Starting C6

Thomas Heath · Post by **Thomas Heath** » 29 Apr 2014 7:37 pm

I'm just starting to learn C6 and was wondering what are some good exercises/techniques/grips/scales ect. Particularly for swing and country. Any info helps.
Thanks

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 29 Apr 2014 7:58 pm

I'd strongly recommend JERRY BYRD's Instructional Manual for the Serious student of steel guitar.

Scotty has them there in St.Louis.............

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 29 Apr 2014 8:20 pm

If you mean the C6 pedal steel, the Buddy Emmons beginner C6th course is good as is the Jeffran course.
The Byrd is good of course.

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 29 Apr 2014 8:32 pm

Failed to realize that your post was in the pedal steel section..........

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 30 Apr 2014 4:26 am

Ray, given how much C6th work gets done without the pedals, I wouldn't apologize.
I'd also see if there's any teachers at Scotty's. Scotty is no slouch, but I dunno if he teaches.

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 30 Apr 2014 5:05 am

in the JB course, what is the first string tuned to?

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 30 Apr 2014 5:27 am

Tom, here ya go

Jerry's high string will be E.
His 8 string tuning is high to low - E C A G E C# C low A

Steve French · Post by **Steve French** » 30 Apr 2014 12:21 pm

Paul Franklin posted something here years ago that was a big help to me in understanding the C6th tuning. Of course, I can't find the original thread, but I copied and saved it at the time because it was so helpful:

These are grips to memorize ..... open position/ No pedals/ Within the basic tuning/ ...... .
C major triads are strings 2, 3, 5, .. .. 3,5,6, .... 567 .... and F major triad 789 ... .... .... .. .
A minor triads are 234 ..... 346 ... .467 ...... 678 ..... .. .... .... .
F major sevenths/ninths are strings 2479 .... .4679 ... .4579 ...... 3469 ..... 6789 ....... 2359 ..... .3569 ...... .. .
A minor sevenths ..... .. 358 .... 568 ... .2345 .... 3456 .. .4567 .... 5678 ...... 2358 .... 3568
Note: the A minor & minor seventh grips are called a C6th chord when played over a C major
chord or bass note ... .... and minor when over the A minor chord or bass note.
Once these grips are memorized the open tuning without pedals can be viewed as a One chord I a
6 minor chord I a 4 major seventh or ninth chord ..... without pedals ....... Opening up how the
tuning is viewed is a great first step of the journey.
IMO there is no need to learn the pedals function until the basic tuning is understood ...... This is
just a two week study at best..

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 30 Apr 2014 12:53 pm

Steve French wrote: IMO there is no need to learn the pedals function until the basic tuning is understood ...... This is
just a two week study at best..

i agree completely with the first part...but i'm going on 4 years now (non-pedal) with the second half of that statement

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 30 Apr 2014 1:04 pm

Steve, you kinda edited the quote when you saved it. That makes searching for it challenging.
BUT, I found it on the 3rd page of this thread: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=183004

Tom Gorr · Post by **Tom Gorr** » 30 Apr 2014 3:19 pm

Just start assigning scale degress to tuning letters, and the chords available in the open tuning become apparent by "visual inspection":

Its very cool to see what an awesome and powerful tuning it is...handles a lot of chordal forms with some grace and structure...

Just jam away until something sounds right and proper to the ear.

C6 is easy to play at a basic level - don't overthink it...it very nearly plays itself....E9 is considerably more difficult, IMO.

Steve French · Post by **Steve French** » 1 May 2014 9:16 am

Thanks for finding the original link, Lane.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Starting C6

Starting C6

I dunno..............

My apologies............