I think people like Django knew exactly what he was doing when he played a diminished scale for an altered chord…Wes Montgomery, too. Guitar players that people say, “Oh, he didn’t know what he was doing, he just played by ear…”–I think that’s BS. I think all guitar players knew that stuff back then. I know theory-wise what I’m doing, I think that’s very important, especially if you play any kind of jazz. I don’t sit down and read music very well–it takes me forever, I never had any experience with that. J: No, not really, but I’ve learned a lot of music theory over the years just from playing forever. I always want to know where the 3rd is, #5, b7…I know the sounds I want and I try to find them. I think just like I do when I play guitar…when I think about music theory when I’m improvising, I think about intervals a lot. J: It’s always related to the guitar–I feel like I’m always searching for some lick that I play on guitar, “Let’s see if I can pull this off on the steel….”. M: What is your thought process when you’re improvising?
Listen to a clip: Boppin’ Steel Guitar by Joel Paterson You can play a lot of open string bluesy things on C6, mixed with a little Travis-picking. J: I wanted to try and play a bluesy open string finger picking thing like I’d play on guitar. And Boppin’ Steel Guitar has a really swampy, Sacred Steel feel to it. Your Panhandle Rag really invokes Jimmy Day for me. M: Your record has a really good balance of hot rod steel tunes and pretty tunes mixed with just some great swampy, greasy things.
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