Slide Rules

The last couple of posts have been a bit dry, this one’s about learning one’s way around the pedal steel guitar.

The V - I chord progression is a mainstay of western music and if you can play round it there’s a lot you can do.

One of the things that has helped me learn the fretboard, and also be able to busk along in the songs I dont know very well (did I mention I’m in a band? well I am and I have my first gig this Saturday!) is being able to play dominant 7 chords all the way up the fretboard, and resolve to the root.

Here are the positions I know for E7 (the V chord in A), and then A, the root.

E7:
1 F# _________________________________________
2 D# ____________________________12D__________
3 G# _______3____5B___7B___9B____12___________
4 E  _______3F___5E___7____9F____12___________
5 B  _______3____5____7A___9_____12___________
6 G# _______3____5B___7B___9B____12___________
7 F# ____________5____________________________
8 E  _______3F___5E___7____9F____12___________
9 D  ____________________________12___________
10 B _______3____5___7A____9_____12___________
                                               
								
Amaj:								
1 F# ____________________10________________
2 D# ______________________________________
3 G# _______5______8___________12B_________
4 E  _______5______8F____10E____12_________
5 B  _______5______8A____10____12A_________
6 G# _______5______8___________12B_________
7 F# ____________________10________________
8 E  _______5______8F____10E____12_________
9 D  ______________________________________
10 B _______5______8A____10____12A_________

One of the hard things with the pedal steel guitar is voicing chords to make the top notes melodic.
This is partly because of the chromatic strings (the D# and F# strings 1 and 2).

If you want to play an E7 chord with a D on top in the 12th fret position above, the D is on the second string. This D resolves nicely to a C# which, while only a semitone away from the D, is on the 12th fret A position is on the 5th string. A jump of three strings away. Not easy technically or conceptually.

Learning where the melodic notes are in chords on the PSG seems a big part of learning the instrument.
For piano players it’s all there right in front of them - there is only 1 place to play the D or C# in a given register, but for PSG players there is a lot of work to be done learning chord voicings and being able get to them quickly.

p.s. F = raise Es, E = lower Es, D = lower D.

p.p.s
The E7 chord on the 9th fret has got a 9th note in it, but that’s a good sound in most contexts. Certainly if you’re resolving to Amaj.

(If, in the E7 on the 9th fret with the 9th, you want to accentuate the resolution you can take your foot off the B pedal just before the Amaj chord to go from an E9 to an E7b9, but jazzy moves like that could get you thrown out of a country gig)

another simple thing I’ve practised a lot recently is just playing grips, and moving between grips.

To be an effective accompanist you need to be able to play chords quickly and cleanly and this is pretty hard to do at first.

One thing I’ve practised is as follows:

1 F# _________________________
2 D# _________________________
3 G# _________________________
4 E _________________________
5 B ________5__5__5___5__5___
6 G# ___________5__5b_____5___
7 F# ________5_________5______
8 E ________5__5__5___5__5___
9 D _________________________
10 B _________________________

I find these positions difficult to move between. I dont find the 8, 7, 5 grip that hard or the 8, 6, 5 grip. But playing them one after the other took some practice.

I think practising this generally helped minimise hand and finger movement, which seems to be the holy grail in terms of PSG technique (just my observation).

Players like David Hartley make what they do look easy because there is no surplus movement to their technique.

They keep their hands pretty still (which helps maintain a reference to where the strings are), and they
pick with a firm finger stroke that does only what it needs to. This means the finger has less distance to travel to get back into position, and that it is less likely to hit another string.

Apparently using the joint in the middle of your finger to perform the pick is the key to developing this minimal technique.

This takes practice..

Wow almost a year since my last post, very slack!

Then Dave from the British Steelies Society said he’d read by blog and that it could be useful to other fledgling steelies.

So I thought I’d try and catch up with it a bit.

One of the things I’ve been doing is practising with a metronome, it feels a bit mechanical but it’s great for improving technique and being able to play things precisely in time. It really exposes where your weaknesses are.

I’ve been following this advice posted by James Crowbear Schmitt from the British Steelies. One of the standard major scale patterns. But played over the cycle of fourths, through all the keys from C to C.

This helps with playing scales with all the notes, even the ones that are difficult to get like the maj 7 on the 2nd string in this case, which might otherwise be omitted due to being awkward to get.

It helps with blocking, the difficulty being muting string 2.

It also helps to learn the positions, this is just simple parrot fashion C, then F, then Bb. I say them out loud when I’m playing them cos otherwise I can never remember where the positions are without working it out.

