I’d like to present a series of posts on a topic that is essential, highly personal and yet talked about too infrequently: building arrangements for steel guitar. Building arrangements is one of the most daunting and highly rewarding undertakings in playing steel guitar.  Anyone who has ever listened to Jerry Byrd recordings, especially from Hi-Fi Guitar on, has probably had to lift their jaw off the floor once they realize what they’d just heard.  The same goes for the instrumental recordings by Lloyd Green, Jimmy Day, among many others.  Even through the glitzy orchestrations you can hear the soulfulness and ingenuity of a player like Jimmy Day. You will employ everything you know about music in the process of arranging and you will learn not only a lot about the instrument itself, but, more importantly, about yourself.  You will learn to hear internally and transfer sounds in your mind to your fingers; you will learn how to problem solve by being creative and exhaustive in the process; you will push your technique to accommodate your ideas; you will expand your palette and use colors you hadn’t thought of; and you will gain confidence in your own musicality.

Most of my life I have been an improviser; I played very loosely in all the music I played.  Rather than learning parts to songs, or learning to play complete songs (meaning instrumental arrangements), I felt better just learning to follow my instincts and trying to create perfect parts on the fly.  Of course, as a professional sideman you can’t escape having to learn specific parts to songs.  That’s the work part.  As a leader, you choose which path to travel. That’s the play part.

And I have played a lot! But for the longest time I’ve wanted to revisit that one area of my playing that was neglected: playing complete arrangements of tunes. My favorite music features piano, usually solo or in small groups, and if I could do it all over again, I would choose to learn how to play Ravel, Chopin, Debussy, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin, just to hear that music flowing from my own fingers. Alas, I was seduced at an early age by rock and roll guitar! But back to steel guitar—with the steel guitar we are faced with a lot of decisions, and I think it’s the choices we make that show who we really are as musicians/arrangers and yes, artists. Without a doubt, the limitation of being relegated to playing with just a bar in your ‘fretting’ hand prepares you for the prospect of having to do some crazy stuff.  It was in listening very carefully to Sol Hoopii’s playing on a few recordings that I figured out a few of his tricks, and that led me down a path of finding my own tricks emboldened with the knowledge that tricks were even a thing and that you can and must learn how to employ these little devices in order to keep that elasticity in your playing. Players like Sol Hoopii would stay up all night just working on a single lick.  There’s always the possibility that there is a better way to play something, maybe a possibility I hadn’t even thought of yet.  It’s important in creating arrangements that I do my best to map out parts with the right timbre and that are not so awkward to play to the point it sounds like wrestling match between my picking and bar hand. These little lissues tend to pop up at the worst times, like when in front of an audience. It’s important to keep open the option for your arrangements to evolve as you spend more time with them. New techniques or ideas often add a little spice to them.

So what I would like to do is share a few of the techniques I use to arrange tunes, and what the thought process is from early on in deciding on material, approach and critical review.

When an idea for an arrangement pops in my head, it’s usually a melody that I am very familiar with, or a segment of it.  There are tunes I can think of where I know one or two sections of it and then just draw a blank.  Maple Leaf Rag was like that for me.  Actually, that masterpiece by Scott Joplin is a very good place to start this discussion.  I have the sheet music for that piece and all other Joplin rags, but wanted to give it a try from memory, just using my inner jukebox to try and remember the sounds and harmony. I recorded a short video clip of the first A section and while it was not really exact, it represented all the harmony correctly, in particular the diminished sounds. I was very excited about this random left turn into Ragtime, but really it has been in the back of my mind for many years to tackle some of the repertoire and see if I could bring another rag, or even a Sousa march to the steel guitar book. Now I had an opportunity to commit to doing it, and I was energized at the prospect.  

The first consideration for me is whether a tune moves me in some way.  I think you have to be able to listen to a piece and make a connection with it.  After all, you will be living with that piece for a considerable amount of time, including well into the future. The next thought is whether I could make an arrangement of the tune that elevates the tune in some way.  I have to believe that, even as ridiculous as it seems.  Could I elevate a Joplin masterpiece like Maple Leaf Rag?  I don’t know, but if what I am doing is getting me excited, then I have to believe I am onto something.  I trust myself in that way; I have to. I am also very honest with myself when something is not working.  Maybe I will put that aside for a time and revisit later on.  I also find it important to document how I am playing things.  Sometimes I use video to record it and other times I actually tab it out with notation, making several drafts.

With a tune like Maple Leaf, it’s so iconic that you have to adhere pretty closely to the melody, bass and chords.  Making an arrangement that captures the melody and harmony at the same time keeps it exciting enough that you can focus on it as written.  It’s even possible and preferable to play two or even three voices on the steel at the same time.  Depending on the tuning you are using and the number of strings, you can add harmony, or a bass line, or rhythm, or a trombone-esque slide or whatever.  It’s learning what you have at your disposal.  This is where you start to realize how important a role your technique will play.

