Cold Heart Lap Steel Lesson
Cold Heart -- This classic steel guitar standard offers a bunch of lessons to be learned from your C6 tuned lap steel guitar. You've heard it said before: “It's all about the slants”. Today we're going to be exploring ways to add slants to your playing, but also dip a little into a way to play the same phrase without slanting, and the effect it has on the musical phrase being played. In the process, we're also going to be finding a nice little F chord in two different places on the neck. A fun way to add slants to your practice is to use them in a song or musical phrase. One of the more essential slants that I have in mind happens on a specific string set in the beginning of the classic Cold, Cold Heart. ResourcesBack Track MP3 Sound Samples from this Lesson: Here's my pass at Cold Cold Heart, using semi-improvised variations of the main melody theme, sometimes slanting, sometimes not. Can you tell which phrases are not slanted? Give a listen and see! Note: this clip was played on the Remington D8 in C6 tuning for 6 string lap steel guitar (low to high CEGACE). Also, note that this clip features an extended original introduction that I wrote just for this Internet lesson, but which does not come on the V.1 version. Sample backtrack that's played behind the musical examples that follows: Back Track w/o Lead MP3. Example 1Example 1 features the head of the song, with the melody being introduced on beat 4 of the first measure. Notice that we're sliding into the first chord (the slanted lines leading into the notes in notation and the numbers in TAB). The measure numbers--in this case 6, 7, and 8--match the Cold Cold Heart lesson found on your V.1. Sample video found here.  The overall harmony as we enter the second measure is F major, and the steel guitar lead line is sounding from the 12th position on strings 2 and 3. If you don't already recognize this as an F major chord, make it part of your practice to memorize this location and string set now. On the second beat, the bar moves to the 10th position, same string set, using some nice parallel motion where you have the opportunity to introduce various embellishment sliding, at your discretion. And here comes our slant: same string set, but this time we have an F at the 8th fret of the third string, slanting up to an A on the 9th fret of the second string. One of the biggest challenges occurs right here. Staying in tune as you slide from 10th fret into this slant can many times be a lesson in "tuning up" the slant to sound right. But how? Tune Your SlantsA fun way to tune these up is to slide into them FROM BELOW. Your first inclination may be to slide from 10th fret DOWN into the slant, but this is what many times leads to that "out of tune" sound that makes you cringe.Rather, go down slightly below the slant position and glide UP into position. Give it a try and I think you'll be playing your slants better just because you did! These two-note slants take well to being slid into in this manner, allowing you to use your ear to make sure you're in tune. This is where the extended Cold Cold Heart full band backing tracks come in handy: Use the backing track found on your LIL STEEL V.1 to tune this chord up with the surrounding harmony. [Track 1 on your LIL STEEL V.1] The backing track harmonies are perfect for learning this slant since you have slow tempos and extended measures devoted to single chords, giving you ample opportunity to tune up your chords while jamming with a pro backing band. In fact, the entire song is pretty much devoted to predominantly F major and C7 as there's only one measure devoted to the IV chord, Bflat. Example 2In the following example we have the opportunity to “Slant or Not to Slant.” It's the same phrase as before, just this time using another essential F major position further down the neck. Notice that in the second measure, the slant has now been replaced with the same chord found on the 5th fret, strings 1 and 2. If you haven't already done so, this 5th fret location should be memorized as being the F major chord. Some of the benefits of "going straight" rather than slanting: you can introduce different embellishment slides into these position changes. Try sliding DOWN into the fifth fret F chord to hear how different the phrase sounds from the slanted version you were doing before.
As an exercise, alternate the way you play this Cold Heart phrase—slant the first time through, the next time use the fifth fret notes instead. A couple things you can pick up here: 1) Learn the way the phrase changes, and use this variety in your playing and improvising, and; 2) Quicken your ability to jump around the fretboard between these two positions So to sum it up: why would you want to Slant or Not Slant with Cold Cold Heart? In a word, Variety! Do both while keeping it Musical the entire time. See you next time, Josh Cho Have A Comment About Cold Heart?Share your comments or observations about this Cold Heart lap steel guitar lesson right here! What Other Visitors Have SaidClick below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
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