Another thing this helps with is moving between positions. Obviously 4th/5ths are fundamental to most western music and developing an instinct for these moves (and sounds) is invaluable.

Start on fret 8 C then go to fret 1 F then 6 Bb then 11 Eb then 4 Ab then 9 C# then 2 F# then 7 B then 12 E then 5 A then 10 D then 3 G & back to 8 C
(play it 10 times)- fingers : t = thumb - i = index - m = middle
[tab]
2——————————8m——/——8m—————————-/
3—————————————/————————————–/
4———————————–8i-/–8i———————————-/
5———————-8t–8A——–/————8At–8——————-/
6————8m–8B—————-/———————-8Bm–8———/
7——–8i————————-/————————————-8i-/
8—8t—————————–/—————————————–/ *1t Blam ! yer in F on 1 !
————————————————————————–now go w: that till you get to the Bb & move on to Eb & so on

I had another lesson this weekend, this time with Gerry Hogan in Newbury. He organised the late, great Newbury Steel Guitar Festival. In so doing has got to know the likes of Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Jeff Newman, Paul Franklin, Joe Wright..
In fact about every steel player I’d ever heard of (which is not many) he has a picture of with him!

Gerry is another really nice bloke, really enthusiastic and encouraging (
- something you need from time to time when confronted with 10 strings, three pedals, a volume, some knee levers etc). He was very polite about my playing (much more so than BJ, but I kind of prefer the hard truth approach).

We looked at a few chord/scale shapes. I’ve been trying to learn how to noodle using 6 chords, something you hear a lot on the steel guitar, so Gerry showed me a few moves going between A&B down and then moving down two frets to and dropping the Es.
And also creating a dominant 7 sounds by moving the 6 shapes down a tone/ two frets.

He also pointed out a couple of technical problems that I had
- I was playing with my right arm raised. This prevented it from relaxing, and also meant that my picking hand rotated anti-clockwise a little.
- When I finished a phrase I often (somewhat dramatically!) raised my picking hand up off the strings. Doing this I immediately lost my reference and would be less likely to be able to find my position on the strings again. He suggested practising always keeping my little finger in touch with the fretboard. Keeping your hand low then becomes second nature, _and_ it assists your muscle memory by giving it a point of reference.

Gerry charges £150 for a half day lesson that includes a CD with all the playing from the lesson and some delicious cheese and ham sandwiches for lunch!

http://www.steelguitars.co.uk/

I’ve been recording myself recently. A painful step to take but a great way to hear what you’re doing wrong.

My Volume Pedal use was glaringly horrible in a number of ways:

Overuse - everything was a fade in
Consistency - the volume of the psg relative to everything else varied
Timing - because everything faded in I was always behind the beat

I practised loads to improve this but wasn’t getting anywhere so I scoured the Steel Guitar Forum for inspiration.

Quite a few different opinions on there, some even saying that the use of a volume pedal on a steel guitar is a bit of a cheesy cliche and that relying on right hand articulation was your best bet. I’m gonna keep my volume pedal and follow these tips that other SGF users had to offer:

• Keep the normal operating level of the VP at about 30 - 50%.
• Use the VP for sustain rather than swell.
• Do this by increasing the volume on longer notes/chords as they fade.
• Practise keeping the volume consistent by returning the same place on the VP each time you hit a note. This is hard.
• Practise moves that use your right knee while keeping volume even

don’t use it!
One guy said that the main job with the volume pedal was not using it. Which I think, err, speaks volumes. . sorry.

Some players said they almost never had the VP full on.

Unplug it
One thing that a number of player recommended was playing with the VP unplugged. Not just not using it for while, but having it under your right foot, just unplugged.
Your foot still plays the pedal and you kind of think that your doing something with it. Then when you actually plug it back in what you’re doing with the pedal sounds so exaggerated you back off.
I think it’s easy to become immune to bad voluming when you practise and this stops that happening.

Limit it
Another thing that’s been suggested is limiting the range of your VP. Some have adjustment pots for this, restricting the movement of the pedal was also suggested.
I used my first VP with a limited range, my new Goodrich one doesn’t have the pot and I prefer it without.

Get one designed for seated use
Lastly, getting a VP that is suited to pedal steel playing is important. It has to be comfortable in the all the way off position, and ones designed for guitars require you to lift your foot up too far.

Get one designed for steel
Very last thing that b0b from the SGF pointed out: a PSG VP should have a 500k pot. Apparently this is because the VP being in the 30 - 50% position most of the time, a lot of treble is lost from the signal to ground. hmm