Moving bar & other Jerry Byrd techniques

[Rick Aiello]

One bit of advice that Jerry Byrd gave me has stuck with me for many years …

“Never let the bar stop moving “

Similar stories from Bernice Honald and Mae Lang …

“ … if we ever stopped moving the bar, they would swat our hands with a ruler”

Some old timer advice to ponder

[Cartwright Thompson]

Amen

[Mike Neer]

100% agree

[HowardR]

To dig a little deeper.......moving the bar up & down the neck......vibrato......on & off the neck?.......any movements other than those?

What about space, like in between movement & vibrato?.....(76 year-old seasoned beginners want to know )

[Rick Aiello]

Disclaimer : Techniques mentioned below are observations of how Jerry Byrd did it …


The more I watch him (and I’ve been watching those performances for years) … the more I pick up on his transitions from picked note to picked note …

Ive heard folks say … “let the pick note sound first before applying vibrato” … but not in JB’s camp

His bar never stops moving in a phrase …

His vibrato is timed with his movement up or down the neck …. when it’s time to make that move to the next note …

Then he either keeps moving and picks the next note as he passes it going for the third note …

Or he turns the next note into a held note … and his movement from “getting” there becomes the “first part” of the his next vibrato cycle … his bar never stops for even a millisecond during a phrase …

It’s the seamless transition from his subtle slide into his vibrato … that’s what he was referring to …

Jeff Kearns took a violinist vibrato course … and we used to talk alot about the way JB would use his “last” motion of one cycle as his next “first” motion on the next cycle …

Hope all that makes sense …

[Rick Aiello]

Here’s a rare glimpse of JB practicing for a convention performance … it shows pretty much what I tried to describe in words.


https://youtu.be/rTSbU5Fg5yQ?si=8-WYqhW31rYqt47r


George “Keoki” Lake took the video

[Michael Kiese]

One of the tips from Jerry's Video course that stuck with me is how you can move very quickly along a string, but you only hear the beginning and end note.

Jerry demonstrated it and he said "It's like how magic can trick your eye. You can do the same with your ear."

Really great insight, right there.

[Rick Aiello]

It’s as if JB generates a constant triplet-like pattern … pulsing throughout the song …that he only “leaves” to pick a new note or make some other kind of movement …

[David DeLoach]

This may or may not apply to steel playing, but a few years ago I took a few lessons from Jack Pearson who played slide guitar with The Allman Brothers in the late '90's, Jack is one of the best guitarists I've come across - and a humble/kind guy as well.

He was giving me some tips on bottleneck slide playing and had me do the following....

• 1. Play a note with the slide - no vibrato
  2. Then add some SLOW vibrato and gradually increase the speed of the vibrato up to the FAST vibrato.
  3. Then he had me start SLOW and work up to a MEDIUM speed vibrato - with the speed of the vibrato about half way between the SLOW and FAST vibratos

He then told me that Duane Allman used that MEDIUM tempo vibrato to get his sound.

Before that, I'd never really given much thought to the speed of vibrato. But I guess that can apply to steel playing too.

[Rick Aiello]

I enjoy watching slide guitarists … Johnny Winter is my favorite …

Vibrato is considered by many to be independent of tempo … violinist usually have a rate in the neighborhood of 6 Hz regardless of the tempo of the song …

Using a “slow downer” … I compared very slow songs like Mauna Kea and fast songs like Palolo … and found almost a perfect triplet pattern to his vibrato no matter what the tempo … he’s most definitely adjusting his rate to suit the song …

Uncanny

[Rick Aiello]

I tried to find videos that demonstrates the concept relating vibrato rate to song tempo …

I’ll be all smiles tonight

https://youtu.be/6dajjsyR-PU?si=W5OckXSBFx7PIOsy

Tomi Tomi
https://youtu.be/E7KsQf3Bjoo?si=v_IoX4GetmO9qd8D


These are from the Steel Guitar West Clubs convention in 1990. The other guest was Dwight Tokumoto …

[BJ Burbach]

Rick, thanks for all of this. Very instructive.
I'm an old Johnny Winter fan, my first and always slide hero, aside from my Dad, who came back from the war in the Pacific playing with a shot glass. (McHale's Navy, right?)
Happy New Year,
BJ

[Gary Meixner]

Rick,

I can't thank you and others enough for posting these videos. Jerry's technique is perfection, and to see him play up close is so informative.

Best,

G. Meixner

[Chris Templeton]

At my lessons I never heard Jerry say he always kept the bar moving. He generally hits the note an start's vibrato immediately.

