Speedy West's "Rippling Waters" view from under the strings

[Mike Neer]

Since I last posted I've made a lot of progress on my whole rig, upgrading here and there and making some adjustments--I'm actually ready for some action now. I had to make some adjustments to the string spacing on the steel, and everything is great now.

So, last night I sat down at the steel with the lights off in my studio and just a small strip of COB lights on, and I turned on the camera and monitor and liked what I saw. Tonight, I shot a quick clip of an excerpt of a Speedy West tune--one of my all-time favorites--called Rippling Waters. I hadn't played it before tonight, but just felt inspired to at least learn the first part of it. Truth is, I just wanted to get a nice, short clip of this view. It’s more artsy than anything.

By the way, the original recording was made on pedal steel and I am trying to pull it off on straight steel, C6.

https://youtu.be/VkflYKO1W0U

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Below is a view of my teaching setup.

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[Mike Neer]

This is the first piece I played, an oldie but goodie from 1597. Definitely not a steel guitar piece, but I tried my best to make something out of it for demonstration purposes (the slanting is intense).

Come again, sweet love doth now invite (John Dowland, 1597), C6 lap steel
https://youtu.be/AW94iCmIJ-g

[Matt Berg]

Mike, you're really on to something here. My only suggestion would be make sure both hands are in the picture and also, could just have a lot more contrast between the bar and the background. I'm not sure what color is the opposite of steel but to me the bar gets a little lost although I have not experimented with changing settings on my monitor

[Mike Neer]

Thanks, Matt. I should make it clear that the visuals here are really more of an artful video than for anything else. I kept the lights of the studio off because I thought the vibe was kind of cool. But for teaching purposes, what I have set up is pretty clear. You can see the multiview screen shot above.

But you just gave me an idea!

[Brad Bechtel]

I'd agree with Matt regarding the use of a colored bar to make it stand out.

Sill Music offers their bars in red, white, black and blue . I'm sure there are many other options as well!