Another consideration for me early in the process is the framing of the arrangement: will it be a solo arrangement, a group or duo arrangement and if so, what instrumentation? These questions help me to make choices about what is necessary to play and not. With solo arrangements, there is likelihood that I will be presenting more than just the melody—bass notes or countermelodies and harmony are frequently used, and often I will have to spend time learning to physically play two voices simultaneously and independently, like a pianist or fingerstyle guitarist. A good starting point for arranging is learning another person’s arrangement and then adding some personal flourishes or touches to it, even combining aspects of another player’s arrangement to make something of a hybrid. This can be done even by just changing the feel of the tune or even the key. I will talk more on this later.

I’ll be back to pick this topic up again in a few days with some musical examples. Thanks for reading and indulging me.  Bookmark the site or subscribe to get notifications of new posts.

I like to practice things by making musical exercises out of them. To practice in an unmusical way by just robotically playing through scales, etc. is non-productive. I find it helps me best retain when I immediately put the material to use.

This little exercise runs through the major triads of the G major scale using triads built on every degree of the scale, all either I, IV or V—the tonic, subdominant and dominant. By mostly keeping the notes confined to the same strings, we can achieve a continuity that allows smooth transitions and easier picking. This works really well for emulating the sound of pedal steel.

Check out the video and tab below. This is what I would consider to be Intermediate/Advanced, or Ninja Jr. The material itself is basic, but the slants are unorthodox (personally, I haven’t seen anyone using these before) and the picking very specific. I am using a long scale Clinesmith Instruments “Joaquin” model tuned to C13 with an E first string, but only the first 5 strings are used, so this is playable on a 6 string instrument.

There are some slants that are not really playable unless in the upper range of the instrument, usually fret 7 and above. These slants span 3 and even 4 frets (as in bar 4). Good luck with this and don’t give up. As always, I recommend using a bullet bar, and 3″ is probably a safe length, depending on your string spacing. For wider spacing you may need a slightly longer bar. Also, don’t forget to adjust your tuning by flattening the E and A strings ever so slightly. This helps to keep the slants a little more in tune. Note: I tried a funky little thing using the V7 and IV7, which is just a little out of tune, but it was a new discovery so I’ll take it!

Back in 2011, I did a little arrangement of Bud’s Bounce for non-pedal steel in E9 tuning (E B G# F# D B G# E). This is a great tuning and it also works well for 6 string (just leave off the low G# and E).

The performance requires a rather cool and mildly difficult string pull of two strings in one–you are pulling string 2 up a whole step and string 3 up a 1/2 step. It sounds more difficult than it is but it’s important to have the right gauge of strings on your guitar in order to get the pitches right every time. This can take some experimentation.

When I recorded the track below, I had recently burned my left hand on my lawn mower and had a huge blister, which made the pulling more difficult. I suffered through and you can hear that because the pitches are not perfect. Nonetheless, I let it stand. I think I have come a long way as a player since, but I don’t think I have played this one since then.

Anyway, check it out. I hope you enjoy it. Listen below and then scroll down to download tab.

Download pdf of Bud’s Bounce tab/notation below.

I’ve recently decided to remove all of the tab/video lessons from my site as I plan to revamp my instructional material to reflect a more fully developed and representative approach to lap steel guitar from my personal perspective. While studying the playing of the greats has proved invaluable to my development as a steel guitarist, it was through the process of transcribing itself that I was able to see the road maps of the fretboard unfold before my eyes and the deeper task of problem solving to find the best position for certain parts really escalated my level of analysis to a point where I could begin to do it in real time in my own playing. I highly recommend every musician, not just the lap steel player, to engage in this activity. Without it, you are missing a big piece of your development as a musician. The ear is the most crucial and invaluable tool we have. Strengthen it.

There is a part of steel playing that one has to get used to, and that is the specter of the past that always seems to hover around you. No matter how far you stray from tradition, there is something there that either pulls at you or serves as a reminder that it is difficult to move completely beyond it. Listeners, particularly steel players, have an attachment to the instrument’s past. There will always be comparisons to what it is “supposed” to sound like, how it should be played, etc. These things can get in your head if you let them. I have great respect for Susan Alcorn, who has no doubt suffered these slings and arrows but has emerged from it as a strong, fully developed and unique voice. She has always been an influence to me, especially as I first started played seriously, showing me what is possible.

Admittedly, I have had some struggles with this. Is it my own doing? I sometimes allow myself to give in to my own nostalgia and sometimes I wonder if maybe I that’s where I really belong. But I have to follow my own heart and what I hear in music, which is what we should all do. Part of the growth of learning an instrument and developing a voice is also a mental process. Only we can know when we are getting closer to it.