[Rick Aiello]

Back in the late ‘80’s … I’d mail him a completed lesson and $25 … and he’d return it with a comment (or many)
I have them all somewhere down in the basement (but no cassette player)

He made that comment to me after hearing a lesson … something I was doing and he said to the affect of…

“ you have to always keep the bar moving, can’t catch a fish if the line isn’t in the water “ …

It was a memorable line

[Chris Templeton]

Thanks, Rick.

[Lloyd Graves]

This is a next-level skill. Doubly so because I have worked so hard to get the bar in tune, resulting in holding the bar still. Now I have to undo that and learn to keep it moving?

But you're right. Even the little bit of success I have had so far sounds so much better,

Thanks for sharing.

[Rick Aiello]

You are certainly correct … I’ve been studying him for yrs and each time I watch him I learn something newc… to this day

I’m glad this is helping …

[Rick Aiello]

Disclaimer: This is about Jerry Byrd’s techniques … it is not ment to start the usual controversy …


Probably the most devastating lesson I ever sent was the first cassette. I was so excited. Had bought a Korg tuner and was all tuned up, Recorded about 100 versions of “Sweet Lei Lehua” … picked the best and sent it off.

It wasn’t a week later and I got this baby blue colored letter which read something like … “I received your cassette and couldn’t make it through the first few measures. Learn how to tune your guitar via Just Intonation and send this lesson… back to me”

I was floored … I had no idea what Just Intonation was. There was no internet … I asked the Band Director at my high school (he didn’t know), went to the public library, no luck. Finally found out what is was in a University Physics text .

So I learned about beat frequency, etc … tuned up, another round of Sweet Lei Lehua takes … and popped the best one back in the mail.

This time he returned the tape with his verbal comments on the B side . It went something like this:

“I see you learned to tune your guitar, now “ … and listed about a million things I did wrong …

Merry Christmas

[David DeLoach]

This is a next-level skill. Doubly so because I have worked so hard to get the bar in tune, resulting in holding the bar still. Now I have to undo that and learn to keep it moving?

But you're right. Even the little bit of success I have had so far sounds so much better,

Thanks for sharing.

I once asked a violinist who had incredible vibrato how she developed that skill. Her answer.... "I practice my vibrato 10 - 15 minutes every day."

Doh!

[Michael Kiese]

Disclaimer: This is about Jerry Byrd’s techniques … it is not ment to start the usual controversy …


Probably the most devastating lesson I ever sent was the first cassette. I was so excited. Had bought a Korg tuner and was all tuned up, Recorded about 100 versions of “Sweet Lei Lehua” … picked the best and sent it off.

It wasn’t a week later and I got this baby blue colored letter which read something like … “I received your cassette and couldn’t make it through the first few measures. Learn how to tune your guitar via Just Intonation and send this lesson… back to me”

I was floored … I had no idea what Just Intonation was. There was no internet … I asked the Band Director at my high school (he didn’t know), went to the public library, no luck. Finally found out what is was in a University Physics text .

So I learned about beat frequency, etc … tuned up, another round of Sweet Lei Lehua takes … and popped the best one back in the mail.

This time he returned the tape with his verbal comments on the B side . It went something like this:

“I see you learned to tune your guitar, now “ … and listed about a million things I did wrong …

Merry Christmas

Just Intonation on steel is another revelation. Steel guitar may be the only chording instrument that can be tuned to just intonation, and still play in all keys. That may very well be something that many Music PhD’s themselves do not realize. It’s likely due to steel being such an obscure instrument.

[Rick Aiello]

Another pretty scathing talk tape came back one time … one of his huge pet peeves apparently was …

Sliding up into every note !!!

“You are telegraphing each note, shooting it like fish in a barrel . Nothing subtle about it”. “Stop picking the note flat and sliding up to it every time”

He often referred to fishing in his critiques

IMG_2687.jpeg

[Rick Aiello]

PS. By the way, I wasn’t just a “hair” below the target note(s) , no, I was pretty far back

He called it “scooping” … and really didn’t like it

[Scott Thomas]

I have to agree. Nothing makes me turn off a performance faster.

[Glenn Demichele]

Thanks for this guys. First let me say I have a long way to go on my bar and pedal control. IMHO though, I think the moving bar rule applies only if you want your steel to sound "that way". I play in multiple bands - some are straight-ahead country, and others play hippie music or Tom Petty etc. etc. I even play in a fusion jazz band with horns once a month (mostly mediocre C6). One thing I love to do though - depending of course on the music and where it is in the song - is just land flat-footed on a chord, diad or single note with absolutely no vibrato. You know: "Boom: This is a G7, dammit". In many kinds of music, trying to sound like the stereotypical steel guitar just sounds cheezy, like "Hey look everybody, I'm playing steel guitar, boing, boing, boing".
People say steel guitar is dying, or has no application in today's music, but we can do anything with the instrument. I enjoy playing trad country, but equally enjoy trying to make it NOT sound like a steel guitar.