Is there a more difficult instrument to play?

jolynyk · Post by **jolynyk** » 31 Jul 2002 3:01 pm

DRUMS..... OOOPS--Sorry ... You said Instrument.........

William Steward · Post by **William Steward** » 31 Jul 2002 4:36 pm

I try to describe playing this thing to my friends by likening it to playing slide guitar while operating a backhoe. Chip...I like your attitude and advice. There is more unimaginative (but skilled) playing out there than creative musical stuff which you tend to discover on your own terms. It took me 40 years of intermittent practice to play the piano half badly so I am not optimistic I will get as far with the steel since I might not have another 40...but may die trying.

Jim West · Post by **Jim West** » 31 Jul 2002 5:06 pm

Check out Larry Miller's post about the article in the Tennessean. It doesn't mince words, the pedal steel guitar is a tough instrument to play let alone master.

Eric Jaeger · Post by **Eric Jaeger** » 31 Jul 2002 6:17 pm

I've only been playing PSG for a year, and I've only played fretted instruments for the last 40 years (guitar, bass, mandolin, b*njo, bouzouki, tenor guitar...) and it's certainly the most difficult instrument I'VE tried to play. In two different ways:

How to play -- the mechanics of getting the right grips, right pedals/levers, and good tone, at speed.

What to play -- I've learned more about music theory and structure in a year of PSG than the previous 40. Different chord in different places, different inversions. It's like
3x4 + 5 = 17 different guitars.

Del Rangel · Post by **Del Rangel** » 31 Jul 2002 7:57 pm

I have played violin since I was 6, except when I was in the sub-Navy. I had solid classical training, and it still seems second nature to me. Even when I put it down for a while, it comes back quickly. PSG, which I have only played for a couple of years still seems very difficult. I am moving onto a boat and may have to put the PSG aside for a few months while I finish a manuscript and it is bumming me out, as I am finally getting somewhere. I think I'll lose much of what I have learned. In the end, I think there are too many variables to nail one instrument as the most difficult. It may be relative to what and how you learned the first time around. A jazz artist recently told me that the Sitar was the hardest instrument he ever has attempted, and he must play a dozen instruments well, so who knows.[This message was edited by Del Rangel on 01 August 2002 at 06:22 AM.]

Andy Greatrix · Post by **Andy Greatrix** » 31 Jul 2002 8:37 pm

Steel guitar is not an instrument for people who want instant results.
Trying to see and hear your progress is like looking in the mirror and trying to watch your hair grow.

You have to love it so much, that even practicing and sounding bad is a joy.
(Of course, sounding good is even more joyous.)

Leroy Riggs · Post by **Leroy Riggs** » 1 Aug 2002 7:34 am

I played fiddle as a youth until arthritis set and I couldn't bend my fingers as I needed so I turned to steel.

-- the mechanics of getting the right grips, right pedals/levers, and good tone, at speed.

Ditto!! I can't see any comparison. The steel is much harder.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 1 Aug 2002 9:01 am

As many forum members have, I have played at more than one instrument.

Cornet, Guitar, Harmonica, Ukelele,Alto Saxaphone, Steel Guitar and Piano and Organ.

I think the Piano and Organ are the easiest to play.

The keys are all there right in front of you , very nicely black and white to tell the difference, and you just put your fingers on them and Play.

In my opinion, I think the Pedal Steel Guitar is one of the most difficult intruments to play well.

I wish that I would have known that before I got hooked , and started making money with it 64 years ago.

No, just kidding, I love it, a most versatile and beautiful instrument ..

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 1 Aug 2002 10:06 am

As has been said before in this thread, they are all difficult to play well. Lots of us play guitar, and found steel to be really difficult to get going on in comparison. But to take either of these instruments to the level we know they have been played at is difficult. I do think you have to want to play psg real bad to get over the initial phase where all it does is howl at you. Which is all I've ever been able to get a fiddle to do for me....but maybe if I had taken lessons on one when I was young and teachable I wouldn't feel that way. Horns are hard too - I used to play trombone pretty decently in high school, (or at least people said I did), and now when I pick mine up I can barely get a decent note out of the thing, and it is as though I had never played it. Is steel hard? Yep. Anyone who has learned to play one to a giggable standard has accomplished something they can be proud of.

Henry Matthews · Post by **Henry Matthews** » 1 Aug 2002 10:46 am

I play both fiddle and steel guitar and find that the fiddle is a lot tougher for me to make sound good and true in a studio situation than the steel, even though I've been playing fiddle a lot longer than steel. I know that I'll never master either instrument or any other for that matter but I sure love trying. I believe I've got more than the 90% want to but am somewhere lacking on the 10% talent, but to me, either instrument, be it fiddle or steel are the two hardest in the world to play.
Henry Matthews
Emmons p/p, D-10
and of course, a Strat copy fiddle (18??)with Barcus Berry Pickup

Joel Glassman · Post by **Joel Glassman** » 1 Aug 2002 1:32 pm

>>Fiddle is much harder than steel.
>Would that harder fiddle be "case-hardened"?
Nope. Its a hardanger fiddle. (sorry--

for the obscure Scandinavian violin folk humor there...)

