PRACTICE / LEARNING

[Nick Bidmade]

For those of us who were at the Great Barford meeting yesterday and wondering quite how John 'strings it all together', there's a great YouTube clip on this thread posted a few weeks ago by Slimbo - Harmonised Scales.
Towards the end of the clip, the player puts it all together into a great sounding intro/turnaround - basically a scale in the key of C. Well worth looking at, tabbing (that's the way I have to do it to learn stuff now that the memory is starting to .... fade!) or otherwise learning and remembering.
Simple but great sounding.

[Phil Caine]

Here's a link to tab for the video lesson from the US Forum

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=233116

Phil

[David Hartley]

Shaun....

You said..... "Is this a good path or is there a better way way ?"......

I would say, every time you get on your steel, practice a few scales, with a single harmony note, 3rd or 5th harmony.
I wouldn't worry about "three stringing" scales personally.
It is very important to know your way around from an open and closed chord start.
You must do this in every major chord so as to know your way around.
It's only important to know your start position.

But..........

Don't let it take over things.
You must learn a lick a day too.
And practice until it is embedded in your brain.
A few licks, slides, and knowing your way around the steel with scales is all you need.

That's easy for me to say I know, but it's all I used to do day and night for many years.

Then......

It is important to sound right. By this, I mean, listen, record yourself, and listen back.
You will then hear the other simple mistakes we all do, like, bad volume control and expression, bad vibrato, or bad sound of the guitar or hearing other strings rattling away when they should be blocked, or simply not balanced with the backing, too much or too little effect etc etc etc......
It's best to record with a single mic placed at a listening point where someone would stand if watching, and listening to you.

You are doing things right by practicing scales.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise..

[Jason Lynch]

David, Would you say it's a good idea to video yourself at least once or twice, or even get a mate to take some photos of you playing? The reason I ask is that I've just looked at Neil's photos on photobucket and theres one of me still making a mistake that I thought I was on the way to correcting?
Opinions?
Jason

[David Hartley]

What photo? What mistake?

[Shaun]

Thanks for the advice David and all.
Much appreciated.

[Jason Lynch]

hand positioning,while playing to a backing track. (and making a complete dogs dinner of it, by the way!)
I'll send it to you. see what you think. Doesn't look like I'm palm damping properly.

[Paul Brennan]

Very wise words from Mr Hartley. Take heed y'all. If a musician tells you they don't know how to play scales then they are very much the exception. (Buddy Emmons, Paul Franklin, Doug Jernigan, etc certainly know their scales and theory). As David says, scales are important but don't allow them to take over all your practise time. They are a foundation upon which you build your tunes and licks.