I am just about done bringing you up to date on my songs with a discussion of The Last Date, Aloha Oe and The Water Is Wide.
The arrangement of The Last Date that I have been learning is the longest song I have learned to date at about 6 minutes. I initially learned this song about six months ago and then forgot how to play it. So now I am relearning this song. You will not be surprised that it has second octave work too. There is nothing too technically difficult with this song, yet the second octave work has been giving me problems. There are three sections to the second octave part and each one is different for the listener, however, they are similar enough that to me as the player they play the same. I get confused as to where I am and where the changes are from one section to the next. It is funny how simple can be so hard. I have been practicing two sections concentrating on the difference between the two and making little mnemonics up to help me remember the difference. The next thing I am doing is repeating just these two sections in my practice session. It gets old pretty fast but it is the only way I know to conquer the problem. I break my practice session up going over other songs I know and reinforce retention of those songs. I am tired of forgetting and having to relearn songs. Initially, I focus on the mechanics of the sections i.e. what fret and what strings, slides and slurs and bends. Last night my familiarity with the two sections was improving and I started focusing on precision. I practice each section very slowly and when I move from one fret to the next I listen to the pitch. I make a note in my head whether I think I am on the fret or flat or sharp. I then stop and visually check my tone bar position and confirm what I think. I then start over again and repeat the process adding a new chord. As I am playing if I hear the precision is off, I stop visually check and start over again. The other issue I am having at the moment is my left hand position. As I hold the bar on the strings, I notice my pinky finger is raised off the strings. I am trying to break that habit. I do the same as I did when training my right hand to stay at the pickups. I play songs I already know well and when I notice my finger raised off the strings, I stop and start over. This is going to take a while. Back to last date. In the second octave there is a slur that starts with picking at the 15th fret, sliding down to the 13th fret, bend and slide to the 20th fret while picking two adjacent strings lightly maintaining sustain of the other strings that were initially picked at the 15th fret. What I need to work on is my timing with this move as I am losing my sustain. IMHO I think the sustain is more difficult to maintain in the second octave and this is where precision will help. Not just precision of being in tune but the timing and technique I use. Maybe I am not understanding my problem too. I spent three hours last night just on these two sections. Hopefully, by the time I go my next lesson, I will have these sections down and can move on to finishing this song up.
The next song I learned was Aloha Oe. Actually, this is relearning this song as this was the first song I learned when I was learning the lap steel guitar as a child. A little background on this trip down memory lane. A friend of mine when we first met, we would chat about life in general, the Seahawks, politics and such over a beer. One time it came up in conversation I was learning the steel guitar. He told me that he took lap steel guitar as a kid. Come to find out, he went to the Honolulu Conservatory of Music in Tacoma at the same time I was going to the same Conservatory in Puyallup just 10 miles away! We had a few laughs as we had the same instructor. I would tease him about playing again to which he always declined. We both compared notes and how Aloha Oe was the first song we learned. I decided to go out and learn this song again, record it and give it to him. Now, In a previous post I discussed approaches to learning the pedal steel guitar and I recommended an instructor over CD's or DVD's. This recommendation is based in part to my personal experience. After I initially learned The Last Date, I found Aloha Oe at onlinelessonsvideo.com and I will post a link. Dave Anderson is the instructor and the song comes with a DVD and pdf file of the tablature. It is a good quality production but it is just a vanilla arrangement of the song. I think this is done to teach basic concepts and as you learn you can dress the song up as you see fit. The second song I bought from Dave Anderson is The Water is Wide and again comes with DVD and tablature. Easy to follow. I have talked with my instructor about changing the arrangements of both songs a bit and we will do that in the near future. Even with the high quality of these songs by Dave Anderson, I still believe a live instructor is the best way to go. Not all learning material is easy to read or learn. Just because you are a good steel player does not necessarily make you a good instructor.
In my next post, I will discuss two Christmas gifts I received this year. The Amazing slowdowner and Tabledit.
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