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Bars
of the Stars
Q
Do different kinds of lap-style guitarists
use different steel bars? What kind of steel bars do David Lindley
and Jerry Douglas use?
Chris Schraepen
Bevel, Belgium
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A
In general,
preferences for types of steel guitar bars (or slides) divide
along lines of individual players more than musical styles.
National guitar and '20s-music maven Bob Brozman stays close
to that musical tradition with his preferred round-nosed bullet
bar, a rounded tone bar that resembles a larger version of
its namesake. The bullet bar was also used by Pete "Bashful
Brother Oswald" Kirby, who almost single-handedly saved the
Dobro from obscurity playing alongside country music icon
Roy Acuff for nearly six decades.
According to the
Gear page at www.jerrydouglas.com,
Jerry Douglas uses a bar made by esteemed resonator guitar
builder Tim Scheerhorn. Scheerhorn bars resemble the traditional
Stevens bar, which is contoured on the sides for a better
grip, but are angled (rather than square) on the ends. This
affords more precision in executing rapid single notes and
hammer-ons.
David Lindley,
avocationally a target-shooting competitor, says, "In a sense,
you could say that I use a Stevens bar. It's made from an
old Harry Pope rifle barrel that was rusted out. The rifle
it was on was made by a company called Stevens in the late
1800s. Strange coincidence. Harry Pope liked to make the barrels
of all his rifles as big and heavy as possible and he used
only the best materials. It's kind of like a Stevens or a
Shubb, but it's really heavy. I had it made so I could get
a little more sustain."
—Ben
Elder
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A
sampling of slides, top row from left: Dunlop Lap Dawg, Stevens,
Nick Manoloff, and flat. Second row: Ernie Ball bullet, double-round
bullet, Bakelite bullet, Nick Manoloff Bakelite bullet, Roy
Smeck cylinder, and cylinder.
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Alternate
Tuning Chords
Q
Do you have to learn new chord shapes to play
in alternate tunings?
Jason Tuttle Charlotte,
North Carolina
A
Alternate tunings
can be daunting at first, but a little practice will make them second
nature. It's a good idea to start with tunings that only marginally
change from standard. Dropped D, for example, only lowers the sixth
string by one step, and while it opens up new sounds, everything
played on the top five strings remains familiar. For more radical
alternate tunings, you will have to learn new chord shapes, but
alternate tunings allow you to play simple chords with lots of ringing
open strings. If you play fingerstyle in an alternate tuning, you
don't really need to think of chord shapes at all; instead, let
yourself be guided by the melody and bass line, then fill in the
rest by experimenting. There are several great books that can help
you explore alternate tunings. Alternate Tuning Essentials (String
Letter Publishing) includes examples and tunes in many popular tunings
and would be a great place to start. Mark Hanson's The Complete
Book of Alternate Tunings and Alternate Tuning Picture Chords
(Accent on Music, www.accentonmusic.com)
are also excellent resources.
—Teja
Gerken
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Practice
Tracks
Q Where
can I find CDs that have real musicians playing backup on songs
so I can practice my lead playing?
Mark Wells
Houston, Texas
A Depending
on what style of music you'd like to play, there are several different
options to choose from. Jamey Aebersold's Play-A-Long series (www.jazzbooks.com)
has been a staple among jazz musicians for over 30 years. The CDs
feature a real rhythm section playing through jazz standards, with
the instruments (bass, drum, and piano or guitar) separated by speaker
in case you'd like to comp along with them. For budding bluesmen
and -women, Aebersold offers the aptly-named Blues in All Keys.
Bluegrass pickers can play along with CDs like Steve Kaufman's Four-Hour
Bluegrass Workout (Homespun, www.homespuntapes.com),
which features practice tracks of popular bluegrass tunes with the
lead guitar in one speaker and rhythm section in the other. Your
local music store or online retailer will probably have some more
options in other styles. If all else fails, you can always record
yourself playing rhythm to a particular tune, although it is a lot
more fun (and challenging) to play with a full "band."
—Nicole
Solis
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Excerpted from
Acoustic Guitar magazine,
April
2003, No. 124.
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