My
Favorite Hobby:
Steel Guitar
Music makes the world a better place and helps me to forget about my
neck pain (at least for a while).
The most beautiful
music this side of Heaven is produced by an amazing instrument
called the steel guitar. The steel guitar is distinctive
for Hawaiian music.
Here's a few songs I've recorded using the C6th tuning on a 6-string 1936 Rickenbacher Bakelite:
Beautiful
Kahana,
Lovely
Hula Hands,
Sophisticated Hula,
Little
Brown Gal,
Sweet Leilani,
Rainbows Over Paradise,
Farewell
My Tani and
Bali Hai.
Here's the MP3 versions if you'd like to download them (right
mouse-click to save):
Beautiful
Kahana,
Lovely
Hula hands,
Sophisticated Hula,
Little
Brown Gal,
Sweet Leilani,
Rainbows Over Paradise,
Farewell
My Tani and
Bali Hai.
You may freely distribute these songs, enjoy!
On
My
Yellow Ginger Lei and
The Hukilau Song I played steel guitar accompaniment.
You can download
My
Yellow Ginger Lei and
The Hukilau
Song here.
One of my good friends and faithful web visitors has put together a
YouTube channel with my music. I am so grateful. Thank you...
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B16AA2A149FED6D8
I also recorded
Moon of
Manakoora recently using the D9th tuning and
Paradise Isle
using the F#m9th tuning. You can
download Moon of Manakoora
here
and
Paradise Isle
Here. I recorded
Adventures In Paradise with a
Jerry Byrd 8-string Frypan (download:
Adventures In Paradise).
You're
welcome to freely share my music with others. God has given me a love and desire to play
the steel guitar. I hope by God's grace to record some Gospel songs
in the Hawaiian style, but lack accompaniment. I hope to find an
organist or pianist who will make me some slow and pretty
backgrounds to Gospel hymns, with padded portions of the song, where
I can record my steel guitar and freely share them online. I never
sell my music.
Here's the popular Hawaiian song,
Mapuana,
played by me on the B11th tuning. You can download
Mapuana
here. I also played another favorite,
Sand, on the B11th tuning. You can download
Sand here to
share with others. Believe it or not, I played the previous two
songs on a cheap
$99 lap steel I bought from Musicians' Friend online. I bought
the black guitar, stripped it down, painted it antique white and put
on some
flat-wound strings. I looks more fancy with the nice paint job. I don't use the .011" because it's too small
for me. I want my first string at least .015" gauge. So I only use
the other 6 strings in the pack. I like heavier gauge strings on the
low-end.
I only use flat-wounds for steel guitar. I don't like the
feel of semi-flats on my palm when sliding. I also replaced
the guitar nut with a metal one for better tone. I use the
Dunlop 3/4 x
2 7/8" bar for lap steel.
Anyone can learn to play steel guitar.
It just takes desire, commitment and hard work (per Jerry Byrd). For
everything needed to learn steel, there's...
http://www.scottysmusic.com.
Ask about Jerry
Byrd's instruction course if you want to really learn Hawaiian
steel guitar.
You can hear me play
Hawaiian Music
on a pedal steel guitar using an A7th tuning, which I recorded for
my mom in 2001 before she went to be with the Lord in Heaven.
Pictured above to the right is an Old Rickenbacher lap steel called the
SILVER HAWAIIAN. It is made of solid chrome and is famous for
it's horseshoe shaped pickup magnets. The most common Hawaiian
tunings on the lap steel are the
C6th and the
B11th. C6th is my favorite, which I can play by ear (i.e., I can
play the melody of any song just by hearing it).
Bud Tutmarc is one of my
favorite steel guitarists and has
much beautiful
Gospel music available (Bud used a
C#m tuning
on a 7-string lap steel for all his recordings). Bud was good
friends with Sol Ho'opi'i before Sol's untimely death at age 51.
I once met
the great steel guitarist
Jerry Byrd in Winchester, Indiana. He
passed away at age 85 in 2005. Here's a video
of Jerry Byrd at a much younger age playing Hawaiian guitar. Beyond The Reef is one of my favorite Hawaiian songs to play
on the steel guitar. Here's some more videos of Jerry Byrd. Here are some
videos of Hawaiian steel guitar. Jerry taught his steel
guitar students that... "Talent is highly overrated. All the talent in
the world means nothing if you don't have DESIRE." If
you've ever heard Hawaiian music, then you've very likely heard
Jerry Byrd's beautiful music. Thank God for the beautiful steel
guitar!
The lap steel guitar is not that difficult to play if you're willing
to stick with it. It is a very rewarding instrument to learn to play
which cheers the heart's of others.
The following 3-recordings
are played on a Pedal Steel Guitar (E9th tuning), which is a much
bigger and heavier instrument than the lap steel. Due to the
herniated disks in my neck (C5-C6-C7), I mostly play lap steel
nowadays. Tommy White (one of my favorite steel guitar artists) recorded the following beautiful E9th songs
several years ago in St. Louis:
