The Byrds - Change Is Now - pedal steel part by Red Rhodes
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It’s easy to forget the Byrds used the pedal steel before they went stone country with Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968.
In 1967 during the recording sessions for The Notorious Byrd Brothers album, they recorded this psychedelic number with a curious country bit written in the middle.
Red Rhodes was the man the Byrds hired to put down a pedal steel part in the country part of the song which was recorded on 30 August 1967 according to the sleeve notes of my CD.
Here I attempt to duplicate the pedal steel part against a backing track I recorded with Drummer on Logic Pro X, plus the bass part, Clarence White’s guitar part and Roger McGuinn’s 12 string guitar part.
Not a particularly difficult part to play at all. Sounds great though. I can see why the Byrds wanted a pedal steel for this number.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Great care and effort has been expended on trying to ensure that the steel part is accurate. However there is always a risk that what I am demonstrating could be wrong in terms of note, in terms of position of the steel bar, in terms of which strings are plucked. I could have been suffering from slight deafness on the day of recording or I was feeling off because the wife was nagging me again. This video represents the best that I could do after researching the original recording and any available footage. Unless I was standing right next to the player and videotaping the performance, there’s no way I can accurately say for certain that what I play is perfectly accurate to what the original player did. Do not assume my demonstration as the final word, cast in stone-like. I could be wrong. Nobody is perfect, least of all me. Viewers should exercise caution when watching the video and they would be well advised to check for themselves against the original recording and any associated footage. I may be playing it wrong but you may be playing it right. Isn’t this fun, learning things together?
Пікірлер: 14
GREAT little gem in a GREAT 1967 single by the BYRDS! The Byrds were a huge influence on The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and many other top rock bands of the time. The Red Rhodes steel part showed the attention to detail they gave every song back then.
What a beautiful sound
Thank you! this definitely was an important reminder.
*Very* cool ! For me it was difficult to ascertain whether or not that was an actual pedal steel *or* Clarence White playing the *B*-*Bender* , and then 'toyed-with' on the Mini Moog that was employed extensively on '*Notorious* *Byrd* *Brothers* . That pedal steel "break" on *Change* *Is* *Now* is sublime ! I'm a huge fan of *Flying* *Burrito* *Brothers* as well , especially their first album --- absolutely beautiful . Thanks much for playing those pedal steel parts !
@Dannykhc
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching, John. To my ears, the sound of the pedal steel was unmistakable on the record, for the country sounding parts as shown in the video. For the instrumental break which is not on this video, the lead guitar on the left channel appears to sound like backwards guitar (Roger or Clarence?) while the right channel has another lead guitar part (Roger or Clarence?). I like to adopt the hippie attitude of making everything free for all to use, so no tricky camera angles to try to conceal how you are playing the parts.
@johnhughes9019
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks much for your detailed reply , Danny . I have zero musical talent ; none what-so-ever . I have always been intrigued with / by instruments ( with an affinity for analogue organs --- the Mellotron in particular ) , but am lacking in ways to learn anything from a conventional standpoint ( which is the case with many facets of comprehension in my life ) . Clarence White was so laid back and cool with that B-Bender (witness The Byrds on the Beat Club in May 1971 performing an instrumental version of 'Eight Miles High') .
@Dannykhc
5 жыл бұрын
Well, it's never to late to learn, John. If you have an iPad, you can download a mellotron app, I just checked the Apple App store, and start fiddling from there. Tons of KZread videos on how to start playing piano or keyboards from scratch. There are videos on the mellotron too. I only started learning the pedal steel in 2011 at the age of 42, after a futile effort trying to get the B-bender to sound like a pedal steel. A B-bender helps a little bit but there's no way it can ever sound truly like a pedal steel. I consider the pedal steel to be my main instrument now.
What 3 strings are you picking for this? It’s hard for me to tell from the video. Thanks so much!
@Dannykhc
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching, Goofy. Having reviewed the video again, in the first section, I play only strings 3, 4 and 5. In the second section, I play various combinations of strings 3, 4, 5 and 6 . You can slow down the video and watch the string vibrations to see which strings are being played. The chord progression is basically G, A and D.
@Smellmefingers
5 жыл бұрын
@@Dannykhc Thanks for taking the time sir!
Im interested in learning pedal steel; would you recommend starting with something like an 8-string lap steel first? Or just seeking out a full-fledged pedal steel guitar? Im fairly comfortable with standard 6-string guitar if that makes any difference
@Dannykhc
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching, Sam. Don't bother with lap steels as there's no way you can even get close to the sound of a pedal steel, especially changing the second note to the third note while playing the root and fifth notes, that classic pedal steel lick. As for the type of steel, just get the regular single neck E9 version, with 3 pedals and 4 knee levers. Then you got to think about how to learn to play, take paid lessons, DVD instruction videos, KZread videos or the old fashioned instruction book plus listening to a lot of records with pedal steel on it. I started on an instruction book, got rapidly tired of it and decided I would be better off learning off actual records instead. I'll say this about the pedal steel, it took me about 2 years to remember which pedal and lever did what to which string.
@samhuff4725
5 жыл бұрын
@@Dannykhc Thanks for the quick and helpful response! It really is an intimidating instrument to learn. But I already listen to a TON of pedal steel playing so at least I have that going for me! Just need to find one now :)
not bad im Jeff rhodes reds son....teach the children my dad did not do ....j.d. manis??? buddy emons...