site

I can't sight read on a steel at all, as I can on other instruments, but I think this is because a great deal of attention has to be devoted to intonation/bar position.

Learning to read music is difficult and time consuming on any instrument. Children do it best, but their instruction usually is given over a period of years. Every time I have started working on this for guitar or steel it has become so time consuming and tedious I have always decided my time is better spent learning to play by ear, the way most popular music is created and played on these instruments.

A major problem is that on steel a given note or chord can be found in so many different places. For this reason you really need the tab below the music notation. Some of Doug Jernigan's instruction material is like that and this helps me immensely in understanding what the tab is supposed to sound like. I don't read tab very well either - again it's usually easier just to listen to a CD over and over and pick it out by ear.

The biggest problem with playing everything by ear is the difficulty of working out and memorizing very long pieces. Most popular music has repeating verses that minimize this problem. But without being able to read and write music for the instrument, the long complicated and nonrepeating passages of much classical music seem beyond possibility in real time. They invented written music for a good reason.

It is interesting that people who learn their instrument and music reading at the same time, and always play written music have a very difficult time learning to play by ear. I have watched many very proficient classically trained musicians struggle to play very bad popular music by ear. Playing by ear and improvisation seem impossible to them. Ideally we would all have balanced training in reading music and playing by ear. A lot of jazz musicians get pretty good at both.

[This message was edited by David Doggett on 10 May 2003 at 07:52 AM.]

------------------
http://www.clictab.com/royt/tabmenu.htm

[This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 10 May 2003 at 09:21 AM.]

------------------

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

------------------
My Site - Instruction | Doug's Free Tab | Steels and Accessories

Dr. Hugh,
Since the Steel Market (especially C6) is so small, perhaps a self-published book would be best.

This phrase has been attributed to many great players. The most notable one was Jerry Bryd. If he is not the very first to have said it, he is very close to the first one; since I have it in print from about 50 yrs ago.

On this forum alone I have heard it said by at least a half a dozen posters.

Even Jerry said it as a joke. I feel confident most of those who have been quoted, meant it similarly. The fact is, learning to read helps ANY musician regardless. There is NO virtue in ignorance.

Knowledge has NO equal in ANY endeavor. I have always felt that "tab" was going all the around one's fist to get to your thumb. If you can learn to read tab, and play, you can play MORE by learning music.

I will grant this one caveat. IF one wants to copy exactly a given lick, then tab does have a real place. But beyond that reading music has it hands down.

Sure it takes an effort to learn the basics, but once learned, there is no measure to how helpful it can be. Also, the fact that middle C can be found at dozens of places on a PSG, does not follow that a given chord using middle C can be found All over the place. And herein lies the secret.

As any violin or chello (etc) player knows, it is NOT where a given note is; rather it is WHERE that note (or notes) is between the one(s) before it and the one(s) after it.

This becomes part and parcel when one learns to read music. For if one knows the notes in a C chord or an Eb9b5, etc, the strings, pedals and knee lever changes become intuitive in short order.

In other words; any musician who reads does NOT need the music to tell them WHERE to get a particular note (or notes); or what pedal and or knee lever to engage; rather his brain will decipher that by the score (musical flow and chordal structure).

A child quickly abandons "training wheels". IMO such should be the case with "tab" and the likes of "steven's" bars.

May God bless all mothers on this precious day,

------------------
Peter den Hartogh-Fender Artist S10-Remington U12-Hilton Volume Pedal-Gibson BR4 lapsteel-Guya "Stringmaster" Copy-MusicMan112RP-Peavy Rage158- - My Animation College in South Africa

quote:

---

Exact position and string-grips should be included in the notation by the writer.

---

With that said, it can be a valuable tool to the modern musician, just like good cooks can tell you how many teaspoons are in a pint (if they have too).

Still, the most ideal situation is having the written music above with the tab running along below it (some instruction material is like that). Let's face it, this is a unique and uniquely complicated instrument - there is no reason to expect traditional written music to be adequate for us. A computer program that could convert tab to written music and vice versus would be really nice to have.

Looking at the written music for the intervals only works for simple chordal stuff. Runs and melodies with accidentals require you to know how to get the full chromatic scale at a given fret. This is not easy, because not all the chromatic scale is available, and what is available changes with the pedal and knee combination being used. So maby some pedal and knee information below the written music would help. A diatonic tuning that provides the entire chromatic scale at each fret (I think b0b has described such a thing) would greatly help with this, but then you would loose the chords and chord glisses that are so characteristic of the pedal steel sound.

quote:

---

Still, the most ideal situation is having the written music above with the tab running along below it (some instruction material is like that).

---

------------------
Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

[This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 14 May 2003 at 12:51 PM.]