Thanks for reading. –Mike

On Saturday, December 7 at 1:00 pm, Mike will be conducting a webinar that will focus on his concept of Triadic Mechanics.  If it sounds intense and deep, it is!  However, it is designed for all levels of player and is only as complex as you need it to be.

You will learn how to use the concept to improvise in a way that takes you out of the usual go-to position playing and expands your ability to play in all positions with strong melodic and harmonic content.  The potential is limitless.

The webinar will be viewable on any PC or mobile device with no extra software downloads necessary. You will also have the ability to re-watch the webinar.

Upon registration, your space will be reserved and 24-48 hours prior to the webinar you will receive your unique link.  You will also receive a Triadic Mechanics printable 30+ page pdf.

Follow this link to register: Webinar registration

This is an etude written by Joe Pass in his Joe Pass Guitar Style book (orange cover) over the changes of a Bird Blues (Charlie Parker blues reharmonization) that I altered slightly. This reharmonization is the same as that found in Blues For Alice or Confirmation. As Joe was known to do, he created his etude in straight eighth notes with a solid outlining of the changes.

This is arranged for straight C6 tuning with an A down on the bottom, but could easily be transposed to A6 by playing everything up 3 frets and down one string. If you’ve seen my book Steelin’ Scales and Modes, you will be familiar with the way I approach laying out lines for the non-pedal steel guitar in C6 tuning. Much of what you see in this tab reflects that approach.

Here is a quick video of me playing (not perfectly) the etude.

For this latest installment, I have tabbed the tune Billie’s Bounce by Charlie Parker for C6 lap steel guitar.  This is a great place to start to get a feel for how you can lay a melody out for good bebop articulation.  In this particular arrangement, I have stuck very close to the original melody, but the way it is laid out on the fretboard leaves open the possibilities of some nice triplet embellishments in the form of rakes, especially in measure 8.

Give it try and let me know how you like it.  I’ve compiled a book called Bebop Lap Steel Guitar which arranges a number of bebop heads in this way, from easy to difficult.

Also, as an added bonus, I’ve attached the magnificent guitar solo by George Benson from his recording of Billie’s Bounce and his LP Blue Benson.

Blue Benson

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Musicians tend to listen to music with a more scrutinizing ear, analyzing each facet of the music and evaluating it on subjective criteria on levels that most ordinary listeners would not understand or even care about. There are also times to put that scrutiny away and simply just absorb the music and emotions and colors it generates. Still, it should always be the goal of the musician to be in command of his instrument in order to express things clearly and articulately. This is made possible by having good ‘chops’, or facility, to carry out these ideas.

Many get the impression that having good chops is about playing fast or technically virtuosic; however, it can also mean excellence in executing ideas, even if these are simple ideas. It’s about having all the tools to get the job done. In this post I really want to focus on the rhythmic execution of phrases and melodies and how important it is to the success of a piece of music.

The successful phrasing of a melodic line or even just a motif is strongly dependent on the rhythmic accuracy of it. Connection with the pulse of the music and absolute control of the rhythm is crucial to the music. Even though the role of each musical instrument is different in musical performances, it is of the highest importance that each instrument is in service of the rhythm of the piece, and lap steel guitar, unfortunately, is not exempt from this. Lap steel players, just like guitarists, drummers and pianists, must have control of rhythm, accents and dynamics of their playing.

I want this post to focus on the picking hand, but it takes the coordinated efforts of the picking and the bar hand to make it a success. In phase 1, we’ll just focus on picking. We can do this by working on picking exercises on open strings using no bar, though it is not something that I like to do at length because I like to make actual music when I practice. In this case, we want to emphasize our ability to pick accurately, so we’ll keep it simple in phase 1. For the purposes of making ourselves more self-aware, it’s recommended to record ourselves practicing often and to learn to listen to ourselves in an honest and critical way. This is how we make improvements and develop a better relationship with music.

When it comes to rhythmic execution, we can look at how we use our picking fingers to play certain rhythmic patterns–for even rhythms, such as quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes, the simplest approach is to use two fingers, usually T (thumb) and 2 (middle), but also T and 1. We’ll keep it simple. For odd groupings, such as factors of 3 (triplets), it’s good to use T, 1 and 2. This is how we are going to proceed.

If you have a metronome (recommended) or a metronome app (I like Tempo for iphone or Time Guru), set it to a tempo of 80 bpm (Andantino). Each click will be a quarter note. Pick in an alternating pattern, T-2, T-2, T-2. T-2, T-2 for approximately one minute. If you’ve recorded yourself, listen back to the recording. Ask yourself if you were dead on all the way through. Now, try it again. Listen again to the recording.

