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Date Posted: 04/16/09 10:54am
Author: Bobbe Seymour
Subject: Music Tips

Hello fellow players,

The newsletter last week about knowing when to play and when not to play caused me to hear from many of you, all of you patting me on the back and saying that should have been said a long time ago. Of course, I did say it about three years ago.

Many of you have subscribed since then. The response from one of the readers was, “I was taught by my teacher to play from the beginning of the song all the way until the song was over.” Then along comes Mr. Seymour telling me to play in just little spots in the song.

First of all, the teacher was totally wrong in teaching you how to play with a band. He was just teaching this individual to play steel guitar. That means how to pick but not when to pick.

The little matter of taste whether you’re playing by yourself or whether you’re playing with a band and have to share the spot light with others, is quite a bit different than taking lessons and learning how to play a song from beginning to end when there is just you and the teacher sitting in a little room.

This player also asked me, “How do I know when not to play?”

It is usually done by trading sixteen bars back and forth with another instrument. You fill sixteen, they fill sixteen and usually another instrument fills the bridge. These are things a new player must watch a professional to pick up and learn.

Common sense and consideration of other players, not playing over top of them and not letting them play over you. Usually these things are discussed before you get on the bandstand or immediately after you’ve left the bandstand if there is an indiscretion by someone. Any good band with considerate personalities can learn to work together to attain good fillin behavior.

When it comes to keyboards playing fills, they need to fill sparingly and not try to play rhythm while they are doing it. And actually, they should primarily be rhythm only in a country band. When a keyboard is filling, it should be doing primarily that, just filling, and not trying to be a big rhythm player with fills.

This of course, does not apply to Southern Gospel.

Now here’s my pet peeve of all time. The bass player that is really a frustrated lead guitar player that owns a bass so he can work in a band. We’ve all seen them. A guy that loves to play all kinds of runs, walk-ups and lead lines when he’s supposed to be playing two or four notes in a measure, primarily staying on the root and the fifth.

When a bass player plays his note is about as important as the note he plays. The bass player is in the rhythm section and should be putting his notes right on the beat. One of the biggest sins that a bass player in this world today makes is volume. Since the beginning of time in all kinds of bands, orchestras and symphonies, there have been bass players, but only recently since the advent of the electric bass and megawatt amplifiers has the bass player thought he had to be the loudest instrument in the band.

A bass player should be felt and not heard in a quality band. I’m not talking hard, screaming rock n roll here, but good pure country and western swing. You can also add jazz and pop bands in this category. Nothing can ruin a band any faster to me than a loud, screaming bass player that plays as many notes as he can, out of time with what the drummer is doing.

Just because a person says he’s a bass player doesn’t make it so. A bass player has a definite job to do in a band. How he does it determines his quality. He has a specific purpose. Put the root note in at the right time at the right volume. That’s the long and short of it. If he gets a bass solo in the middle of “Mama Don’t Allow”, that’s a different story.

Remember the couple that hadn’t spoke to each other in two years who went to their attorney to get a divorce. Upon discovering that they hadn’t talked to each other in two years, the lawyer got his bass out of the closet and played everything he knew for fifteen minutes.

At the end of this time period, the couple had totally resurrected their marriage and decided against the divorce. The man asked the lawyer, “How did you know we were going to talk to each other and reach a resolution to our differences?”

The lawyer said, “Well it’s easy. Everybody talks during the bass solo.”

This reminds me of one of my very first custom master sessions in Nashville. I was called to do a session on Music Row, unloaded my beautiful new Sho-Bud and Sho-Bud amplifier in the studio and set up and listened to the first song that we were going to be playing and charted it out perfectly.

After the first take with the recording light on, the engineer, Mr. Jack Logan, pulled me into the control room and said, “Hey there.” very happily. “What road band do you work with?”

I replied very proudly I may add, “I’m working with Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys.”

He replied, “I thought so.”

I said, “How did you know?”

He said, “Because you play well, with good tone and good volumes for the studio, but you’re playing too many fills and you’re getting all over the singer.” He said, “Play about one eighth as much as you’re playing. Pick and choose where the holes are, where the singer isn’t singing and put a cute little lick in that one spot. A nice little tricky fillin lick in the right place will make your phone ring solid for the next ten years.”

That was probably the greatest fast and quick lesson that I ever had. Only later did I find out that this engineer-producer was a pretty well known steel player himself. Mr. Jack Logan also had a brother, Bud Logan, who played bass with the Blueboys, Jim Reeves band. Jack himself, was a backup steel player on the Opry.

The moral of all this is, unless you’re in the rhythm section of a band, you shouldn’t be playing all the time. And if you are in the rhythm section, play rhythm and play the same rhythm feel that the rest of the rhythm section is playing.

When the drummer is playing a 2/4 rhythm, don’t be playing a 4/4. Work together. A band is a team. If you follow these rules, you’ll get more work. If you and your band members will follow simple band etiquette, your band will get more work.

See our weekly specials www.steelguitar.net/weeklyspecials.html

Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.com/bobbeseymour

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

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