So...could you play your steel without looking?

Chris Harwood · Post by **Chris Harwood** » 13 Sep 2023 8:11 am

Jeff Healey comes to mind...but could you play without using the fretboard reference? I'm going to guess almost all good, seasoned players can. For now, I'll keep looking!

Joe A. Roberts · Post by **Joe A. Roberts** » 13 Sep 2023 1:45 pm

This clip comes to mind… around 1:31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7nUT91 ... hlIHdvcmxk

Stephen Baker · Post by **Stephen Baker** » 13 Sep 2023 3:24 pm

This helped me recently. There’s a great book by Rob Haines, Mastering the Lap Steel Guitar (Mel Bay). In it he has three versions of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. I, like an idiot, initially skipped this and dived straight into the Don Helms licks. When am I ever going to want to play Ode to Joy? Anyway, one day I decided I as going to go through the whole book and learn it. So, I set the book up on a music stand and grabbed the lap steel. I was looking at the up at the TAB then down at the neck then back up on the TAB and down on the neck again. As this went on, I found I was looking down less and less, using my ears and my familiarity or the fretboard/neck more compared to my lack of knowledge of the piece. Slurs help finding the notes but I soon found I could play it quite staccato in tune. Once I had it parrot fashion/ muscle memory I moved on to the next version. Set up something unfamiliar and give it a go. You still glance down at times, especially on big position shifts but, the more familiar “box” positions you can do without looking. It’s great ear training

David Matzenik · Post by **David Matzenik** » 14 Sep 2023 5:50 am

It would be a valuable ability, but its unlike the piano or violin, where you have tactile clues that lead to an intimate sense of where you are. I play some parts without much of a visual cue, but I don't try very hard. Where I do think it is important is your right hand playing harmonics. We shouldn't hunt for the harmonic position. We know its half way from the bar to the bridge so it shouldn't need much of a visual.

Nic Neufeld · Post by **Nic Neufeld** » 14 Sep 2023 6:20 am

Having "special" eyes (highly myopic) with a higher risk of retina issues, I've given some thought to this, if things went really bad and I lost my sight. (As it happens, I finally decided to get intraocular lenses which went in yesterday...after 35 years of contacts and glasses it is surreal today to be able to see without either!) I think the answer is yes, maybe, with a whole lot of practice...I know Stevie Wonder gets some tactile feedback from the keys but I think part of it is he just knows where the keys are at this point. Style of music is a factor too...a slow Hawaiian ballad would be much more forgiving, for example (with all the slow slides and ptahs that let you use your ears to land where you want to) than a fast, bar-bouncing Hawaiian march.

David M Brown · Post by **David M Brown** » 14 Sep 2023 6:31 am

I've actually tried a few times. It works better when I can see the fingerboard markers!

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 14 Sep 2023 7:40 am

I heard it said that Buddy Emmons would turn out the lights and play his guitar in the dark.
Just in case he would ever go blind.
Erv

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 14 Sep 2023 10:14 am

So...could you play your steel without looking?

YES

Noah Miller · Post by **Noah Miller** » 14 Sep 2023 3:25 pm

Heck, I can't even play well when looking. I recognize the advantage of being able to intonate by ear, but that requires a better ear than I'll ever have.

Sebastian Müller · Post by **Sebastian Müller** » 14 Sep 2023 10:55 pm

Of course I can play steel guitar without looking, but I do sound way more out of tune. I think playing our instrument in tune is one of the biggest challenges, so I take every help I can. I also recommend all my students to memorize the tunes asap, it will be very hard to sightread a tune and play it properly in tune. I am sure skills like that can be trained, but since I am not a studio musician that has to sightread parts I don't focus on this.

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 15 Sep 2023 4:37 am

Play my steel without looking at the fretboard ?

Nope………I can barely play the damn thing in a well lit room with bifocals!

Samuel Phillippe · Post by **Samuel Phillippe** » 15 Sep 2023 6:24 am

Tony Glassman wrote:Play my steel without looking at the fretboard ?

Nope………I can barely play the damn thing in a well lit room with bifocals!

Tony, we must be in the same room

Sam

Bruce Blackburn · Post by **Bruce Blackburn** » 15 Sep 2023 2:04 pm

It is easier to do without seeing than it is to do without hearing it.

Brooks Montgomery · Post by **Brooks Montgomery** » 17 Sep 2023 11:16 am

I need to practice more on “blind picking” on my grips. I played an outdoor wedding gig last night on pedal steel. As the sun set and the ambient light went low, it got harder. And then when they switched on a string of funky romantic (I guess) lights over the band, they cast string shadows on the steel neck that were about a whole string shift, which really made it harder. I had to hunker over the guitar like a homeless hunchback eating a bowl of soup. My “blind” picking muscle memory needs work.

Bill Groner · Post by **Bill Groner** » 17 Sep 2023 11:40 am

Bruce Blackburn wrote:It is easier to do without seeing than it is to do without hearing it.

My friend in Scotland, James Kerr made this post. I was sad to read it. I always enjoyed watching the videos James made. Yes Bruce you are correct. Got be able to hear the steel.

PostForum Section: Steel Players Posted: 9 Dec 2021 4:49pm Subject: Steel Guitar and Hearing
This caught up with me in 2019, I made a short video to explain to my many subscribers and viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmHYLCTG8NA

Hope it doesn't happen to you.

James Kerr