When you feel that you are comfortable with the rhythm and your picking is flawless, change the setting on the metronome to 40 bpm. We are going to consider each click now to be a half note, and we want to play quarter notes, so what that means is that we will play two notes for every click–one on the click and one in between clicks. It’s essentially the exact thing you played before. Record yourself for 30 seconds. Listen. Repeat. It is a little more difficult, isn’t it? We are internalizing the rhythm and we are gaining control of our picking.

Let’s try one more exercise. Reset the metronome to 60 bpm. We are going to play triplets now–specifically eighth note triplets, which means if the pulse is a quarter note, we pick three notes for every quarter note: one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three, etc. or one-trip-let, two-trip-let–all played evenly. Let’s play the pattern T-2-1 (thumb-middle-index)–this is the most effective way of playing triplets. Record yourself for a minute or so. Listen back. Repeat.

This is the most basic approach to getting it together–phase 1. Next time, we’ll begin focusing on using the bar and combining glissando (slides) and picked notes using the scale and also using accents. You’ll find it challenging and rewarding, I promise. And there will be written music and tab to accompany it.

I just bought an EHX 95000 multitrack looper a few weeks ago, and while I don’t utilize a lot of its functions, I just love that it’s like a multitrack recorder that is always on if I come up with a good idea or want to practice over certain changes or grooves. I typically play bass lines with the side of my pinky, so that’s where this came from. It’s got a nice growl to it. Tone is in the pinky indeed!

Originally Posted on April 15, 2011 by Mike Neer

C6 is the perfect tuning for breadboarding, no doubt about it. For those of you who don’t know the term “breadboarding,” it has to do with electronic circuits and how experimenters will use a breadboard as a construction base to create prototypes of circuits. Simply moving wires and jumpers around with solderless connections makes the experimentation much easier. In a past life I spent a lot of time with electronics….

For purposes of this discussion, I will be referring to this version of C6, from low to hi: G A C E G A C E. If you are looking to step outside of the box a bit and play some things that are a bit out of the ordinary for steel guitar, tweaking the C6 can play an important role in helping you achieve the chord qualities you are looking for. The most obvious tweak would be tuning the lowest C (in my tuning, string 6) to C#. This gives you the C6/A7 tuning which, in my opinion is necessary for playing Jazz and even any kind of chord solo work. The importance of the dominant chord in that tuning can’t be stressed enough. Also, contained within the span of strings 4, 5 and 6 is a diminished triad. Crucial.

Another common tweak is to tune string 7 (A) up to Bb for a C13. This eliminates the root for our minor chords, which I feel is pretty important note to have for playing Jazz standards and even some Rock tunes. There are some arrangements I play, though, that are based around this tuning, particularly Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and Yellow Roses.

What if we tweak both the C string and the A string up a half step? I got this little tuning from Billy Hew Len (although he did it with the A6 tuning) and I quickly recognized it as a tuning used by the great Joaquin Murphey. Joaquin used a C6 tuning with a high G string later on, and he would also raise his C and A strings 1/2 step. A good example of this sound can be found on Spade Cooley‘s Dance-A-Rama record. You can hear an example of this tuning (my version with a high E) on this recording of Coconut Grove. It makes use of a lot of altered dominant chords.

There are other places we can tweak the tuning, too: my favorite is to re-tune string 8. I have several variations on it and all of them give me different results. The most common for me is to tune string 8 to F, especially for playing chord melodies. I approach it a little like John Scofield does when he is playing solo–he stabs at individual chord tones just to establish the harmony in the listener’s ears while he plays a melody or improvises on top of it. Sometimes that chord tone will only last for an eighth note. String 8 also serves me well for playing more modern Jazz, such as Herbie Hancock and Eddie Harris, by tuning it down to D. There I have what we call slash chords (a triad over a different bass note), particularly the 11th chord flavor, ie. C/D (C triad over D bass note). A great, nebulous sound.

There are other very useful ways of changing the value of a C6 tuning by changing 1 or 2 strings. For those of you familiar with Speedy West, he occasionally used a tuning (although on a pedal steel) which was called F#9. Essentially what it is is an E6 tuning (low to hi B C# E G# B C# E G#), with the B strings tuned down to A#. If you look at the C6 tuning that I use (with the E string on top), it is the same structure as the E6 tuning down a major third. So, in this case we simply lower our G to F# and voila!: we have D9 tuning.

I am currently beginning another book–this time on creating block chord arrangements or chord melodies. I will be using my C6 tuning for the basis of the entire book, but I will also be sharing some of my secret tweaks. I am really looking forward to the challenge of teaching this!

In the meantime, I hope you continue to explore and have fun and always remember that lurking somewhere inside of you is you! Let’s give him every opportunity to find his voice on the steel guitar. Always play with the curiosity of a child.

All for now.