Thanks
I am a relatively new blogger and have been blogging since December of 2012. As a blogger you are a writer with an immediate public presence. As in any writing the author must keep write to his or her audience. Since the initial launch of my blog I have been watching what people are interested in knowing as well as which of my posts have the most traffic. As I said it is my mission to share with you my journey learning the pedal steel guitar and provide resources for those of you who also would like to learn the pedal steel guitar. I thought I would share with you some of my observations and let you know what directions I will be going to address some of the stats I have observed.
Some of my most popular posts have been centered around:
- Approaches to Learning the Steel Guitar
- Buying a Steel Guitar
- Lubricating a Steel Guitar
- Description of a Steel Guitar
- Thoughts on Learning a Steel Guitar
- Steel Guitar Seats
- My Studio
- Steel Guitar Setup
- Software Tools
Some of your most frequent searches that have directed you here are:
- Steel guitar passion
- The Lap Console
- International Steel Guitar Convention
- Pedal Steel Guitar Tab Lessons
- Learning Pedal Steel Blog
- Steel Guitar Seat
- Learning pedal Steel Guitar
- Pedal Steel Guitar
- Steel Guitar Passion Blog
- Steel Guitar Software
As I look at the posts and read them again, I can see there are areas where I can expand on the topics. I can also see from the keyword searches topics for new posts as well. Here is some thoughts on where I need to write posts on.
Approaches To Learning The Steel Guitar
I will add a follow on post to this one. In the initial post I describe some basic techniques to playing the steel guitar but stop short of actually giving a lesson. I think I need to focus on the actual approaches available and discuss them in more detail. I am not overlooking the need for actual lessons. and more to follow on that topic.
Buying A Steel Guitar
This post describes more on you the player and considerations of type of guitar, new or used and budget. This post works ties with Description of a Pedal Steel Guitar. I will give some more thought on anything I could add. At the very least I will add the link to the Description Of A Pedal Steel Guitar
Lubricating A Steel Guitar
I was surprised that this post has been as popular as it has been. All new guitars come with manuals that explain how to lubricate and maintain your guitar. If there is anything not clear in this post or more information needed then leave me a comment.
Description Of A Pedal Steel Guitar
In this post I detailed the description of a double neck pedal steel guitar and included a basic copedant description. Later I broke out the copedant as a separate post for those who are looking for just the copedant. I am writing a Part II to this post detailing some more specific preferences to consider on a pedal steel guitar. Some of these are contrary to how most manufacturers are building guitars today. Yet every industry is driven by customer preferences and demands. I will be including a discussion on cabinet drop and pickups in Part II
Thoughts On Learning The Pedal Steel Guitar
This is actually the follow on to Approaches To Learning The Steel Guitar where I discuss online lessons vs. one on one with an instructor. Most of the keyword searches have indicated to me that many people are looking for free online guitar lessons. Well, nothing is free as someone is paying for it some where. I have given some thought to this and decided to expand on the online learning in a different posting.
Steel Guitar Seats
This was a short post, however, I thought it important to include so you don't make the same mistake I made when I bought a seat with all the bells and whistles when I did not need them. I had a follow on post about the second seat I ordered and how happy I am with that.
My Studio
This post was fun to do as I transformed my clutter into an organized studio. Taking pictures along the way reminded me of where I started and where I am. I am happy with my studio and am ready to record more.
Steel Guitar Setup
This post like the Lubricating a Steel Guitar was a surprise. Yet when you get a used guitar you usually do not get the owners manual. So this post was there to help you if you buy a used guitar without the manual.
Software Tools
I wrote this post in support of Tabledit and Amazing Slow Downer. Right now I am using Amazing Slow Downer more than I am Tabledit. I plan on working with Tabledit this coming weekend so another post about Tabledit may be coming.
The keyword searches I have been seeing have prompted me to come up with posts on:
Steel Guitar Conventions - I will be searching for more conventions both domestically here in the US and international conventions and updating the conventions page.
Steel Guitar Software - While I am not aware of specific software on the pedal steel guitar, I will post more on general music tools and techniques steel players can use such as Tabledit and Amazing Slowdowner.
Learning The Pedal Steel Guitar - While I believe using an instructor for one on one learning is the best approach, it is not the only approach, but sometimes is not practical. Instructors can be hard to find. Many good players do not want to teach. Also many are searching for free lessons and tabs. This is not fair to the many hours of hard work that under-paid musicians put into their work. Yet there is a compromise.
As I get more familiar with Tabledit, I will put together some tablature of steel guitar songs. I will also record the song in its entirety without a backing track. I will also break the song down into lessons and provide some video of how to play the song. I will also provide a video/audio library of techniques that various songs use such as Hammer On and Hammer Off. I will build the library over time as I record new songs. As I have said many times before, I am a relatively new player as I have only been playing since 2009 and am by no means an instructor nor do I claim to be. Yet, I am more than happy to share what I have learned. I think I can provide useful information to you as I do know I am a decent writer and pretty good at writing instruction sets as I have not heard any comments from anyone confused by my posts. That's not to say my writing is perfect either.
To put this little plan into motion, I have to juggle full time work, blogging, family life and my practice time. So this will take me some time to get up and running. I will have my video camera by the middle of June. The video camera I am acquiring will allow me to record my guitar from my mixer board so the sound is clean. I am also planning on getting with my audio engineer in the next month or so and hone my skills a bit as well. While I know the songs I wish to share with you, I need to understand the inner workings of Tabledit so I can present tabs and sheet music that is accurate.
I will start with E9 neck as I think this is where beginners need to start. If there are songs you want to learn then send me a comment as to what you want. I will start with the basics I was taught and I will take the most popular requests and learn those songs and post them as well.
As far as posting this learning material goes, I will build a new blog specifically for this. This will be a private by invitation only blog. My requirements will be:
Be a Follower on steelguitarpassion blog. I will then send you a private invitation to the learning blog when it becomes active. I do not expect to be active with this blog before August 2013. This may be too aggressive too. Time will tell. My tasks include
- Learning Tabledit
- Developing Tabs
- Learning the operation of a video camera
- Editing video
- Recording audio
All of this while learning my lessons, working full time and taking care of family.
On the blog for learning I require that you provide comments, feedback, problems and suggestions in the form of a monthly comment or email to me. If you are having a problem then others are as well. It may be a lack of proper explanation on my part or missing information which will need to be corrected. This way we all can improve the quality of what you get. This will also help me learn. I want to create a community here.
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