Pretty good steel guitar on a keyboard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUjeabtFSyE

I happen to love arranger keyboards in addition to a "standard" stage keyboard my Kurzweil PC3.

This caught my eye and man, he has the keyboard steel technique nailed. I know there's lots of country pickers here and while a real guitarist might not be too impressed I think you'll agree this guy is pretty good. If you happened to have a country trio and can't find a steel player, this guy could fill the bill I think.

Note that while he's playing with the pitch bend he's also fitting in the chord changes with his left hand. This PSR950 is in Yamaha's mid/high range of arrangers at under $2,000. The top of the line Tyros 4 is double that and is even more amazing than this one is in the hands of a good player.

Bob

Bob, that man can play! I’ve never heard a keyboard player sound so much like a pedal steel player as this cat can!

FWIW-If one doesn’t have the money for a Yamaha but has a full version of Kontakt WaveLore’s Pedal Steel sounds excellent also: http://www.wavelore.com/products.php?product=WLPS

And on the Pedal Steel Pie-anna, we have Larry Levin, folks!

--Mac

It's funny as much as I really like jazz and funk I can't forget country either. Sometimes I really dig it and this is one of those times, it's just too cool for words. I've done a bit of keyboard steel work but not lately. He makes me want to go and work some stuff up.

Bob

Mario, I would agree with what you said about Larry’s playing, but I would change ‘pedal’ steel player to ‘lap’ steel player, for the following reason.

One of the most important moves of pedal steel playing, that cannot be done with a standard MIDI keyboard using a slider, is resolving a chord with the pedals. As far as I can tell, Larry is playing like a lap steel player would (i.e., sliding, but without pedals)

For example, instead of playing an Amin/C (CEA), pedal steel players love to play Cmaj (CEG), and then while the chord is sounding, use a pedal to stretch the G to an A. This is impossible to do on a standard MIDI keyboard using a slider because, once a chord is sounding, individual notes cannot be pitch-shifted with the slider; rather, all sounding notes must be pitch-shifted together.

I say impossible, but that is exactly what I am doing in the following video with my Casio PX-5S (under $1000). This video is a screen recording from my patent-pending ‘Keyborg Pro’ app (still in beta), and the same can be done with ANY standard MIDI keyboard that supports the GM1 sound set (or at least has an Electric Guitar sound built in).

https://youtu.be/BB_-2KvaGLY

Hope you enjoy the video.