On Mar 11, 7:05*pm, Mike Rivers <mriv...@d-and-d.com> wrote:
> Danny T wrote:
> > The only thing wrong with pedal steel is the player. I owned one and
> > never could, for the life of me, make the thing work. I'm fully
> > convinced that there is a disorder, something like autistic savant,
> > that is a prerequisite for playing that beast.....
>
> I've always thought of the fiddle the same way. I made a little progress
> on the
> pedal steel but I haven't had it out of its case in about 10 years. I'll
> have to figure
> out how to put it together. It's really closer to a harp than a guitar,
> and in fact
> Gibson made one they called the Electroharp. I'm convinced that if the
> pedal steel
> had been invented in Turloch O'carolan's time (an itinerant Irish harper
> who was
> the source of a large amount of the contemporary Irish folk instrumental
> music). he
> would have played one. If he could have found a place to plug in the
> amplifier.
>
> --
> "Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
> a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
> operated without a passing knowledge of audio." - John Watkinson

If you want to play fiddle, it might help to first learn mandolin. I
tried violin when I was 5 and never got past sucks. About 25 years ago
a friend gave me a round back mandolin. I learned to play it in about
an hour. Later, I bought a violin and couldn't believe how easy it was
to just add bow to it. It is the same everything except you hold it
different and use a bow.

Mike Rivers wrote:
> Danny T wrote:
>
>> The only thing wrong with pedal steel is the player. I owned one and
>> never could, for the life of me, make the thing work. I'm fully
>> convinced that there is a disorder, something like autistic savant,
>> that is a prerequisite for playing that beast.....
>
> I've always thought of the fiddle the same way. I made a little progress
> on the
> pedal steel but I haven't had it out of its case in about 10 years. I'll
> have to figure
> out how to put it together. It's really closer to a harp than a guitar,

Tactically, it's like a piano. The way the planning for move to move
works is like a piano. Then again, I never played harp. Ben
Keith has a piano looking sticker on his steel.


> and in fact
> Gibson made one they called the Electroharp. I'm convinced that if the
> pedal steel
> had been invented in Turloch O'carolan's time (an itinerant Irish harper
> who was
> the source of a large amount of the contemporary Irish folk instrumental
> music). he
> would have played one. If he could have found a place to plug in the
> amplifier.
>

He'd a had whoever Pete Seeger was then going after it with an axe

--
Les Cargill

Danny T wrote:

> If you want to play fiddle, it might help to first learn mandolin.

I've never actually "learned" mandolin, but I can play one a little. I
know the tunes and can pick them out, and I've had people tell me
how to work a fiddle, but it's just not there. It would probably come
with more effort, but it's like learning a DAW or Linux - I don't really
need to do it, so I'm not enthusiastic about putting out the effort. Plus
hearing myself play at the fiddle is far more painful than puzzling
over a computer screen.


--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
operated without a passing knowledge of audio." - John Watkinson

In article <hndm3v$7qf$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Mike Rivers <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Danny T wrote:
>
>> If you want to play fiddle, it might help to first learn mandolin.
>
>I've never actually "learned" mandolin, but I can play one a little. I
>know the tunes and can pick them out, and I've had people tell me
>how to work a fiddle, but it's just not there. It would probably come
>with more effort, but it's like learning a DAW or Linux - I don't really
>need to do it, so I'm not enthusiastic about putting out the effort. Plus
>hearing myself play at the fiddle is far more painful than puzzling
>over a computer screen.

The thing is, playing a mandolin or a piano is a matter of getting the right
notes in the right order. That's hard enough.

But a fiddle involves a lot of just work getting a clean note in the first
place, on top of that.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Mar 12, 10:11*am, klu...@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> In article <hndm3v$7q...@news.eternal-september.org>,
> Mike Rivers *<mriv...@d-and-d.com> wrote:
>
> >Danny T wrote:
>
> >> If you want to play fiddle, it might help to first learn mandolin.
>
> >I've never actually "learned" mandolin, but I can play one a little. I
> >know the tunes and can pick them out, and I've had people tell me
> >how to work a fiddle, but it's just not there. It would probably come
> >with more effort, but it's like learning a DAW or Linux - I don't really
> >need to do it, so I'm not enthusiastic about putting out the effort. Plus
> >hearing myself play at the fiddle is far more painful than puzzling
> >over a computer screen.
>
> The thing is, playing a mandolin or a piano is a matter of getting the right
> notes in the right order. *That's hard enough.
>
> But a fiddle involves a lot of just work getting a clean note in the first
> place, on top of that.
> --scott
>
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. *C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

you mean you don't like the sound of rosin on a bridge?

Actually, if you practice with your arm against a wall (that is your
elbow to your shoulder of your right arm) you will quickly defeat that
annoying fingernail against the chalkboard thing.

Scott Dorsey wrote:

> The thing is, playing a mandolin or a piano is a matter of getting the right
> notes in the right order. That's hard enough.
>
> But a fiddle involves a lot of just work getting a clean note in the first
> place, on top of that.

Yeah, it's twice as hard as playing fretless banjo.

--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
operated without a passing knowledge of audio." - John Watkinson

hank alrich wrote:
> Mike Rivers <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Don Pearce wrote:
>>
>>> The effect is entirely different. Even as low as the third fret, the
>>> sound of the guitar changes radically.
>> Right - so if you don't want it to sound like a guitar, then it's OK to use
>> a capo. This might be a valid case for one who is using the sound of
>> the instrument as part of the song rather htan as accompaniment.
>
> Like I said, on my best guitar it makes no difference other than being
> able to use chords, which have a sound appropriate for particular songs,
> and which I am unable to execute cleanly without a capo.
>
>> In my world of folk music, a capo is so you can use familiar fingerings
>> and voicings in keys you can sing in. And, yes, it DOES make it easier, but
>> you restrict yourself from using some notes that might be effective.
>
> That can happen just from a key change, too, sans capo. For example,
> Shaidri and I play a wonderful song called "The Lighthouse". It's in G
> Major on the Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum recording form which I learned
> it, and sometimes I can sing it in G. Other times my high range won't
> quite reach one part of it gracefully in G, so we drop it to F. I play
> it without a capo. When it moves through a portion that in G goes to an
> F, that bottom really hits nicely. When in F, the Eb doesn't get that.
> If I could afford it, I'd have another guitar handy, with heavy gauge
> strings, tuned down a whole step, and I'd use G position to play it in
> F. Then I'd have that impact back.
>


I find a lot of songs fit my voice best in Eb or Cmin. Sure, those are
playable without a capo, but they're a lot more comfortable for me to
play, while singing, with a capo on 3 and fingering C or Amin shapes.

-Raf

--
Misifus-
Rafael Seibert
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafiii
home: http://www.rafandsioux.com

On Mar 12, 3:41*pm, Mike Rivers <mriv...@d-and-d.com> wrote:
> Scott Dorsey wrote:
> > The thing is, playing a mandolin or a piano is a matter of getting the right
> > notes in the right order. *That's hard enough.
>
> > But a fiddle involves a lot of just work getting a clean note in the first
> > place, on top of that.
>
> Yeah, it's twice as hard as playing fretless banjo.

When I read this the other day I thought you were making a joke, then
I saw my first fretless banjo in a store the other day and gasped. I
had no idea there was such an animal out there. To funny!