Part of the thing which makes the violin so damn difficult, is how the body has to move when playing it. It ain't like sitting at a table boys!
First of all, the position of the arms/bow hold is duplicated nowhere else in life.
The left hand is kind of like rolling marbles you can't see, into perfect positions with your fingertips. The right hand is like trying to carve meat on a plate at chin level 5 inches from your face.

Its hard to do these things and relax!
Since you can't really see what your hand is doing, the ears send a signal to the brain, "I sound like crap, I sound like crap..."

If the sound is not in your face (and louder than everything else) then you're playing out of tune. Imagine if your steel was that high in the air and pointed away from you! No bar, just a thimble on each finger as you reach under the neck and around to the top. Each thimble has to be a perfect distance from the others and you're moving towards your head! Since you can't really see what your hand is doing...

On violin the natural reaction is tension creeping into your shoulders (and it does). It will turn your beautiful tone into something awful.

The sound of poor fiddling cannot be duplicated on the steel by poor technique. Violins simply can't be amplified either. Mics sound good but not with drums or electric instruments. Use a pickup and you sound "kind of bad". There is no way around it. That is all...

Buck Grantham R.I.P. · Post by **Buck Grantham R.I.P.** » 1 Aug 2002 1:59 pm

FIDDLE

[This message was edited by Buck Grantham on 01 August 2002 at 03:01 PM.]

Bill Myrick · Post by **Bill Myrick** » 1 Aug 2002 2:58 pm

How about a French Horn ??? I've heard they are killers to master. Hey Mr Buck, how's the rendition of America The Beautiful coming along or have you forgotten ? -

Jeff Lampert · Post by **Jeff Lampert** » 1 Aug 2002 4:50 pm

A good friend of mine made an interesting point about how hard piano is. Unlike the stringed / fretted instruements where to change keys, all you have to do is move up or down on the fretboard, on piano you have to learn completely different fingerings for the same chord voicing or melody or riff in all 12 different keys. So at least with respect to being versatile in every key, piano would seem to be extremely difficult compared to steel or guitar.

Jeneé Fleenor · Post by **Jeneé Fleenor** » 1 Aug 2002 5:41 pm

Bill Myrick (long time no see!)--
On your post on the French Horn...it's a very hard instrument as well. I played it all through Jr. High and High School (I had to be in band since they didn't have an orchestra), but I was glad I did it. It's hard to get a good tone on a F. Horn, and you have to keep your lips in shape (just like any wind instrument)...but when one 'masters' that technique, it sounds phenomenal!

Hope all is well!
~Jeneé

P.S. I still don't see how you steelers do it!

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 2 Aug 2002 9:55 am

I don't thing the steel is hard to PLAY, so much as it's hard to LEARN.

Somebody once tole me that learning to play is like rolling a boulder over a mountain. Frst you have to roll it up. Ghen there comes a point where you just give it a little shove and it goes by itself. That point on the steel for me was when I understood all the pedal changes.

I think different people have different kinds of talent. Some of us are great singers. Some are brilliant players who can't carry a tune. Some people play fiddle effortlessly. I tried, and it sounded like my cat was being tortured. (Come to think of it, he was, along with my wife and neighbors.) I gave up in disgust on the fiddle after seriously studying it for 2 years. But I was gigging on the steel only 4 months after I started playing.

Joerg Hennig · Post by **Joerg Hennig** » 2 Aug 2002 12:49 pm

Thinking about it, I taught myself to play the accordian at age 10 and it came quite easy to me. Switched to guitar at age 12, all self-taught, too, and also learned quite fast. Stuck with it for the next 20+ years and got better at it as I got more routine. In between I did dome stints on bass and drums and learned it well enough to fill in sometimes. But I had a real hard time when I wanted to learn the piano. I really wanted to play it, but it scared me. I just remained insecure on the keys, never got to the point where I felt comfortable on them, even though I took lessons and practiced at least three hours each day. After a year, I gave up in frustration.
Steel didn´t come that hard to me at all. I understood it quickly. Also the use of the pedals and all the coordination, soon felt as if I´d done it all my life. After a year, I already was able to play in a band. Right hand technique and intonation with the bar still require a lot of attention, but I´m working on it and feel that I´m on the right track. I agree with Bobbe Seymour who says that the pedal steel guitar is the easiest instrument in the world to learn

.[This message was edited by Joe Henry on 02 August 2002 at 01:51 PM.]