Today, I should like to show you a video of music, that I have found, in which a Spanish musician plays an instrument, that I did not know: the "pedal steel".
If you want to watch this video, please click on the link below:
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/6x3-masterclass-en-video/sleepwalk-by-guillermo-berlanga/2674535/
Santiago Bustamante (“Seis por tres” = “Six times three” en Radio 3): “New Masterclass, in 6x3 ... very stuck at 20 strings of the Guillermo Berlanga´s pedal steel ... hello, again, teacher ..... How about?”
Guillermo Berlanga (Musician): “Thanks, Santiago…, thank you very much”
Santiago Bustamante: “Yes, yes, teacher”
Santiago Bustamante: “We are going finalizing a little bit the technique of the instrument, using the right hand and these picks, that you have for fingers .... One is of pearl, plastic and others are of metal…..”
Guillermo: “Yes, they are of metal”
Santiago: “What is the conventional?”
Guillermo: “This is the conventional, the more standar, what everybody use. The reason to use this .... if I am honest with you, I do not know .... The string has a lot of tension and you need to use an excessive force, on the strings, to press it; the pulsation really does is like ..... like shooting arrows, with a bow ..., what you do is to push the string and drop it….you drop it there .... The problem, with the instrument –it is almost the most difficult technique, which most people find harder-- is to block the strings, like when you play slide, with a electric guitar; ie, if you do this kind of sentences .... or this ..... here we have all the strings sounding .... With the block, what you are trying to do is stop ... all strings to sound only a string, which is practically the most difficult technique ...it is used, normally used the palm of the hand ....”
Santiago: “Sure, pedal steel requires very neat, very refined technique, because obviously you are facing many sounds, much wealth and ...at the minimum fault, it is amplified”
Guillermo: “Yes, especially you have very problematic strings, which are these .... or you are doing something….you fail and have sounds that are not very nice; then, it requires the technique of always being with the bar, trying to cover only the area you are going to play .... blocking with the palm of the hand....”
Santiago: “Another thing, that caught my attention, the bottleneck, this bar .....it seemed solid ... you told me you, before recording, which is not solid”
Guillermo: “Yes. Some other are solid, of steel; but, normally, what is done is a drill and filled with lead, so it has more weight, it has much weight. The weight helps, because you have to endure ... if you look around, that does not sound good; although I stop from behind, the strings ... what you have to do is to push, so that the string sounds clean .... and the weight keeps you from having not to be constantly pushing the bar down”
Santiago: “That is, play with a conventional bottleneck of guitar, it does not useful for you .....hollow….”
Guillermo: “No…, no….it should be difficult…., it should be difficult…”
Santiago: “But…I do not know if It has been difficult for you the challenge, that I posed to you ....., because the first thing I said, to contact our Masterclass ....I say: "Guillermo: let´s see if you can interpret the "Sleepwalk" by Santo & Johnny….." And .... well, you have accepted the challenge ....”
Guillermo: “I have accepted .... half. So, what I am going to do is a little sign ..., as we have no support .... I am going to do a little sign of, more or less, the melody and .... let´s see if you like it ......”
Santiago: “But, so, at first, What warning do you approach whoever should like to take interest in a subject, so characteristic, so suggestive, as this one, which obviously you have to slide ...it does not make it, in the original, with pedal steel?”
Guillermo: “No…it is with Steel Tail….sure…it is like the Apple Steel… no pedals, no levers ...; then, it is perhaps easier; but ... that it has not mechanical, does not mean not to be complex; that is, the subject is very difficult ... it needs much .... much expression .... is it about the instrument… I mean, you have to find the expression ... that it sounds nice, it sounds tune..”
Santiago: “Is that very nearly going to take us to heaven ... walking ... while we sleep ...”
Guillermo: “Or to the hell…, that I told you before…”
Santiago: “Well, let us go to this “Sleep walk”, played by our master of pedal steel, who is Guillermo Berlanga ...... Do I stay here or do you want me to go?, Are you staying alone?”
Guillermo: “No, stay, stay…”
Santiago: “Sure?”
Guillermo: “It is for you”
Santiago: “But I get away from here…”
Guillermo: “A little bit…”
Santiago: “It is for everybody….”
………music…………………………
Guillermo: “Sorry”
.................music……………………………………………………………………
Santiago: “Well, it is a recreation of the “Sleep walk”…..
Guillermo: “With a boob, at the beginning….”
Santiago: “With a boob…..; but is that, when you dare to slide ... and with an instrument like this, sometimes occur these boobs and .... nothing happens .... I think that people already ... but we have been forgiven ... are small bugs ... and make it more natural, to Masterclass ..... Well, master, next week, I wait for you; but, if you are agree , let's change the instrument and we will take, at least, a guitar, that you can hang on the shoulder .... right?. Do you also accept that challenge?”
Guillermo: “Well, I accept it”
Santiago: “But, the challenge, tha next week, here, in Radio 3 Extra, in the Masterclass of 6x3, with Guillermo Berlanga”
Well, I hope that you have liked this video, such as I did.
Until my next post, kind regards,
Luis.
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