source file: mills3.txt Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 17:50:41 +0100 Subject: lap steel, bar slants and the surrogate kithara From: "Bob Lee" Steven Rezsutek wrote: >I tried playing my 22tet guitar, which is tuned to an open minor >tetrad, "lap steel style", and I think I could get into it. It >certainly solves some of my problems with fingering ;-) I feel a bit >ashamed that until now I never really looked into it before. Get a good, rounded steel bar to play with. A standard technique for lap steel is to slant the bar to get notes at two different frets. This doesn't work well unless you have a properly shaped bar. Most music stores carry the Ernie Ball bar, which is adequate. Some bar slants can actually get properly tuned notes at 3 different frets, but more often the intonation of those slants is bad. Choose triad slants very carefully - remember that the frets are not equally spaced! >Thank you, Bobby Lee, for drawing our attention to a most wonderful >instrument. You're very welcome. I'm a bit of a steel evangelist, and I see the microtonal crowd as a great new market for the instrument. There are currently about 20,000 steel players in the world, but I'd bet that those doing classical and experimental music number less than 100. I know of less than 10. Partch's "surrogate kithara" is a steel guitar of sorts, but it is not played well in any of Partch's music. If Patch had paid any attention to standard steel guitar techniques of his time, his string sounds could have been every bit as spactacular as his percussion. Instead, he ended up with sound effects where there could have been legitimate string music (only my opinion, of course). People interested in classical steel guitar should pick up Mike Perlowin's "Firebird Suite" CD. While Mike usually plays in 12 tone ET, his choice of material is nonetheless an exciting development in the steel guitar world. He tells me that he has a Partch project on the horizon. I only hope that he doesn't try to duplicate those miserable kithara parts! -b0b- ----- quasar@wco.com (Bobby Lee) http://wco.com/~quasar/ SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: Aline Surman Subject: Danielou, Touma PostedDate: 22-12-97 18:40:39 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 22-12-97 18:38:26-22-12-97 18:38:26,22-12-97 18:37:58-22-12-97 18:37:58 DeliveredDate: 22-12-97 18:37:58 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C1256575.0060E589; Mon, 22 Dec 1997 18:40:18 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA23801; Mon, 22 Dec 1997 18:40:39 +0100 Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 18:40:39 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA23796 Received: (qmail 20839 invoked from network); 22 Dec 1997 09:40:33 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 22 Dec 1997 09:40:33 -0800 Message-Id: <349EAE88.3508@dnvr.uswest.net> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu