Just be YOU

[Larry Behm]

1. If you can’t play every note like Buddy or Paul or Tommy or Travis it is OK to just be you with your approach to the song. Singers do it, guitar players do it, keyboard players do it but you can’t ——WRONG. Sure you can—1. Be in tune—2. Have good tone—3. Fancy licks you can not pull off YET be damned. Licks will come in time, in the mean time study-work at it-and then go have fun.

2. I was told. When Tommy White was asked if he was going to play Look At Us behind Vince just like John did it he said No…Out of respect for John, that was HIS break. Spoke volumes to me.

3. So with all of that, play with confidence, at your current skill level and have fun. This is a life long journey.

[Dennis Lee]

Amen to that. I'm only human!

[Jerry Overstreet]

Got no choice. I Gotta Be Me.

[Dennis Lee]

I just saw this while listening to the great Koos Biel paying tribute to BE.

"There's no need to be perfect to inspire others.
Let people get inspired by how you deal with your imperfections."

[Daniel Beachy]

Sound advice.
The thing is, you WILL sound like you. No matter how much you try to emulate the greats, the way you hold the bar, the angle at which you pick the strings, the exact timing of your pedal movements - that’s something that is unique to you, and nobody else can do it exactly the same. Focus on sound fundamentals and everything else will come.

[Brett Day]

One of the reasons I play steel is because I love the instrument, and will always sound like Brett Day. I didn't start playing to sound like another steel guitarist. I believe as a steel guitarist, it's very important to come up with and look for your own style and learn from other steel guitarists including the legends of steel guitar, and then listen to various players to add more inspiration to be yourself as a steel guitarist. You have to develop your own technique of playing because it's very important to be you as a steel guitarist because all styles are different and don't worry about mistakes. Approach playing steel guitar with a positive mindset because it can be very rewarding

[K Maul]

You certainly can learn from the masters by TRYING to play like them. I never really had much patience for that. There are stories I’ve heard where people at seminars would tell Big E “I learned every lick off the Black Album”. Buddy would respond in a decidedly unimpressed fashion. His favorite players were those who sounded nothing like him.

[Don Mogle]

Well said Larry!

[Lee Baucum]

Great post, Larry!

It makes me feel so much better about myself.

[Chuck Lemasters]

Lee Baucum….+1

[J D Sauser]

Being Ourselves

From Buddy Emmons’ biography, we can see that when he started playing there were already two generations of professional steel guitarists active. Yes, he mentioned Jerry Byrd and Joaquin Murphey — but he also immersed himself in Charlie Parker, Charlie Shavers, Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Ray Brown, Flip Phillips, and Barney Kessel.
Here are the first records he bought at age 14 (according to the biography):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdQoeBKYVL4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfpPC_1Te4A
The latter reportedly grabbed his full attention… Jazz Blues.

Then, in 1962, he shocked the steel guitar world recording Steel Guitar Jazz.

One could reasonably deduce that this didn’t come from listening only to Jerry Byrd or Joaquin Murphey!

Throughout his career, Buddy remained an avid jazz-blues musician and improviser. That broader musical diet mattered.

Once Buddy Emmons set the bar, many players have listened to — and tried to play like no one but Buddy Emmons. His playing style and tone became the most desirable goal. That even applies to some of the great players who followed him; wonderful as they are, relatively few sounded fundamentally different at the core. As students, we’re probably even more prone to falling into that trap.

Years ago I said to someone, half jokingly:
“You want to sound like Buddy Emmons? Can you at least walk like him?”
It probably sounded like an insult — but it wasn’t meant that way.

What I was trying (clumsily) to allude to is this:
In modern American music (especially after the turn of the 20th century), the emphasis shifted from proper rendition to individualism — call it improvisation. Copying — even trying to copy — is not improvising.

Learning from others means listening deeply, absorbing, and being able to render something through your own body: humming it, whistling it, feeling the phrasing before ever touching the instrument. That’s where improvisation begins.

Buddy didn’t just listen to steel guitar. He listened to music.
I think we’d all benefit from doing the same — especially since our instrument is a niche one and has become increasingly homogeneous in its playing style.

Yes, we should absolutely study solos, licks, and phrases. But we shouldn’t expect ourselves, as students, to reproduce a solo 1:1 the way one of the greats played it. That’s not how they learned. We tend to stare at the very tip of the iceberg and try to chip off a souvenir, instead of understanding what’s underneath. Ambitious, maybe — but often frustrating and unproductive.

I tried copying my heroes too — Jerry Byrd, Speedy West, and later Buddy. But it was with Maurice that I finally found a teacher who didn’t want me to play his music his way. Instead, he gave me tools — tools to understand the instrument and discover what I had to say on it.

There’s nothing wrong with borrowing a phrase or a lick. But there’s no need to break your fingers trying to play it exactly like the record. Learn from it.
Play with it. Fool around with it. You may be surprised at what comes out.

Every instrument has its limitations, complications and also advantages. One thing I love about the steel guitar is how easy it is to play in any key. Learn everything in only two keys a fourth or fifth apart around the same position on the neck, and suddenly all twelve are right there — no sharps, flats, half-tone panic, or key-GPS required. Just nudge on over and grin while everyone else scrambles for a calculator screaming "in C#, REALLY?!?".

And finally — most of this isn’t really about notes anyway.
In popular music, it’s about rhythm — call it syncopation, phrasing, feel, or soul. That’s musical intimacy, and it’s deeply personal. Very few people can copy that convincingly — and I wouldn’t even try anymore.

It goes back to “can you walk like Buddy Emmons?”
Or... can you talk like him? Have you ever heard him speak? The man had a radio voice — cool as Matthew McConaughey… or our newest French citizen actor.
Do you know why they cast Sean Connery as James Bond? After his first walk-on, someone said:
“Look — he moves like a panther.”
Can I walk like Connery? Can any of us?

But can Buddy — or Connery — walk like you?

Exactly!
Just be you.
Thanks Mr. Behm!— J-D