Steel Guitar Zone.com Maximum Success Music Instruction

Sign up here for Steel Guitar Zone Free Maximum Success Instruction tips Enter Your Name: Enter your Email:

Flatlanders Are One Dimensional

There is a book I read a long time ago titled “Flatland” by Edwin Abbott.

It a story about geometric shapes and how they live in a two

Dimensional world. All except the square who discovers

the third dimension and that there is a whole other world

out there.

While this book is a satire on Victorian England and it’s

“class society”, I can’t help using it as an example for today’s

message.

So many times I run into musicians that think like the shapes

In “Flatland”. Every once in a while I will run into someone

That when asked what they play, they tell me rock guitar, drums,

Bluegrass guitar, jazz guitar and the king of it all, the proverbial

“ I only play classical guitar and none of that other stuff”.

To me this is missing the point of playing music in the first place.

First and foremost I play music…period. It doesn’t matter to me

whether I play guitar, Dobro, steel guitar, harmonica, French horn,

trumpet or bamboo saxophone! (yea, I have a cool bamboo sax)

The point being that too many times musicians put up

walls around themselves and miss out on the really

great part of playing music in the first place.

So, if you play rock guitar, check out some classical music.

I lived in Hollywood in the late 1980’s through the mid 90’s

And this was ground zero for classically influenced rock guitar.

Just check out Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore, Jason Becker and

The Shrapnel guitar stable, Steve Vai and many others.

Most of my life I grew up on a healthy dose of classical and

jazz music . Later on I discovered bluegrass which to me

sounds a lot like jazz with country instruments. But this doesn’t

stop me from listening and playing rock, old time country, jazz

or another style of music I have heard a lot of this past week because

of where I am but that’s for tomorrow.

So expand your horizons. Play something you never played before

on your instrument. This could be as wild as playing through a distorted

guitar amp with your french horn. I do this every once in a while

and it sounds great for you horn players out there.

If you play guitar, try tuning it like

a dobro for a few days. You will be amazed at the new licks

you come up with.  To get step by step instructions

for tuning and playing like a dobro player, go here:

Teach Yourself To Play Dobro

So let me know how you make out and try something

new today!

Don’t play any faster than you can play perfectly!

Joe Stoebenau

 P.S. here’s the link again: Teach Yourself To Play Dobro

P.S.S. Save money and order the Dobroist’s Scrapbook along with

           Teach Yourself to Play Dobro. Go here NOW!

           http://www.steelguitarzone.com/Teach_Yourself_Dobro_order_form.htm