by Walter Seamon, Lead Guitarist for Holiday Road

Need a challenge? Do you feel like you are in a 'rut' learning/playing/performing with your current musical instrument, or are you looking for new musical ideas? Why not try another instrument which is musically 'close' to the one you play now? Like musical cousins!

Of course, what motivated this idea for me is my starting to learn to play the lap steel. It's close enough to guitar to let me feel like I'm not totally in new instrument territory, but different enough that I’m really learning an entirely new skill set: different tunings, different playing technique using a lap/pedal steel bar.

This has really given me a fun song-learning boost: relearn old songs using the new instrument and put entirely new twists into those songs and learn new ones which are not guitar-featured songs (like Steel Guitar Rag, Hula Blues).

In searching around for resources to learn more about the lap, I've encountered an entirely new set of lap, pedal and dobro instrument virtuosos I never knew about before: Tom Morrell, Bob Bozman, Herb Remington and others. They've definitely broadened my musical horizons in addition to broadening the opening of my mouth when my jaw drops open in response to their incredible playing!

This idea could be extended to other instruments; new instruments not so far from the one you currently play as a way to energize/revitalize your musical experiences.

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